KELA, OmaKanta & Ilmarinen
Currently, I receive child allowance from KELA, and my spouse receives parental allowance. I have always had a European Health Insurance Card for traveling purposes.
I regularly use OmaKanta for myself and my children to check our health records. Once, a family member had surgery, and before we were informed about the surgery’s completion, the details were already recorded in OmaKanta. This way, we got the information we wanted faster than the doctor could call us. Of course, there is a risk of misinterpreting or overinterpreting health information, but in some situations, it works.
I requested my employment pension record from Ilmarinen, and even though I have worked a lot since I was 15 (which didn’t count towards my pension at that time), my employment pension accumulation at both 63 and 68 years old is well below the Finnish poverty line, which is 1,410 euros per month.
Digital shops
I have used many digital shops, and to save time, I buy almost everything online except food and some flea market purchases. eBay and Amazon.com are both places where I have previously ordered items like clothes, accessories, and party and paper products. The online stores themselves are reliable, but the sellers are not always, and especially items ordered from eBay were “cheap Chinese stuff,” which I didn’t realize over ten years ago could be potentially dangerous due to chemical load. However, every item I ordered did arrive, sometimes looking very different from the picture. Paying with a credit card offers security for the buyer. Prices have been significantly cheaper than in Finnish stores. I no longer order such items, but I did back then. I just closed my own online store, which sold handmade products made by female entrepreneurs in Europe. Completely the opposite of most eBay products – more aligned with my values.
For hotel bookings, I have used Booking.com, Trivago, and Hotels.com, and the prices for hotels are often cheaper than booking directly through the hotel’s own website. For this reason, I practically always use Booking or Hotels.com for hotel reservations.
Influencer marketing application
One of the most important tools in my work is a nameless influencer marketing service, through which I can get data on influencers’ accounts and posts from Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. For influencers who have registered on the service, I get all available account information from target groups to individual post impressions. I can also save the posts, including retrospectively, so I don’t have to spend time on my phone 24/7 to capture a campaign post or a PR gift post on IG Stories, which disappear in 24 hours. The tool is a huge relief for work efficiency and organization. Getting individual numbers from influencers would be very inefficient and time-consuming. The tool or application is constantly being developed, as social media platforms change all the time, and they have various beta versions constantly in progress and available for testing as they develop their service. I think this is a good sign because in this field, the service cannot remain the same for long, or you will be hopelessly behind.
Digitalization and digital gap
Digitalization is accelerating, and often older generations are left behind. I notice from my own parents that it is difficult for them to keep up with digitalization, and they have clearly fallen behind in its development. I act as their IT support, and I often receive calls and inquiries when the banking app on their phone doesn’t work, TV apps don’t work, travel reservations fail, or they have clicked on a virus message. I often think that if they didn’t have me as their support person, I honestly don’t know how they would cope with these things. My parents are in their sixties, and in my observation, this age group has not really been helped or supported in adapting to new technologies. Many things can still be handled in person: you can ask for tips about a malfunctioning router at a phone store, and you can still get help with a malfunctioning banking app at the bank. My parents want to use these services and stay involved with them. On the other extreme are those who are not interested in utilizing the latest technologies – or even slightly older ones. It’s hard to get by in our society with just cash. What about when maybe even bank cards are no longer accepted, and payments are made through apps, chips, and the currency might be euros or, for example, cryptocurrencies. Such people are at risk of being completely excluded from society because, for example, already now, without online banking credentials, you can’t handle any official matters online. On the other hand, by not using any services, you can stay completely anonymous. For someone, that might be their wish.
My Digital Competences & Self Assessment
I believe I am reasonably aware of the digital world around me, and my digital competences are fairly good, although there are some shortcomings. This was also reflected in the test I took. Cybersecurity and protecting oneself from digital threats might be a topic I could delve into more. Currently, I somewhat trust the services and things I use, as well as their security, and I haven’t questioned it much. I am also not very handy with devices and programs that I do not know how to use, and sometimes I get frustrated too easily – everything should be known immediately! Even in subjects familiar to me, there is more to learn.