ABSTRACT
In the majority of the western countries the population is aging at a rapid pace. At the same time, society is increasingly becoming more digitalised. Information is supplied to a growing extent, and frequently solely, in digital form. It is obvious, that this trend poses dangers for people, like senior citizens, who have problems using such new media. They risk being excluded from crucial information (Duimel, 2007: 7). A complicating factor is that the landscape in which older people currently reside 2 is largely shaped by what De Lange (2007: 23) calls the ‘decollectivisation of the life course’:
The late modern life course becomes a series of individual passages; leaving the parental home, finding a job, becoming unemployed, marrying or not marrying, divorce, having children, retiring, growing (very) old – individuals must find their own way, without these transitions being embedded in any traditional institutional frameworks or accompanied by collective rituals. Constructing continuity and coherency in the life course is up to the individual. (translation)
