How to help the elderly adapt to the "digital life" in the Internet age
Editor's note
Chongyang Festival every year, now it is Chongyang Festival again. October 25 this year is the annual Double Ninth Festival, and it is also the eighth festival for the elderly in my country. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the importance of doing a good job in the work of aging, and called for "making great efforts to deal with it." For a long time, our focus on the elderly has been on life and health. In recent years, their "digital life" has received more and more attention. An article about "When you are old, you don't know how to use a health code", "You can't get sick without a smart phone", and "If you don't understand mobile payment, it's almost impossible to move." Faced with the helplessness and expectation of the “digital disadvantaged groups”, the Digital Generation Gap and Digital Backfeeding Research Group of Shenzhen University carried out a special survey. Through questionnaire surveys, in-depth interviews, digital backfeeding workshops, etc., it focused on what elderly people usually encounter when going online Trap, what factors will affect their integration into the "digital life", and how the effect of "digital feedback" is analyzed, and at the same time, suggestions are made on how to bridge the gap between population aging and social digitalization.
1 The stereotype of the elderly needs to be updated urgently
"Silver internet celebrity" digital counterattack
Loves hot pot and sweets, and also likes to drink cola and beer. The hundred-year-old grandmother Yu Zeqin from Chengdu, Sichuan has captured millions of fans on the short video platform because of her straight and cute personality.
Her hearty laughter even infected many people. "Grandma's old age lived out what everyone envied." "This is the oldest online celebrity sister in the entire network" "I was crying, thinking of my grandmother"...
In recent years, a large number of elderly Internet celebrities such as "Grandpa Beihai", "Aunt Luo", "Grandma Jinxiang" and "Minci is not old" have emerged on new media platforms such as Station B, Douyin, Kuaishou, and National K Song, sharing their lives. The stories also output hot opinions, which not only lead fashion trends, but also showcase traditional culture, and become the "idols" of many young people.
According to a survey conducted by the China Internet Network Information Center, as of June 2020, there are nearly 100 million (97 million) Internet users over 60 years old in China, which means that 38.8% of China's 250 million elderly people are online.
Nowadays, there are many active elderly users in various apps.
The survey data of the research team in 2018 on 3,051 ancestors and grandchildren samples from 956 families in 58 cities across the country (1399 ancestor samples) showed that only the application of WeChat is the “bronze” of the elderly in the eyes of ordinary people. , Many have quietly transformed into the "kings" of the WeChat world.
The survey found that half of the elderly (49.6%) already use WeChat. They use WeChat for 1.37 hours a day. The average number of functions they use is 11.47, the average number of friends is 104.28, and 37% of the elderly check multiple times a day. In the Moments of Friends, their use of WeChat has broken the stereotype of "conventional and self-contained".
For the elderly, the Internet and social networks have reconstructed their leisure social life.
Related surveys also show that among the 10 applications with more than 10 million elderly users, the first two are social apps (WeChat, QQ), the other are video apps (Youku, Tencent Video, iQiyi), and the rest are tools, Shopping and news applications.
Many network traps
However, being able to surf the Internet does not mean that they can surf the Internet. Switching from a traditional information platform to a complicated Internet platform, the elderly will inevitably get confused.
The news that a 60-year-old female fan was deceived by the "fake Jin Dong" on the short video platform and ran away from home made netizens sigh.
Some elderly people are addicted to online novels, short videos or games and cannot extricate themselves, and become an out-and-out Internet addiction "elderly"; "Vinegar can whiten teeth", "eat more spicy food and get Alzheimer's disease", "physical after quitting smoking Worse"...In front of various "shocked bodies" and health-care articles, the elderly often become the "susceptible people" for the spread of rumors; there are also some elderly people who usually save money, but are lured by false investment in the Internet, Being scammed by fake relatives and friends.
"Unfounded examples, unscientific conclusions, rough editing pictures", why these seemingly flawed articles and videos can be favored by "silver-haired people"?
After careful consideration, when faced with massive amounts of information, the elderly, due to their educational level, thinking style, and life experience, show limited ability to select, understand, question, and speculatively react to information.
In addition, because young people are busy at work and have less communication with the elderly, the emptiness of the spiritual world makes them like to forward information to attract attention and create conversations.
However, it is understood that, compared with the left-behind elderly in rural areas, they are more likely to lose themselves on the Internet, while the urban elderly have a higher level of education and income, and media literacy has also improved accordingly.
During the household survey of urban households, the research team showed the interviewees 8 typical online rumors. The results showed that the elderly can identify 4.01 of them, the middle-aged people can identify 4.11 of them, and the young people can identify them. 4.67.
Elderly people who have been digitally "quarantined"
The Internet and smart phones can bring a rich mobile life to the elderly, but they are also accompanied by obstacles to use.
Advances in science and technology and digital changes are profoundly changing people's living habits and making social management more efficient. Information technologies such as "health codes" have contributed to the epidemic prevention period.
However, while facilitating most people, the management methods of “no public transportation without a health code” and “no entry into a shopping mall without a health code” have made some elderly people “targeted” on the bus because they do not use smart devices. Eventually "flee".
“In the past, not being able to use the Internet was just not catching up with young people. Nowadays, it is very difficult to go to the hospital without access to the Internet.” Grandpa Tan, who lives in Hubei, said that although the hospital has instructions for Internet registration, he remembered this time. Never again.
During the epidemic, many daily life items such as grocery shopping, payment of utility bills, and delivery of couriers all need to be "scanned" or completed on a variety of apps, which prevents many elderly people from staying out.
A report from Tencent on the “Mobile Internet Report for Elderly Users” shows that basic operation is the biggest problem for the elderly in using smart devices. Among them, application use and functional operation obstacles accounted for 46.7%, and mobile phone system setup and maintenance obstacles accounted for 41.2%. How to download App accounted for 32.7%. A series of registration, login, payment and other issues have become the threshold for the elderly to access the Internet. Some elderly people are gradually eliminated in the "digital life" because they cannot keep up with the pace of social changes.
2 How the "silver-haired people" take the first step in digitalization
The willingness to learn is crucial
Although age is an objective measure, the perception of age is subjective.
The research team found in in-depth interviews and community workshops that various social and psychological needs significantly affect the willingness of the elderly to integrate into the “digital life”.
“I don’t understand these things on WeChat, and I don’t want to learn them. I am old and can’t remember so many things. It’s good to remember that I eat and drink.” Grandpa Li from Shenzhen always resists learning new skills. “Not once. The operation is good, the young people around cast a contemptuous look, and slowly they dare not operate, for fear of being laughed at."
In the process of integrating the elderly into the "digital life", it is often necessary to cross the three hurdles of digital equipment-digital skills-digital thinking. Whether they master digital skills and whether they have digital thinking mainly depends on the subjective efforts of the elderly.
The research team found that some migratory bird-type elderly people who helped their children with children from rural areas to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other first-tier cities, in order to keep in touch with relatives and friends in different places, in order to better integrate into the big cities, had to "catch the ducks to the shelves" instead. "Innovators" among the elderly.
Others, because of their rich hobbies, actively or passively embrace digital life in their spare time such as participating in chorus and square dancing.
Interestingly, the survey found that older women's acceptance of new media (take WeChat as an example) is significantly higher than that of men. It is not difficult to find in daily life that older women seem to have a greater sense of presence on various social media than older men. They are strong, which also leads to differences in the happiness of elderly people of different genders.
On the contrary, there are also some elderly people’s growth and life experiences that make them accustomed to simple mechanical command instillation, which runs counter to the digital thinking that emphasizes independent innovation.
"We people are basically a blank sheet of paper, teach us how to follow along, and forget it when we go back." A grandma Jia who participated in 11 workshops was still not proficient in using WeChat. Reprimanded.
In addition, in recent years, the "precision cyber fraud" against the elderly is hard to guard against. The repeated exaggeration of family members has caused many elderly people to be "scientific and technological fear". The reason for their rejection of new media is simple: "now unfamiliar phone numbers. Don’t pick up at all, because the elderly are easily deceived! There must be a lot of scams in WeChat, I don’t want to learn."
The objective resistance is large, and subjective initiative needs to be paid more attention
For the elderly, memory, visual ability, mobility, etc. have declined to a certain extent, and the constant updating of iterative software and equipment makes them feel more and more troublesome.
"Now the TV is connected to the Internet, sometimes I don't know which button I pressed wrong, and I can't see the TV." Grandpa Tan from Hubei said helplessly.
Compared with digital TV, mobile Internet-related applications from product design, function development to target users are more innovative and changeable, and it is more difficult to take into account the needs and habits of elderly users.
Therefore, sometimes the elderly refuse new things, it is really helpless choice.
It is understood that there are still more than 150 million elderly people in my country who have not been able to catch the informatization express in time, and there is a clear urban-rural gap in the geographical distribution of these elderly people.
In related surveys, the number of rural Internet users was 195 million, but the proportion of rural elderly people "frequently surfing the Internet" was only 0.9%.
Many rural elderly people are illiterate and cannot type, cannot afford a smart phone, and have a limited interpersonal circle. They neither know nor need to go online.
The research team’s statistical regression of the survey data found that: objectively, the older the age, the worse the body (measured from the three aspects of vision, hearing, and cognitive ability), the lower the education level, the fewer children, and the backward the city. Of older people don’t know how to surf the Internet.
Subjectively, the more curious about new things, the more positive the evaluation of the Internet, the closer the interaction with children and grandchildren, and the more active the elderly who participate in social activities, the more they will go online.
As long as they give full play to their subjective initiative, it is possible for the elderly to break through objective barriers to integrate into the "digital life".
Nearly 90% of the elderly prefer to seek help from their families
In the face of the digital divide that lies in front of us, how should most elderly people bridge?
The research team found that China's unique "family culture" enables digital backfeeding within the family to provide a "Chinese-style solution" to this problem.
Nearly 70% (69.9%) of the elderly use WeChat by the younger generation church at home; when the elderly encounter difficulties in using new media, nearly 90% (87.1%) of the first choice for help are family members.
"People about our age don't know how to operate, and other juniors don't say it so clearly. It's better to call your children and grandchildren." The grandfather of the college student Xiaosun sighed.
The research team investigated the intergenerational interactions within Chinese households from the three dimensions of digital access backfeeding, digital skills backfeeding, and digital literacy backfeeding, and found that almost all the hardware and software that Chinese elderly people access to digital life are handled by their families; On the one hand, the feedback from children and grandchildren to the elders is mainly in instrumental areas such as video and voice chat and red envelope transfers, while content areas such as searching for information, reading and forwarding public account articles are obviously insufficient.
In order to prevent the elderly from experiencing property losses while surfing the Internet, the younger generations prefer to adopt the "agent-style backfeeding" method, skip the time-consuming and laborious process of "giving people to fish", and directly "give people to fish", buy tickets, register, and take taxis. All orders are done directly.
"Grandma has always used elderly phones. Later, because my brother went abroad, I began to teach her to use WeChat video calls. Old people's enthusiasm for new things comes from their enthusiasm for children and grandchildren." The survey also found that digital backfeeding There is a phenomenon of "inter-generational relatives". About 30% of the elderly are taught by grandchildren to use smartphones.
In the survey interviews, many young people said, “I am willing to teach them bit by bit and tell them how to use them carefully. In the process, I feel that I am very close to my parents.” “After they learned, I feel that I have more common language with myself." "When teaching elders to surf the Internet, it also deepens their dependence and trust in me."
During the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the digital back-feeding of the younger generations to the elders also further extended to the back-feeding of health concepts and behaviors.
The research team’s survey of three generations of grandparents and grandchildren during the 2020 Spring Festival shows that many post-95s and even post-00s have become “gatekeepers and agents” for family epidemic prevention, popularizing new crown pneumonia epidemic information and epidemic prevention knowledge to their elders, and guiding them to distinguish rumors. And urge them to practice in accordance with the online epidemic prevention requirements. The authority established by the younger generation in the "bottom-up" feedback process is gradually infiltrating other areas of family life.
3 Multi-party efforts to integrate the elderly into digital life
Data from the two surveys conducted by the China Internet Network Information Center around March and June 2020 show that in just three months, the proportion of elderly Internet users in total Internet users has risen from 6.7% to 10.3%, and more than 36 million elderly people are Started going online within 3 months of the epidemic.
When the epidemic forced them to use digital media to arrange food, clothing, housing, and transportation, many elderly people quickly made changes and actively adapted.
To help elderly netizens who have emerged suddenly and potential elderly netizens staying outside the Internet to help them enjoy the convenience of the Internet in a healthy and safe manner, it is not only necessary to rely on individual efforts, but also to give more care to the government, society, and families through linkage mechanisms. .
The government should play a leading and promoting role.
As the digitalization, mobility, and intelligence of media continue to accelerate in the future, some elderly people will become less and less able to keep up with the changes of the times.
The government should take advantage of the implementation of the "new infrastructure" strategy to clear the infrastructure barriers of "digital life" for the elderly, especially rural elderly, to provide Internet access opportunities and stimulate their demand for new technologies.
At the same time, the network supervision department should further improve the management system, create a clean information environment and a privacy and safe Internet culture, and promote digital literacy education for the elderly, and support the elderly to use digitalization to improve their quality of life.
In addition to playing a leading role in top-level design, it should also perform basic public service functions in the digital assistance for the elderly.
While promoting various digital convenience systems, it is necessary to provide "non-digital" alternatives and respect the right of some elderly people to "digitally disconnect".
The elderly who are subjectively unwilling or objectively unconditional to access the Internet leave traditional windows and channels to avoid the "digital disadvantaged group" being blocked by a small screen and making it difficult to move.
For the elderly, integration into the "digital life" is an option, not a necessary option. Digital integration is advocated instead of forcing digital integration. Only in this way can it reflect the goodwill and warmth of public services.
The community should build a normalized assistance mechanism.
More resources should be lowered to the grassroots level to provide precise and refined services and establish a sustainable digital feedback mechanism.
On the one hand, the community can conduct regular interest classes, skills training and other activities to explain various new media use-related knowledge for the elderly; on the other hand, establish a normalized voluntary service system so that the elderly in the community can use the phone or face to face To seek help from volunteers.
Family members are the "leaders" of digital life.
When the elderly cannot adapt to new digital devices and digital thinking only by relying on their existing life experience and knowledge reserves, the family is the main field of feedback.
When they need help, the people they trust most are their children.
Children should be more concerned about and encourage them to learn video chat, browse articles, send location and other functions, so as to encourage the elderly to experience the joy of digital life.
In addition, digital feedback should be used to help the older generation enter the information scene of the new generation, to achieve a "breaking" dialogue between different dimensional cultures, and to enhance the communication and understanding between the elderly and the young.
Internet platforms need to actively develop new media products "suitable for aging".
At present, the development of new media products in terms of content and form lags far behind the needs of the elderly, resulting in low enthusiasm for the use of new media products by the elderly.
All major companies should be called upon to provide quality, warm and emotional digital services for the elderly.
In terms of product functions, it provides specialized products that meet the needs of the elderly, including learning classrooms, online diagnosis and treatment, and dating and dating.
In terms of product form, consider the actual experience of the elderly, such as the operation interface and use steps, and customize it.
For example, while the youth version of various apps are being created, the senior version will be launched in due course.
The elderly themselves should advance with the times and embrace digital life.
To lead the elderly across the digital divide, the most important thing is to increase their confidence in dealing with digital life.
In the new era, the elderly should establish a positive outlook on aging and be brave enough to accept and learn new things.
On the one hand, the elderly should get rid of their fear of new technologies, either by asking their peers or asking without shame, combining their own objective conditions and subjective needs, and making wise choices in digital products.
On the other hand, the elderly should also pay attention to improving network information security awareness and media literacy, protect their privacy and property, see through network rumors, avoid "traps of old people", and fully enjoy convenient and rich digital life.
(Shenzhen University Digital Generation Gap and Digital Backfeeding Research Group Research Group Leader: Zhou Yuqiong)