Do ICTs improve our lives?

Within the current digital revolution, do information communication technologies (ICTs) improve our lives and stimulate increased social interaction, or do they work against social networks. The IST project SOCQUIT set out to find an answer. “Take the television as an example. It draws people away from real-life contact with family and friends, could it be the same with computers and the Internet?” asks Jeroen Heres, project coordinator forSOCQUIT, as he questions the link between technology use and our social well-being. By analysing existing European socio-economic surveys, SOCQUIT examined the impact of ICTs on our lives and quality of life. The project, a collaboration between TNO, Telenor, the University of Essex, Eurescom and FTR, looked at whether ICTs influence our ability to find a job, if they allow us to work beyond retirement as we get older, whether local initiatives are better than national ones and if it is really true that migrants are excluded from the digital wave. The aim was to give policy-makers better guidance on how ICTs influence our social lives, and to supply them with a decision support tool that would suggest possible adjustments to policy measures. There is a clear assumption that ICTs bring improvements to our lives, Heres explains. “In the SOCQUIT project we were intrigued by several perceptions about ICTs, and wanted to look into these with the help of, for instance, representative European population surveys.” Social skills more important than technical The project’s final report reveals that many of the assumptions about ICTs and their advantages or disadvantages are not entirely accurate. We assume, for example, that computer skills improve our chances to find a new job, with an estimate of 60 percent of existing jobs and 90 percent of new ones requiring ICT skills, according to the SOCQUIT report. Based on these figures, PC skills should have a determining effect on people’s ability to find employment. On the contrary, “Our study showed that it is the social contact with other people that influences if people find a job or not, rather than the level of their ICT skills,” explains Heres. Equally, ICT benefits for elderly people are not reflected in the job market. “We did not find convincing evidence that the employment issue can be solved with ICT. However we did find examples that because of ICT, the elderly leave their jobs,” he says. These people are not motivated to change, as there are younger people with better skills, according to Heres. Elderly people are not the only ones left behind however, and several national and European initiatives aim to bridge the digital divide through learning programmes. For example it is believed that potential exclusion of unemployed, elderly people and migrants from the information society can be fought with better training, resulting in employment and other life benefits. However, the SOCQUIT report paints a more complex picture, showing that participation is related to the level of social inclusion rather than the educational opportunity. “People already socially active are the ones who are motivated to participate in ICT initiatives,” says Heres. He explains that ICTs make it possible to build and maintain social networks sometimes over great distances, or to meet people with the same interests over the internet. At the same time, these social networks become an incentive for people to learn about new technologies. “This is shown for the ageing society, in local initiatives and for migrants as well as employment.” The report concludes that the most important opportunities for ICTs to increase personal well-being is through their impact on the citizen’s social life. However, Heres suggests that short-term policy efforts would only strengthen the ICT skills of people who are already socially active, leaving the socially isolated on the other side of the digital divide. Food for thought In the long-term, the SOCQUIT report remains inconclusive, since there are few long-term representative population surveys conducted on the effects of ICTs on our everyday lives. For policy-makers however, these results are food for thought, adding a social dimension to ICT initiatives and e-inclusion programmes. SOCQUIT’s work implies that policy-makers would have not only to consider people’s capabilities, but also their attitudes to absorbing new technologies, if ICTs are to fully benefit everyone and improve our lives.