The irruption of new technologies in society has transformed public services such as appointments at Social Security or the Arrecife Court almost at the speed of light. Many of these services are offered only electronically, which is an impediment for many people, either because they do not have knowledge in new technologies or because there are directly no appointments available.
This situation affects a couple from Lanzarote, who have been trying for three months to process their civil union at the Civil Registry of the Arrecife Courts. "When it is not for one reason, it is for another because they do not give you initial information on what documentation you must provide and, when you have already gathered all the necessary papers, you have to make an appointment through a QR code and when you try to request it at the end of the month, they do not give it to you," says the affected party.
According to the citizen, when entering the application "there are no appointments available any day". As a result, he explains that they have been planning since May to make an appointment to get married, but "it is impossible". In this case, as in many others, the appointment can only be requested electronically, not in person. "We call by phone and they tell us that we have to request it through the mobile application, but we try it every morning for at least 25 days and there is no result," he criticizes.
He also points out that there are more complaints of this type on social networks regarding the lack of free appointments in the Arrecife Civil Registry.
In addition, this situation also affects citizens who request an appointment at Social Security. In this sense, a woman has told La Voz that it took her almost a week to get an appointment because this procedure is done electronically and "they only give ten minutes of time for people to request it".
On the other hand, she says that a person was able to help an elderly couple make an appointment, but when she was going to manage hers, they closed the quota schedule. "They told me that they only attend to approximately six people per day, but what do they do the rest of the hours? This is a problem that affects many people," she says.
And in the case of people over 85 years of age, for example, only 12.4% use instant messaging and about 10% use mobile phones or make calls over the internet or read media," according to a study carried out by the CSIC's Aging Network team in December 2023.
These data reflect that, despite the fact that older people are also incorporating new technologies into their lives, the situation becomes complicated when they have to resolve procedures such as appointments at Social Security or similar services. This barrier hinders the process in cases where the only option to access the service is electronically and there is no option to request appointments through physical persons.
