The Role of “Warm Experts” and the Digital Care Relationship in the Digital Integration of the Elderly

The elderly population may fall behind in developing skills in digital technologies, leading to an age-related digital divide. In this context, the elderly population develop specific strategies to overcome the integration problems they face. Among these strategies, seeking help from individuals referred to in the literature as "warm experts" stands out and expresses the effort to eliminate the inequality experienced by the elderly. A "warm expert" refers to those who assist in the development of the necessary knowledge and skills for using the internet and those who take on the role of helper when encountering challenges related to the internet. This study examines the relationships between the elderly population struggling to use digital technologies and the "warm experts" who assist them, focusing on the experiences of the “warms experts”. The content of the assistance, its social dimensions, and the meaning of the assistance for the “warm experts” are analyzed in this study. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 individuals living in Trabzon, Turkiye, who can be described as "warm experts" and who help elderly individuals in the use of digital technologies. Findings of the reseach point out that the care relationship that emerges with aging is not limited to physical needs, but also extends to a care relationship related to digital technologies. The findings revealed that the "warm experts" provided a kind of "digital care" to the elderly individuals they assisted with digital technology usage. When elderly individuals encounter a problem related to digital technologies that they cannot solve on their own, they turn to their close surroundings (children, grandchildren, and daughters/sons-in-law), and this relationship is essentially based on trust. On the other hand, the digital care provided by "warm experts" to the elderly creates time burden for them as well as a mental burden.