{"id":9,"date":"2026-05-06T05:33:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T02:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/rehemapeltorinta\/?page_id=9"},"modified":"2026-05-19T21:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:29:20","slug":"digi-citizen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/rehemapeltorinta\/digi-citizen\/","title":{"rendered":"DIGI CITIZEN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Living in a Digital Society<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digitalisation has become an important part of everyday life. Today, many services are available online, including banking, healthcare, shopping, communication, education, and government services. As digital citizens, people need digital skills to manage daily tasks and participate fully in society. Digital citizenship includes areas such as digital access, communication, literacy, security, health, and responsibilities. Living in Finland, I use many digital services both in my personal life and in my professional life as a nurse and phlebotomist. This assignment helped me reflect on how digital services affect my daily life, what benefits they bring, and what challenges still exist for many people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KELA Services<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time I used KELA services was when I was expecting my first child and had to apply for maternity leave allowance. At that time, I learned how important digital services are in Finland because many applications and benefits can be managed online. Currently, I mostly use KELA services to pay for my student healthcare insurance. My children also receive the monthly child benefit that families in Finland receive. I think KELA\u2019s digital services are generally very practical because they save time and reduce the need to visit offices physically. Applications, payments, and messages can all be handled electronically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this assignment, I also learned more about the European Health Insurance Card. I do not currently have one, and I had never thought much about it before. However, I realised it is a very useful service, especially because I enjoy travelling. The card provides access to medically necessary healthcare while travelling in Europe, which increases safety and peace of mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital access to services like KELA makes life easier for many citizens. However, these services also require good digital skills and identification methods such as bank codes or mobile identification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OmaKanta and Access to Health Information<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OmaKanta is one of the digital healthcare services I use most often. To access the service, I use my online bank codes for strong identification. I think this is an important safety feature because healthcare information is highly sensitive. In OmaKanta, I can see my laboratory results, prescriptions, vaccination information, and notes from doctors and nurses. I can also access my children\u2019s healthcare information. This improves transparency and allows patients to participate more actively in their own healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think OmaKanta is a very successful example of digital healthcare services in Finland. Patients can easily review their own health information without needing to call healthcare centres. It also improves communication between healthcare professionals and patients. At the same time, services like OmaKanta require users to understand digital systems and trust electronic data handling. Some older people or immigrants may find the service difficult if they do not have strong digital skills or language support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pension Services \u2013 Keva<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also explored the Keva pension service during this assignment. According to the calculations, the earliest age at which I can retire is 67 years old. I can apply for partial retirement at the age of 64 years. The pension calculation showed that there is approximately a 470-euro difference between retiring at 67 years old and retiring at 70 years old. This made me think about how retirement decisions can affect quality of life and financial security in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital pension services make it easy to access personal information and calculate future pension estimates. Citizens can independently plan their future finances without visiting offices physically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online Shopping and Digital Commerce<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this assignment, I visited Amazon and compared online shopping with local shopping. I noticed that Amazon has a much larger selection of products than local shops in my town. In many cases, the prices also appear lower at first. However, shipping costs are often very high, which can make the final product price expensive. Personally, I do not enjoy online shopping very much. Sometimes products look very different in real life compared to the pictures online. Even though returns are usually possible, returning products can feel like extra work and inconvenience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I prefer visiting physical shops because I can see and touch the products before buying them. For example, with clothes, it is easier to try them on and evaluate quality directly in the store. I think customer reviews are one of the most useful features in online shopping because they help consumers make decisions and evaluate reliability. Overall, I think Amazon is reliable, but consumers still need to be careful and compare prices, reviews, and shipping costs before purchasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital Service in Healthcare \u2013 Omaolo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The healthcare application I chose is Omaolo. Omaolo is a Finnish digital healthcare service that supports self-care and wellbeing. Citizens can assess symptoms, receive health advice, and access guidance for different health situations. I chose Omaolo because I think it is a good example of how digitalisation can empower citizens to take more responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. It can also reduce unnecessary healthcare visits and support healthcare professionals by directing patients to the correct services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, I have not needed to use Omaolo very much because I have not had major health problems. However, I like that the service is also available in English, which makes it more accessible for immigrants and international residents living in Finland. Digital healthcare services like Omaolo may become even more important in the future as healthcare systems face staff shortages and increasing demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digitalisation and the Digital Gap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although digitalisation brings many benefits, it also creates inequality for people who cannot use digital services easily. This is called the digital gap. In my work experience, I often see challenges faced by elderly patients and immigrants who struggle with digital systems. For example, laboratory appointments are usually booked online. If a patient cannot use the online booking system, they must call the customer service line. Sometimes people may wait in the phone queue for up to one hour. Some eventually give up and come directly to the laboratory without an appointment. Unfortunately, this may result in very long waiting times because patients with appointments are prioritised. Sometimes people may wait for two hours before receiving service. Many of these patients are elderly people who are not familiar with digital technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language can also be a challenge. Many online services in Finland are mainly available in Finnish and Swedish. Immigrants who do not yet speak these languages well may struggle to understand instructions and use the services independently. Digitalisation should make services easier and more equal, but sometimes it can unintentionally exclude vulnerable groups. For this reason, digital inclusion and accessibility are very important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This assignment helped me realise how much digital services are already integrated into my daily life, what benefits they bring, and what challenges still exist for many people. I use digital healthcare, pension, shopping, and government services regularly without always thinking about how important digital skills have become. I learned that digitalisation creates both convenience and challenges. Digital services can save time, improve access to information, and support independence, but they also require digital literacy, trust, and accessibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also reflected more deeply on the digital gap and how difficult digital services can be for some people, especially older adults and immigrants. Even though learning Finnish and Swedish is important, I think major Finnish digital services such as KELA, OmaKanta, and Keva could offer more support in English because Finland is becoming increasingly international. In the future, I would like to learn more about digital inclusion and how healthcare services can better support people with limited digital skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I left a comment on these blogs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/henriikka\/2026\/04\/07\/digi-citizen\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/hannailjin\/digi-citizen\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/veerarenfors\/digi-citizen\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Living in a Digital Society Digitalisation has become an important part of everyday life. Today, many services are available online, including banking, healthcare, shopping, communication, education, and government services. As digital citizens, people need digital skills to manage daily tasks and participate fully in society. Digital citizenship includes areas such as digital access, communication, literacy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8803,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/rehemapeltorinta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/rehemapeltorinta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/rehemapeltorinta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/rehemapeltorinta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8803"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/rehemapeltorinta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/rehemapeltorinta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/rehemapeltorinta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/rehemapeltorinta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}