Competência em informação: contribuição para a cidadania dos idosos

Abstract

Information literacy is understood as a set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for society, notably for the elderly. In this sense, the research discusses the importance of the continuous development of information literacy within this social group. The overall objective is to understand their informational needs and the difficulties that prevent them from continuously developing the competence associated with information. The research is of a basic nature with a quantitative approach and, in terms of its objective, is characterized as exploratory. The sampling is based on accessibility, and the data collection instrument is a questionnaire with 14 questions that were administered to 19 participants from the Graciliano Ramos residential complex, located in Maceió/Alagoas. It is concluded that the surveyed elderly individuals had diverse information needs and had some exposure to technologies. However, they were demotivated due to physical and cognitive difficulties, as well as a lack of encouragement, which often hinders the development of information literacy as well as their integration into an information-intensive society and technology use.