BUILDING CONFIDENCE AND RESILIENCE WITH DIGITAL TOOLS

Digital tools are now part of ordinary life. People use phones, tablets and computers to talk to family, arrange appointments, manage payments, study, access services, travel, and deal with official information. For many adults aged 55+, this does not mean they are ‘behind’. It means they are being asked to adapt to systems that often change too quickly, explain too little, and assume confidence that is not always there.

A common mistake in digital education is to assume that low confidence means low ability. In practice, confidence often drops long before ability has really been tested. Many adults know more than they think, but one bad experience, one rushed update, or one suspicious message can make them doubt themselves and step back.

Digital resilience matters because online environments are rarely stable. Menus move, passwords change, services become app-based, and new forms of fraud appear. People do not need to know everything in advance. What they do need is a way to stay calm, check what they are seeing and recover when something unexpected happens.

Within the SILWERS project context, this matters especially for adults aged 55+ and for the educators who support them. Findings from workshops and discussions repeatedly point to fear of scams, uncertainty about AI, worry about making mistakes, and frustration when systems are not designed clearly.