The Social Insurance Institution (KELA)
Kela is a Finnish state-owned institution that is responsible for the basic security of people living in Finland in various life situations. Kela has also provided me with financial support for various stages of life, such as study grants, housing benefit, maternity and parental allowance, and currently child benefit for two children. During the corona period, KELA has taken care of Infectious disease daily allowance to compensate for loss of earnings. For the past two years, while studying, I have paid a mandatory student healthcare fee, even though I have not used the services. Our family have had European health care cards for many years already. It is a good idea to have a card if you are traveling in an EU country, as it provides medical treatment at the same price and in the same way as people living in the country if you have a sudden illness.
OmaKanta
I use the OmaKanta service very little and when I logged in I noticed that I last visited the site about six months ago. In my opinion, the service is an excellent step forward in the development of the digitalisation of Finnish healthcare. It is a pity that citizens still use the service too little to view their own health information. In the future, I expect that the use of well-being information in the Kanta service will also become more common in healthcare. People have a lot of different smart devices whose information could be stored in well-being data and would also be visible to healthcare.
Varma
My retirement information can be found on Varma because I work in the private sector. My minimum retirement age is 66 and 10 months and my target retirement age is 69 2 months. The pension would increase between the minimum and the target retirement age of € 200 / month. It remains to be seen what is the general state of health at that time and am I able to work anymore. I visited the site for the first time.
Shopping Online
Ebay has consumer products for every departure. I think it’s a good idea to get to know the site well so that you can search as accurately as possible. There is a lot of information on the site. A good command of English is an advantage if you want to be sure of your shopping. The price level of the products may be very favorable for some products, but customs duties must be taken into account. Discount coupons will appear on the screen immediately. I sometimes ordered products from eBay for my son and some of the products arrived as agreed, but some stayed on the trip. In addition, each product ordered may come from different countries and in different postal packages. I would not dare to buy very expensive products from that service.
The Amazon service is brand new to me. I read that both Amazon and eBay are originally American services. The site looks similar to eBay. The price level is affordable, but customs duties and higher postage should be considered. I think the pages are clear and the necessary information can be found when you read it carefully enough. The site has well-informed ordering and return instructions, which are definitely worth reading. Personally, at least I would like to hear other people’s experiences of ordering from Amazon before I dare to order myself.
Booking.com is familiar to me and I have used it a lot in domestic travel. I think the app is clear and easy to make reservations from. The price level is usually the same as if you were booking directly from a hotel, for example. Usually Booking.com offers a discount coupon at which the price drops. I find the service reliable and it allows you to quickly find out the price level of the time you are looking for, based on which you can judge which destination you want to go to. I have used Trivago very little. It makes it easy to compare prices for travel destinations. A good feature of the service is the price comparison of package tours.
I have used Trivago very little. It would seem to make it easy to compare the prices of travel destinations. A good feature of the service is also the price comparison of ready-made package tours. Ready-made package tours are often more expensive than so-called independent tours. However, the advantage of ready-made package tours is that time is saved from excessive price comparisons and coordinating scheduled flights.
The App I often use- Zalando
I order almost all my clothes online today and one of the most used online stores is Zalando. It’s a versatile and usually the most affordable option, which is why I like it. The ordered products have arrived as agreed and return is also convenient. The Zalando app is also easy to use and informative. I like that the product is usually told if it is smaller or larger than normal. Customer service also works well. I got a really quick response if I had any questions about the products. I live in the countryside and we don’t have clothing stores, which is why buying from online stores is common. In addition, more expensive fuel will continue to increase e-commerce shopping.
Digitalisation and digital gab
Our generation is already a used user of digital services, as are, in part, our parents born in the 1950s and 1960s. However, there is often a feeling that the older population is being forced to take part in the development of digitalisation, whether they want to or not. For example, banking services are almost all in digital form and their use requires strong authentication with online service IDs. If you want to pay your bills at a bank, you will be charged substantial amounts, which I think is wrong. Society should have taken the older population even better into account in the development of digitalisation and provided more guidance on digital services. I believe that many older people would learn to use the services if they were given appropriate guidance. Of course, digital services also require equipment and network interfaces to make them work. It is therefore still noteworthy that our country is home to an older population who need personal service and access to information through traditional means.
The digital gap can also be caused by economic or social factors that are not influenced by age. Not everyone has a computer, tablet or smartphone that can use many digital services, or they don’t know how to use them. These people should be given even more support so that they can function and use the services as they require. However, digitalization and technology are constantly evolving and people should just keep up with the change.
Digital Competences test
I still have a lot to learn in my digital skills. However, the result was realistic because that’s exactly how I feel. The total Score was 48%, according to which my digital competences are level 2, foundation. It says that I am able to perform simble tasks autonomously.
The lowest point was production and sharing. According to the result my ability to create, assemble parts and modify the content in many different formats e.g images, text is not so good. The best result was identity management. I have ability to monitor and protect my personal information online and understand the consequences of personal digital footprints.
However, I am very interested in various digital tools, especially in the field of healthcare. I have a good motivation to learn something new, which I feel is a good direction.
Blogs I commented:
DIGI CITIZEN | Taija’s site (savonia.fi)
Self evaluation
This part of the course has further deepened the knowledge of how digitization surrounds us and affects our lives in every way, whether we like it or not. Digitization brings relief to many everyday things, but it is also good to keep in mind the risks and threats it brings. It was interesting to read other people’s thoughts, especially about digital gab and how they feel about it. The digital competencies test was excellent and gave a realistic picture of my current digital abilities.
References:
Amazon. Publishing time unknown. https://www.amazon.com/. Refferred 18.6.2022
Booking.com. Publishing time unknown. https://www.booking.com/. Refferred 18.6.2022
eBay. Publishing time unknown. https://www.ebay.com/. Refferred 18.6.2022
Kela. Publishing time unknown https://www.kela.fi/. Refferred 18.6.2022
OmaKanta. Publishing time unknown. https://www.kanta.fi/. Refferred 18.6.2022
Trivago. Publishing time unknown. https://www.trivago.fi/. Refferred 18.6.2022
Varma. Publishing time unknown. https://www.varma.fi/. Refferred 18.6.2022