Elderly People’s Adaptation to the Evolving Digital Society: A Case Study in Vietnam

Abstract

The rapid and breakthrough development of digital technology in the digital era creates excellent opportunities for Vietnam’s socioeconomic development, profoundly changing all activities and people’s lifestyles. However, due to old age characteristics, older adults become a vulnerable population group and face many difficulties when digital transformation occurs widely in all aspects of life. Research issues raised by the research team, such as sociodemographic characteristics, active aging, the activeness and attitudes of the elderly in Vietnam toward the digital environment, the importance of relevant government policies, and necessary attention from telecommunications and online service providers, are considered the novelties of this study. Among these, sociodemographics were found to be the most important factor influencing the digital adaptation of older people, as they dominate the age-related problems faced by older people. These suggestions were confirmed by evaluating the results of a sociological survey conducted by the research group At Hanoi University of Science and Technology on the influence of the technological environment on older adults’ lives using qualitative research methods. The purpose of the study was to determine the factors influencing the digital adaptability of Vietnamese elderly people in order to propose policy implications to encourage the elderly to adapt to the digital environment in the emerging digital society in Vietnam.