Information technology and everyday life in ageing rural villages

The role of information and communication technology (ICT) in easing the hardships of everyday life is an essential issue, particularly in sparsely populated areas. In this paper, the aim is to describe how people in remote villages use information technology (IT), and to reflect the use of IT from the perspective of social communality. The data consist of a questionnaire, answered by 255 respondents living in outlying villages in Finnish Lapland. First, the paper examines what kind of possibilities villagers have to use IT. Second, it focuses on how they use IT. Third, the villagers' perception of IT as a method to maintain communication and for coping is described. The results showed that the most popular ways to use a computer were searching for information and online banking. Communicating with family, friends and relatives had also specific place. Through the use of IT, communality takes on new forms. IT may replace some of the old structures supporting local communality. On the other hand, IT may exclude people from the community if they don't use new devices. The use of computers was strongly connected to age. Youngsters have adapted IT as a part of their everyday life. Working-age individuals use IT as a tool. However, people in the age group 65-79 years had the strongest confidence in the possibilities of IT to ease everyday life. Based on the results, the authors argue that IT offers an important option to create and maintain communality in remote areas.