Digital literacy and human biography: the challenges and opportunities to communicate with elderly people

Abstract

According to the national survey by household sample (PNAD, 2012), there are today 23.5 million Brazilians over 60 years of age. This means that there is currently one 60 year-old Brazilian or over for every two under 15. One in four seniors lives in households with less than one minimum wage per capita per month. In this scenario, the majority of them are impoverished, in debt and also showing a low rate of digital inclusion and literacy (less than four years). There is also a lack of specific media products, in particular journalistic, like magazines. In this context, there are methods that have been studied in Communication studies, such as the Human Biography, which may be useful for the insertion of the elderly population, particularly in the digital environment, enabling them to produce narratives that can provide them with voice and social visibility, restoring their sense of belonging and self-esteem.