{"id":18,"date":"2025-11-12T14:10:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T12:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/savolainensara\/?page_id=18"},"modified":"2025-11-20T19:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T17:20:07","slug":"digi-citizen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogi.savonia.fi\/savolainensara\/digi-citizen\/","title":{"rendered":"DIGI CITIZEN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the digi citizen assignments – WRITING IN PROGRESS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

What it means to be a digi citizen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We live in Finland, one of the most digitalised countries and societies in the world. Without even thinking about it, we, myself included, log into dozens of online platforms to handle our taxes or money, to gain information on our health or on any topic that comes to mind, to connect with people around us or to buy new things. We use KELA, OmaKanta, Instagram, Zalando, Amazon, online bank apps, Whatsapp or Snapchat, only to name a few options. Nearly everything can be done digitally nowadays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog post I explore my own everyday life and skills as a digital citizen: how I work as a part of this digitalised world. Technology and digital solutions are shaping the world, and it is important to stop for a moment to think where we currently are.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

Using Finnish digital public services<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social security by Kela<\/strong>

I have used Kela online services both as a private user and as a professional helping others.

In my personal life I have used Kela services for applying for student grant and for a benefit for unemployment. Both of these were done quite a few years ago. I am currently studying through Open University and working full-time, meaning I am not either eligible or in need of any Kela services. Unfortunately, for this reason, I am not able to describe my experiences using Kela services from my personal life’s view.

On the other hand, I use Kela services as a professional very often, offering guidance and filling out the forms as an employer. I work as an HR Business Partner in a company, and employees often turn to me when they have issues filling out the forms for example for parental leave. In my personal opinion the whole process could’ve been made easier. A lot of first-time parents are lost with what they could be entitled to and what options they have, and what they need to do and when, since information is scattered around the Kela website. Filling out the form can also be very overwhelming, with pages after pages after pages that need to be filled. The applications are quite heavy, which I understand, because it will make sure no one takes advantage of the services if they would not be entitled to them, but for someone in need it is very heavy and sometimes even complex.

From employer’s perspective it is a little bit simpler to fill out the forms, because it is usually less information that is required. From employer’s perspective filling out the parental leave application is often just confirming how much the employee’s salary and working hours are, as well as confirming the dates.

All in all, I do think that it is not Kela’s fault that it is this confusing, but the legislation behind everything that needs to take into account all the possible situations, and Kela probably does the best they can. But perhaps it could be improved to be simpler, or easier to navigate. And by my understanding, by reading fellow students’ posts, not all Kela processes seem as complex.

I see many benefits for moving to a completely digital Kela platform. It is easier to track what applications have been made and they get to where they need to in a blink. Years ago when you had to fill paper forms, it was possible for the letter to get lost in the way. Or the other option was to go to Kela service point where the waiting lines where hours long – and the first schedulable times were weeks, even months after that day. Digital applications do make the process somehow more efficient at least.

Some things are made very easy with Kela, I’ll give them that. My parents applied for a European Health Insurance Card for me when I was still a child. Since then, I have got a new card every two years automatically without needing to do anything. It is good to know that when travelling through Europe, I can feel safe. That if I would fall really sick, I wouldn’t go broke for seeking for medical assistance, but I would be taken care of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medical health data in OmaKanta<\/strong>

OmaKanta is very beneficial for someone who uses public healthcare, or for anyone to see an overview of their own health data. I logged in to the website using my banking credentials (app on my phone for strong identification). It seems the last time I personally have used OmaKanta was 1,5 years ago, this is mentioned on the page. The reason for this is, that I have only used Mehil\u00e4inen’s occupational healthcare services during that time, and the information ends up on their own app in addition to the OmaKanta. I could’ve viewed all information of my visits during the past year from OmaKanta, but have found Mehil\u00e4inen’s app more convenient for my own use. All public services platforms are a little “soulless” and stiff to me, as they are not updated that regularly, where Mehil\u00e4inen app is clearly more up-to-date when thinking about how modern the user interface is.

I do think that it is not necessary to make OmaKanta look really good and modern, since the point of the service is not to sell anything, but rather only offer the information that is essential. OmaKanta page is very clear and easy to work with.

At the same time, a lot has been transferred from professionals to individuals. It is a common practice nowadays that if you go take blood tests, the results will be written in OmaKanta, and you will need to check them yourself. There is no call back from the doctor unless there is something alarming in the results. I remember so many times trying to interpret the results myself. For example, a while back I had a result that was named “erythrocytes”, but I had no idea what it meant. Turns out, it meant red blood cells. Then comes another issue. What does it technically<\/em> mean if there are x or y amount of blood cells? The values are presented as “E12\/l”, and again, I have no knowledge of what that means. I do undestand the cell that says that the result is normal, so maybe that’s enough..? But these do raise some questions at the times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pension calculations<\/strong>

I have to admit, that being 27 years old, I have never logged in to any pension site as myself (I have done so as an employer). I first logged in to Keva, only to realise I am not their “customer” but Ilmarinen’s. Therefore, Keva was not able to calculate a possible pension for me. I logged in to Ilmarinen’s page. I am not sure if the page works differently than Keva’s, since I wasn’t able to retrieve the information of full retiring before the age of 68 (it was possible to search the numbers for partial old-age pension).

What I found out was that, apparently, the earliest age that I would be able to retire at is 68 years and 3 months, and with my current salary the pension would be around 2700\u20ac, and if I were to retire at 70 years old, my pension would be around 3000\u20ac. If I were to leave for partial old-age pention, which is possible at 65 years and 3 months, 50 % pension would be around 1000\u20ac – and that number would lower the total pension: if I were to retire at 68 years and 3 months, pension would be around 2500\u20ac and if at 70, it would be 2700\u20ac.

What I find interesting, is how much the pension can drop or rise within a couple of years of working. It would truly motivate to work longer. On the other hand, I do feel a little scared, because the retirement age is quite high and I highly doubt it would stay like that. I do think it will rise even more in the future knowing that there are the amount of children born is constantly going down (the future workforce), and there are more and more adults reaching retirement age in the following decades. I guess we will need to wait and see in the 2060’s if I can retire and if it’s worth it to do earlier or later!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\"White<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Digital commerce<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One part of being a member of the current digital society is buying things online. This is not a necessary one, but for a lot of people very important. Yesterday I watched a YouTube video (Kiun B. 2024) of a young woman living in the coldest major city in the world, Yakutsk. In the video she is saying, that there aren’t that many options for shopping, so they mostly need to order items they want online. This is true to many cities and people. There are a lot of people in Finland living in small villages or “in the middle of nowhere”, and the only good option to shop is online, and get the product delivered to their own town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also other benefits for online shopping. Disabled people, busy parents or elderly people can shop their groceries online and have them delivered to their front door. Your phone breaks? You can order one online and have it delivered as quickly as in 30 minutes if you’re living in the Helsinki area. Of course these are services that are not used or possible everywhere, but for people living nearby, these could be extremely important.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

To explore the topic further, I compared a couple of different online commerce platforms to what options local stores would offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start with, I explored Lyko, which is a known hair and skin care product online store. Lyko has also three stores in Finland, but it was originally only an online store. The price of the online products seem very similar to what they have in the physical store. Lyko offers very good information on the products on their site. They have very detailed desciption of the product, including an ingredients list. They also have user reviews and guiding videos on how to use the products they showcase on their site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other online store I wanted to explore more was Adlibris that sells books, yarn, games and puzzles. For me the site is most familiar on their book selection, to which I will focuse on. I compared a same book in Adlibris to what Suomalainen kirjakauppa has. The difference with the price was 0,05\u20ac, with Suomalainen kirjakauppa being more expensive. But basically they are the same price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With these two different online stores, it would most probably be cheaper for someone that lives nearby to the concrete store to walk there to buy the product they need, so that they do not have to pay for the shipping costs. But for example for me, who lives in Uusimaa, but in a small village an hour away from the center of Helsinki with no available cosmetics stores and only a very small book options in local supermarket, it would cost me 20 euros to travel back and forth to the concrete store. For me it would be cheaper and easier to pay for the shipping costs and have the products I need or want delivered to my village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would concider both these options reliable for ordering items. Both the online stores are Nordic, and knowing the legislations a little bit, I know that the company would be held accountable if something went wrong with the order. I also know that the products do not contain EU prohibited ingredients or materials, because the stores are based in the Nordics. I also know that both these stores are very popular, which also creates a sense of trustworthiness in my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\n
\n

Teamtailor in HR<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To have more exploration around the topic of digital citizenship, I want to give an example of a digital solution we use in my field of expertise. As mentioned before, I work as an HR Business Partner. One important part of my work is recruitment, and therefore, I chose to take a tool called Teamtailor under review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teamtailor is a very popular recruiting tool, that is being used by over 10 000 companies. Teamtailor advertises their system to be “The recruitment software your teams & candidates will love” (Teamtailor, n.d.), and in my opinion, they are not wrong. I have used plenty of different systems, and absolutely love Teamtailor. It is easy to use, visually very pleasing and easy to modify and use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes a recruitment system great for an HR, is the user experience. And that is something Teamtailor knows how to do. As an HR the company’s landing page for candidates to apply from is very easy to modify to match the company’s requirements starting from colours to easily modified structure. It does take some time to built the pages, but it could also be very much harder. The system is quite intuitive on the admin side, and handling the whole recruitment process is quite easy. If I get stuck, the guide book is incredibly easy and pleasant to read. Personally, I have nothing bad to say about the system. If I think more objectively, I know that not all people are probably very happy with the way the recruiter’s view looks. Teamtailor uses emojis on their site, which might be seen “unprofessional” in big corporations. But for me, and for a lot of other recruiters out there, the emojis make the job a little more enjoyable, fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do think that modern recruitment systems show how deeply digitalization is embedded in our working life. To apply for a job nowadays, individuals must have access to digital tools or they might miss out on job opportunities. The recruitment systems also contain a lot of digital communication: submitting applications, scheduling interviews, receiving updates or directly messaging recruiters. And these are only a few aspects on how digital recruitment systems are.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

What it means to be a digi citizen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digitalisationa and the digital gap<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e.g. Nurmij\u00e4rvi city offers digital help for elderly \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

who is left behind when services go digital<\/p>\n\n\n\n

risks for elderly, bad language skills or people wit no devices or internet access<\/p>\n\n\n\n

impact on equality<\/p>\n\n\n\n

how sosiety could reduce the digital gap<\/p>\n\n\n\n

training, service points, helplines, simplified apps….<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n

Enhance your architectural journey with the \u00c9tudes Architect app.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n