ICTs in Later Life and Post-pandemic Challenges.

The article aims to assess the long post-Covid-19 phase from the point of view of the relationship between seniors and ICTs, with an Italian focus. During the first phase of the pandemic (in some ways the most acute and dramatic, because of its newness and the uncertainties to be able to face it) an increase in the overall production and consumption of digital contents and tools was at large empirically observed. At that stage, interesting hypotheses were formulated based on the assumption that the pandemic should spread the ICTs even among the most resistant categories, including the seniors. Three years after the pandemic outbreak, it is time to empirically test how reasonable this hypothesis was, how well it is borne out by the facts, and what general interpretations regarding the effect of major events and crises on the diffusion of technologies among seniors can be made. Our thesis is that, in Italy, the effect on current seniors in terms of diffusion is limited if not null. Instead, the data show that the pandemic has strengthened the divide between seniors and younger generations, and consequently supports the interpretation of technologies as markers for second-level digital divide.