I have familiarized myself with Kela’s website. At the moment, I personally do not use any of Kela’s services, but for my daughter’s family, Kela pays child benefit for two children under 17 years of age. Child allowance is tax-free income. The family’s assets and income do not affect the amount of child benefit. I have ordered a European medical card from Omakela’s website on August 29, 2023 at 10:45 am. You can access Omakela’s website by logging in with your own bank credentials. On Keva’s pages, I have checked my own pension accumulation, what it is today. If I retired at the age of 63 or 68, the difference in my pension would be up to 1285 euros. That’s a really big difference. I have used very few digital service pages, so the first overview of them immediately gives a certain idea of the ease and reliability of the sites. The Booking.com website seems clear and reliable in Finnish. Pictures make the site easy to read. eBay is in English. The website offers a lot of products from different categories and the prices are stated in euros. I’m not sure if the prices are correct or if there are any additional charges when ordering. The product descriptions are also a bit confusing. However, the products have a right of return, but returns abroad always cause uncertainty. Trivago is easy to use and the prices are clearly visible. By clicking on the pictures, you can get to know the object and the price comparisons are comprehensive. This service is therefore very reliable in my opinion. From my own field, I have chosen the Color4care service as an example, where you can order everything related to care work. The different categories are clearly specified, the products have clear pictures and clear product descriptions. The prices are also clearly displayed. Contact information is clearly displayed and contacting the service is easy if necessary. I consider the site very reliable, because the founders of Color4care have told about themselves and the history of the service in a nice way. As nursing professionals, I can identify with them and that also creates reliability towards the service.
Challenges for people who do not use virtual services: The selections may be smaller, choices cannot be made from home, familiarization with the products may be more superficial than in virtual services, it may be more difficult for people with reduced mobility to access the services. Distances to different services can also be long.
My Digital competences test
Self-evaluation
There was hardly any digitalization in my childhood or youth, and there is little interest in it these days. I like to handle my affairs by phone or in person, even though services are currently very limited, for example in banks and agencies, and it has actually forced me to learn how to use digitalization. Even though I use quite a lot of different digital solutions both in my work and in my free time, I recognize my weaknesses and learn no matter how much. I think the digital competence test gave very truthful results about my own digital behavior. I like work ergonomics as positive, which I pay a lot of attention to. I have also received guidance on work ergonomics from an Occupational physiotherapist, because in my job I have to work several hours on a screen terminal every day. I am very careful when publishing information about myself or my loved ones virtually and I do not share pictures or names of my children or grandchildren, because the pictures can be used for criminal activities. According to the test, I would need to learn different skills to solve digital problems, learn to edit and create digital content, and use technology in new ways. I see almost every day how digital skills speed up operations and tasks and increase competitiveness. However, I find several solutions related to digitization challenging and I easily ask for advice from the professionals.
Comments on other people`s blogs:
https://eemi45.wordpress.com/digi-citizen/
https://blogi.savonia.fi/anniluukkonen/
Hi Anni, I am concerned with you about the ability of aging people to cope with the developing digitalization. I work in home care and I know thet the majority of elderly clients no longer know how to manage their bank, healthy and office affairs, whitch require digital skills. As you said, it is often necessary to select different functions on the phone in order to access the desired service. The elderly often rely on the help of their relatives. Who has no relatives, home care helps with health care matters among other things. The elder really can easily drop out of services unless the people around are active.