Are you IT savvy?

The use of IT is ubiquitous, and its benefits and disbenefits within our personal lives are frequently aired in the mass and social media, with calls for some form of regulation of Facebook and Google so personal data are protected unless informed consent is given. Indeed, almost everyone has a mobile phone, and most mobile phones are smartphones (96% adults use a smartphone (Ofcom, 2018a)), with users spending 66 hours per month browsing online (Ofcom, 2016). Ofcom (2018b) has noted how internet use is becoming more mobile, with people increasingly going online at locations other than work or home. However, levels of critical understanding vary regarding the trustworthiness of news, funding of search engines and price comparison sites, and the collection of personal data, including the use of cookies and user locations. There are clear demographic differences between online users and those who eschew the internet, with the latter increasing with age (18% among those aged 55–64 years; 35% among those aged 64–75 years; 47% of those aged over 75 years) and with a lower socioeconomic profile (DE households) (22% vs. the 12% UK average). DE households were also less likely (1) to have internet access, (2) use devices, (3) be able to make critical judgements about content and (4) use security features to protect personal data (Ofcom, 2018b). Thus it is likely that many district nursing clients do not have high digital literacy levels.