ISSN 1413-389X
With the growth of life expectation rate in Brazil, old-aged people became more active in society, making new projects and being more up-to-date in all technology changes. The Internet also call the attention of old-aged people who want to be more up-to-date and have great interest in learning how to use it. The research has the purpose of describing old-aged people’s opinion about Internet. In this research there was the participation of 32 volunteers, between 68,8 +/- 6,9 years old, being 65,6% female and 34,4% male, who usually go to Cultural Public Institutions in São Paulo. All data were collected through a questionnaire, containing classified and non-classified questions. Results showed that 40% of old-aged people consider that Internet helps communication, 25% find it improves knowledge and 10% point out the facilities (χ²o= 1,38, χ²c= 3,84); about difficulties, 53,1% of them don’t have difficulties, 15,6% have some difficulty in using computers and 9,4% reported that health issues that are responsible for obstructing the use of this machine (χ²o= 6,54 , χ²c=3,84). In conclusion, old-aged people consider Internet a positive tool and this research revealed that, although they have resistance to use computers, there is a real interest in learning how to use this kind of technology.
Keywords: Old-aging, Social behavior, Digital inclusion.
Verona, S. M., Cunha, C., Pimenta, G. C. & Buriti, M. A. (2006). Percepção do idoso em relação à Internet. Temas em Psicologia, 14(2), 189-197.