Kela is the Finnish social insurance institution that provides economic security in different life situations e.g. child, unemployment and student benefits. Kela provides help for everyone covered by the Finnish social security system.
My experiences of contacting Kela are mostly so old that I needed to fill forms on paper and send them to the office. I have used student, motherhood and child benefits and recently I paid the mandatory student health fee.
I’ve had the European Health Insurance card for years. Kela sends a new one automatically when the old one is expiring, which is a good reminder for me to check the expiration date of my passport. Luckily I’ve never needed to use the European Health Insurance card.
OmaKanta uses the same verifying as Kela. Accessing to a customer’s own e-service is done via strong identification with mobile verification or online banking credentials. OmaKanta is a government supervised, nationwide website, where a person can see his/her/their prescriptions, healthcare records, laboratory results, will to donor organs, advance decision and covid-19 sertificate. Parents can act on behalf of children under the age of 12.
Keva is one of the Finnish pension providers. It provides pension for wellbeing services counties employees among others. My lowest age of retirement is 67 years and 5 months. My target age is 69 years and 8 months and pension stops accumulating at the age of 70. There is a few hundred euros difference between 67 and 70.
Digital Shops are convenient when time is limited or distances are long. Nevertheless, I prefer brick and mortar stores, especially for shopping clothes or shoes. I extremely rarely use online stores like Zalando and never stores like Temu or Shein. They may sell clothes cheaper than some others, but ultra fast fashion causes poor labour practices and is harmful to the environment. There was a recent Finnish article about how Earth’s ecological capacity can withstand only 7 new clothes per year. There are also secondhand stores online, but I prefer to wander in a physical store.
Digital shops I use more often are Booking.com and other similar websites to book a room while travelling. Prices on Booking.com are quite similar to prices on a Finnish hotel’s own website, but Booking shows a selection of hotels on one page, from which I can choose.
OSTI is an internal supply shop in my work place. I use it on a weekly basis. It provides both medical and office tools, and it can also be used to order medicines. It works like any other webstore and it is user friendly. The only defect on the site is that some things are named weirdly. Eraser can be text wiper and 100ml saline solution can only be found by name NaCl. Besides those, the site is practical and multifunctional.
Digital gap refers to the inequality people have accessing to digital content and digital devices. It may cause e.g. social and economical consequences. People who don’t have access to internet and people who can’t use it are more dependent on agency time when taking care of everyday chores like shopping or buying a train ticket. Managing a bank account and paying bills is far more easier when it’s done online than booking a time and travelling to a bank to do so.
Digital gap must be recognised when creating new services and products. They need to be designed to be easy to use and accessible to everyone. There are new products for disabled people, like adaptive controllers for Xbox and Playstation. Digital devices are also much more affordable than they were earlier, so using them is an option to a still expanding group of people. Even so, there will be people who can’t or won’t use them and they must be regarded when developing society.
Digital Competence Test is a test to show digital know-how and inaquencies divided into specific sections. My results were predictable and I agree with them. My highest scores were identity protection and law, and things I need to improve most were automation and digital exploration. This course has already introduced me to ChatGPT and I intend to learn more about digital devices, applications and services. I work in health care so that may explain my score in identity protection and law.
Self reflection This assignment has made me appreciate more digital services that are provided to Finnish citizens. I have taken for granted that most Finnish agencies have sites and digital services, but e.g. Kela’s digital service is easy to use and probably makes application processing time faster. It must have needed a huge effort to create and maintain a site that makes digital customer service possible.
Digital Competence test is a visible reminder that I need to try out new applications and services. It also shows the aspects that I’m already good at. I try to be more open to new gadgets and applications from now on.
I couldn’t agree more with you on what kind of market economy I want to support.
It is good that efforts are made to make digital services easily accessible and also for people with special needs. However, I am concerned that people miss out on a lot of services and don’t get them, because they just don’t know how to search for information or don’t know that they have the right to do so. I hope that digital services will never fully replace face-to-face service.
Hi, thanks for your text. It is important to note how much time and resources have gone into the development of different websites. Now it saves time, for example, as you mentioned in processing Kela’s applications. 🙂
Hello Johanna,
You write a lot of good information about the digital world. You have highlighted the ease of using the online store and the low price level on some sites. It is really bad from an ecological point of view when selling fast fashion cheaply, which causes harm to the environment.
– Minna
https://blogi.savonia.fi/minnapylkkanen/digi-citizen/
It was funny that we coincidentally mentioned the same online stores. However, I use Zalando quite a lot due to my busy schedule and because I live a bit away from the brick-and-mortar stores where I’d prefer to buy clothes. Shein is also definitely a website I wouldn’t even consider buying from, and I’m always pleased when I see someone else sharing the same sentiment.
I agree with you that we should avoid online stores whose operations are presumably unethical due to poor working conditions or environmental strain. I, too, never use stores like Temu, nor do I order anything from China. Like you, I mainly use digital commerce for booking trips. It is particularly convenient to be able to explore offerings from around the world right from my home sofa.
https://blogi.savonia.fi/jaanapaavola/
Interesting to read about your opinions and experiences. I agree that fast fashion is not good and in these days it’s very easy to find fast fashion online and to a cheap price. I also like to buy clothes in store rather than online, but sometimes I order through Zalando.
I find an encouraging contradiction in your post. While you recognize a need to learn more about digital tools, you also point out the other reasons not to use apps than a digital gap or comparing prices: considering other factors. I really value that. This section made me to think a lot that lower score in the digital competence test is something that I actually value as I do prefer the brick and mortar shops, too. Even if we cannot be sure about how ethical the products are, at least we support the local businesses, who pay their taxes here – and do their share in financing the digital and other services in Finland.
https://fearless-uasspringdwe2024.wordpress.com/
Hi,
I am also painfully aware of the environmental impact online shopping has, but I do find it more convenient. I try to be as mindful as possible and keep the habit to a minimum. I also stay far from companies like Temu or Shein. You made me realize how lucky we are to have such convenient digital services for Finnish citizens, and I will now have more appreciation for them from now on.
Hi Johanna! I agree you and all commenters about the cheap online shops and theirs environmental impacts. In my blog, https://blogi.savonia.fi/petrasbasecamp/, I wrote about it on the subject The Judgment about Temu.