S Korea aims to save older people lost in digital age

A little cheer rose for 79-year-old Hwang Sun-hee after she managed to place an online order at a training session in South Korea, which has one of the world’s starkest digital divides for older people.

Age gaps in digital literacy are a global concern, yet the gulf has widened massively in the hyper-connected and fast-aging country, prompting national campaigns to bridge it.

“You can’t do anything without smartphone apps or a kiosk machine... It’s too much for old folks,” Hwang said at a senior community center in Suwon, south of Seoul, during government-organized digital survival training.

Older people attend a South Korean government-organized digital survival training session at a senior community center in Suwon on Aug. 13.

Photo: AFP

The so-called gray digital divide has provided some striking examples in the nation of about 52 million, home to world-leading smartphone and memory chipmakers.

Last year, several baseball clubs began reserving a small number of tickets for on-site sales after reports that older fans, cash in hand, approached younger people at stadiums and pleaded with them to buy tickets from machines.

About 90 percent of taxi drivers use ride-hailing apps, yet more than 80 percent of South Koreans older than 60 still hail cabs by hand, a survey showed.

An elderly woman plays with a robot dog during a South Korean government-organized digital survival training session at a senior community center in Suwon on Aug. 13.

Photo: AFP

A 71-year-old retired public servant at the same training session as Hwang recalled spending more than 30 minutes trying to flag down a taxi on a busy Seoul street.

The cabs kept passing him to pick up younger riders just meters away who were using smartphone apps to hail their rides.

“I felt utterly useless,” said the man, who gave only his surname, Park.

The digital divide can also pose a real threat, leaving older people vulnerable to high-tech crimes such as online scams or limiting their access to medical services, experts say.

A South Korean state survey last year found that 60 percent of South Koreans older than 60 struggle to use public and commercial services due to lack of digital skills — compared with just 6 percent of those younger than 40.

“The intergenerational digital divide [in South Korea] appears wider than elsewhere,” said Kim Jeung-kun, professor of senior business at Kangnam University in Seoul.

The nation’s “intensely compressed” industrialization happened in just a few decades, while it took centuries in many Western countries, he said.

South Korea — which had a GDP per capita below US$100 in the wake of its 1950 to 1953 war — is now the world’s 15th largest economy, according to the IMF.

“Many of our elderly grew up at a time when many had no electricity, landline phones or proper schooling,” Kim added.

The nation’s older cohort is massive — South Korea is what the UN calls a “super-aged society,” in which more than 20 percent of the population is older than 65.

In response, South Korea’s public tech training for older people began in 2020, when businesses and services turned online during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Hwang, echoing others in the two-hour class, said she has made it this far by relying on her children for daily tasks she once managed herself — including enrolling in her favorite dance class at the local community center.

“Before, I could easily do all of these just by calling or showing up in person,” Hwang said.

Officials now provide nationwide training for the “digitally vulnerable” for using mobile devices, apps and artificial intelligence. Vans packed with tech devices and mock kiosks drive to community centers and regional festivals popular among older people.

Last year, more than 65,000 sessions were held for about 650,000 people older than 60.

Hwang last month gathered along with 30 neighbors for a session, practicing how to pay hospital bills at mock kiosks, patting a prancing robot dog or asking their phones: “Gemini, tell me about tomorrow’s weather.”

She has undergone similar training several times — and said the lessons helped her confidence — but added she was “so envious of young people who can do all this so easily.”