In many European Countries, gerontologists and digital experts emphasize the contemporary issue of many older adults who for different reasons – past work experiences, socio-economic background, educational level, health condition - struggle to adapt to the digital acceleration. The Covid-19 emergency has indeed led to an increase the offer of digital content and services and their use. In this context, quantitative research often associate the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) among older adults with positive dynamics of active and healthy aging. Many scholars have advocated for more qualitative research on the way older adults relate with ICTS in digital acceleration processes within specific social-cultural contexts and living environments. This paper aims to discuss kin and communitarian practices of care for older adults who lack digital skills in the contemporary process of digital acceleration in Italy. The contribution is based on 40 narrative interviews remotely conducted with older adults aged between 65 and 75 from ten Italian small towns of the first COVID-19 ‘Red Zone’ in Europe. Anthropological and/or ethnographic research has highlighted an ambivalent relationship between older adults who lack digital skills and intergenerational care relationships. On the one hand, ICTs are often embedded within local intergenerational circuits of care and reciprocity which allow older adults to access digital resources in old age. On the other hand, these circuits can also become a source of social control over older adults increasing their vulnerability and social marginalization. Our results show that older adults may indeed negotiate normative models of ‘smart-aging’ and ‘active aging’ through kin and communitarian care practices characterized by strategic non-use/tactical use of ICTs. Through this strategic non use/tactical use, older adults who lack digital skills and/or resist forced digitalization can maintain their social status in the contemporary post-pandemic context.