Digi Citizen

Kela

The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) is a familiar institution to the citizens in Finland. Kela provides several services and benefits to the people in Finland in their everyday life situations. Typical situations in which people contact Kela are illness, the beginning of studies, childbirth, unemployment and retirement. The main purpose of Kela is to secure the income and promote the health of the population and to support the capacity of individual citizens to care for themselves. More improved digitalization has enabled transacting Kela at home. It is handy to care for my personal current matters by using OmaKela e-service. I think we are very lucky in Finland that we have a system which supports general welfare in Finland. Kela supported my studies for several years. General housing allowance, government guarantee for student loans, subsidized meals were all crucial factors when I studied full-time long ago. Finnish social security system is also known abroad. For example, maternity packages which contain baby clothing and care products are noticed and valued worldwide.

Some years ago when I was traveling quite a lot, my brother mentioned to me that I should get the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). This was the first time I ever heard of the card and the benefit granted by Kela. Getting a card is easy and it is free of charge. This small thing to do may be quite a blessing at the time of a need. Luckily, I have never been in a critical situation abroad where I would have needed a card. But it is a good feeling to know that the card is in your pocket if something rotten happens while traveling in Europe. I have noticed that Kela automatically sends you the new European Health Insurance Card when the old one has expired. Very convenient!

Omakanta

By using personal bank ID passwords, it is possible to get access to your own private information about health matters. In my Kanta pages (OmaKanta, www.kanta.fi) you can browse your own health data and prescriptions. I have briefly visited the pages before but now for the first time I took some time to look at the pages more carefully. I realized that there were some e-services that I didn’t know existed, for example the possibility to allow other European countries to access your prescription data. The EU digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate is also available in the My Kanta pages as well. I decided to print a copy of mine in case of a need.

Keva

In Keva-pages you can find the current information about pensions. The most striking information in Keva-pages was the first possible date at this point when I would be justified to retirement allowance. 66 years and 8 months and 1 day of age is much more than I expected. The ideal age for retirement in my case would be 69 years and 2 months. It seems that there are going to be quite a few teaching tasks ahead of me before 2049, if I have enough health and strength in the following decades.

Digital shops

Usage of digital shops is a natural part of my purchasing behavior nowadays. I like the idea that the world is one large shopping mall. Often, I can find more appealing items for my taste from digital shops from abroad than domestic digital shops or local shops. Some needed books, music sheets and CD: s are impossible to purchase from Finland. Of course, the prices may vary quite a lot depending on which digital shops you are using. Price comparison is advisable. If you buy from abroad, it is also important to notice that the postage fee is usually added to the price. Sometimes the postage fee is very high and then it is worth considering if it’s reasonable to do the purchase. It is also wise to realize that some of the purchased goods may be declared to Customs. So, check before ordering goods online if you need to declare your purchase to Customs.

Foreign online shops like Booking.com, Hotels.com and Trivago.com are useful tools for finding suitable accommodation from abroad. By using those services, you can easily find several suitable hotel options. It is also easy to compare hotels to one another in those sites. Sometimes there are good deals for the customers. But, in my experience it is recommendable to compare the prices between the different booking sites. And when you have found the hotel match, it is still advisable to visit the hotel’s own web site. In some cases, the best deal has been found from the original hotel website. Hotels.com for example offers reward nights for the customers. You can have one reward night free of charge for every 10 nights of stay. If you travel a lot, this is a huge advantage. If the booking is made by using the hotel’s own site, these kinds of extra nights aren’t usually offered.

I prefer using credit cards whenever I use foreign online shops. Once I had the situation where my credit card information ended up in the wrong hands while making a hotel reservation using the hotel’s own website reservation system. It wasn’t nice, but the mess wasn’t that bad, because I had used a credit card. It was quite effortless to handle the situation with the credit card company. So, online shopping is fun, but one must know the advantages and the pitfalls. Be careful and wise and think twice before you “swipe” your VISA.  

Musicnotes.com

Musicnotes.com offers over 400,000 high-quality song arrangements for every instrument and skill level. From this service it is easy to find sheet music of different music styles. Even the music scores of recently published hit songs are usually soon found in the library of this service. The arrangements are proofed by musicians and one can rely on that the music, chords and the other marks in the music sheet are correct. Purchase of the one arrangement usually costs around 5 euros. Once the arrangement is selected and the checkout is done one can instantly print the score in any available key. This is a huge advantage for a musician. Before digital music sheet services, one had to go to the public library or buy the music collection book if some specific music score was needed. And if the published key wasn’t the right key for you, you had to transpose the key by hand. It is always an option for a musician to listen to the music and write the melody, chords and other details by using only one’s ear. But this is time assuming. Musicnotes.com has made the music sheet arrangements more accessible for both professional and amateur musicians. Couple of clicks and you have printed the music sheet you wanted at your own home. Handy! Or if you don’t want the paper printed arrangement it is possible to download Musicnotes.com app where you can store all the purchased music into the one sheet music library. By using an iPad or other tablets it is easy to carry your digital sheet music with you.

Digitalization and digital gap

Digitalization is an integral part of the present time. It is quite amazing how much the world has changed during the past decades. Only 20 years ago the internet was a novelty and nowadays everyday life depends on the internet, computers, self-phones and other digital gadgets. Today, paying a bill is almost impossible to do without bank e-services and personal bank IDs. Nowadays it’s not easy to receive customer service face to face.

Digital leap has been the most challenging especially for the older generation. If you don’t keep up the progress it is easy to fall into the digital gap. If you fall out of the digital world, eventually you may also fall out of society. That is a huge risk! Luckily there are some organizations who help older people to improve their digital skills. But is that enough? In order to cope in the digital world, one needs a certain mindset which is based on understanding the digital world. If one isn’t used to that, building digital skills is quite challenging.

Although I think digitalization is a very positive thing, I can see that there are also disadvantages. More often digital services replace face to face contacts.  The services may be more efficient but at the same time the fact remains that people need to connect with people.

Digital Competence Test 

The Digital Competence Test was useful. By taking the test I was able to build a clearer picture of my skills and knowledge concerning digitality. There are many important areas in digital competence. Some of the areas were more familiar to me. My highest digital competence area was safety. And my lowest area was production. The result of the lowest area didn’t surprise me. But I am quite satisfied that my competence level was advanced in all four areas like information, communication, production and safety.

Self-evaluation

While doing these assignments the most rewarding thing for me was to be able to reflect my own behavior as a Digi citizen. And to realize that I really am a Digi citizen. Many things in my personal and working life rely on digitality. Digitalization is such a natural thing that often I don’t even pay attention to it while I’m working, writing emails, using apps, using e-bank services etc. Digitalization makes my life more convenient in many ways. But I think it is also important to do other things in life which aren’t related to digital gadgets, like reading the actual paper book or painting the canvas.

I also learned new information while visiting pages like OmaKanta and Keva. It is a good thing that I am now familiar with the sites. These sites I will be needing again in my daily life in the future.

Writing in English (especially about digitalization) is not my comfort zone. But it is nice to notice that writing is not quite as difficult as I expected.

Comments

I made comments on these blogs:

Elli’s site – Digitalized working environment (savonia.fi)

Hi!
Thank you for your article! It was interesting to read about your experiences in digital world! I also use online shops a lot and share your views.
I’ve always thought that young people and young adults are all very competent in digital skills. It was an interesting observation that there are also young adults who aren’t very handy with digital environment. This aspect was new to me. If you want to visit my blog, the URL is: https://blogi.savonia.fi/digitalwonder/

The Nurse in a digitalized working environment – My blog for the course “Digitalized working environment” (savonia.fi)

Hello!

I enjoyed reading your blog! Thank you for sharing your personal experiences concerning the digital world. Situations at your work with people who need home care were quite provoking. It made me realize how severe the digital gap is with elderly people. Thank you for helping the ones who need assistance in this matter!
Ps. If you want to visit my blog, the URL is: https://blogi.savonia.fi/digitalwonder/

Tiina’s blog – Digitalised working environment (savonia.fi)

Hi Tiina!
Thank you for your post! I share your concern about the digital gap. The world changes so fast and it is quite a challenge for everyone to keep up with the progress, especially for the older generation. It would be important to find functional solutions for every citizen to take care of things like paying bills etc. regardless of their age or digital skills. Ps. If you want to visit my blog, the URL is: https://blogi.savonia.fi/digitalwonder/