Social representations of the internet for the elderly

Introduction: Increase in Internet access by elderly people is a consequence of population ageing, even though a long way still lies ahead for their digital inclusion. Objective: To describe the social representations of Internet among the elderly  and to compare objectification and anchoring processes of elderly people with different levels in Internet usage. Methods: Qualitative and quantitative study, with descriptive and comparative design, involving forty participants. Data collection occurred through  different tools as follows: 1) associative network, analyzed by EVOC2000 and calculation of polarity 2) semi-structured interview, analyzed by Descending Hierarchical Classification with IRaMuTeQ and  content analysis by Atlas TI and  3) characterization questionnaire and evaluation scale for digital inclusion level,   with  descriptive statistical analysis by SPSS software. Results: Associative network analyzed 78 words and their polarity was slightly positive. Descending Hierarchical Classification analyzed 89.51% of the corpus, divided into three segments: Internet danger, difficulties in usage v. Internet options and practices; content analysis divided 505 occurrences into three categories: image, attitude and information. Conclusion: Representations of elderly people with the highest use of Internet were undertaken by accessing hardware, apps and sites, anchored on an idea of the Internet as a means of retrieving information, leisure and interaction. Representations of the elderly with the lowest level of experience were undertaken by computer, based on a sociological perspective and marked by unfavorable attitudes.