The elderly in the Internet gap help each other
The digital divide once separated Liu Qingzhong from the other side of the times.
He was 74 years old. When he couldn't use his smartphone, he had to change the train ticket online, but the operation was unsuccessful. He had to get off the train and go to the window to queue.
The people around him gradually became accustomed to online shopping and online financial management. He became the "slow" character. He lined up at the supermarket checkout counter and couldn't stop the taxi for a long time. In order to write calligraphy and Chinese painting, he had to specialize Go to the market and bring back 40 rolls of rice paper.
He has seen many elderly people around him fall behind because they are not familiar with the operation of smart phones.
His high school classmates have been teaching in middle school for many years. After retiring, he can't join the old classmates' WeChat group. They can only make a phone call every other week.
He also encountered an old man in his early 60s who removed more than 20 kilograms of batteries from the battery car every day and brought them upstairs for charging.
There is a battery car charging pile in the community, which can be used by opening the software in the mobile phone. The old man's son has already bound a bank card for him, but he can't scan the code to pay.
Liu Qingzhong only used his first smartphone 8 years ago.
Previously engaged in scientific research, he had studied many mobile phone manuals and found that they were not easy to understand for the elderly.
"It's written for young people, it doesn't meet the taste of old people."
When using the mobile phone, Liu Qingzhong can only ask others, then write down the key points, and put it out in his bag for comparison when necessary.
Later, he decided to use his own experience to help the elderly learn to use smartphones, and specially compiled the textbook "Community Residents Smart Phone Operation Guide" (hereinafter referred to as "Guide"), and also gave lectures for the elderly.
Up to now, this course has been in operation for 3 years and has entered more than 80 communities in Shijingshan District, Beijing.
1
The size of the "Guide" is 32 karats, so it can be easily carried in a bag.
Turning over the inner page, the font of the main text is 4 point, one point larger than the normal book.
The book is divided into two volumes. Nearly 100 pages of it talk about how to use WeChat, such as how to chat with people, how to see other people’s circle of friends, how to pay for life... There are also chapters dedicated to how to buy tickets and how to use two popular shopping software .
After retiring, Liu Qingzhong worked at Sailand Social Work Office. He and his colleague Li Guangyuan wrote this "Guide" together.
Liu Qingzhong is responsible for asking questions, and Li Guangyuan is responsible for giving textual explanations for each question, and inserting large and small pictures.
After half a year, they finished editing the book.
Although young, Li Guangyuan did not hear the stories of old people encountering difficulties in their lives because they could not use smart phones.
An old man told him that she went to the Olympic Forest Park by herself. The park was large. She entered from the south gate and finally came out from the west gate. It was already dark and she couldn't find the way, and finally met a young man who was sent to a familiar one. bus stop.
An old man wanted to use WeChat to register and log in on the Beijing 114 appointment registration platform. To register, he had to enter his mobile phone number, fill in the verification code, and enter the ID number and medical insurance card number... After repeated tossing for nearly an hour, he did not succeed.
After retiring, 66-year-old Li Jingxin worked as party branch secretary in the third community of Haite Garden, Pingguoyuan Street. 80% of her community are elderly.
She sent a notice in the group that many old people could not solve the dragon, and asked anxiously, "Why can't they be ranked?"
Li Jingxin can only queue up for a problem that someone can solve in a few minutes on the self-service payment machine.
She saw an old man standing in front of a self-service barcode scanning machine, unsuccessful in paying for life and death, and then tantrums at the machine.
Zhao Laifu, who is in his early 60s, is a resident of the second community of Haite Garden.
Five years ago, his daughter bought him his first smartphone.
He occasionally fiddled with his cell phone, but he was very cautious, and he didn't even dare to open the WeChat red envelope.
During the epidemic, the health treasure has become a hurdle that the elderly must overcome.
Li Guangyuan found that filling in a long string of numbers is a test for the elderly. Their face recognition failure rate is much higher than that of young people, and they are frequently stuck in these most basic operations.
Lu Mingqi is a social worker in the second community of Haite Garden.
In this community, there are more than 1,000 registered elderly people.
He used to stand guard at the gate of the community. Many elderly people who traveled set up health treasures from scratch on the spot, filled in information, took photos, and authenticated. Sometimes the page jumped, and then they couldn’t be found again. They had to start again. On average, each person would spend money. More than 10 minutes.
Zhang Bin is the party secretary and director of Shuangjinyuan Community, Lugu Street, Shijingshan District.
In order to prevent the epidemic, his community provided residents with access permits, and later unified health codes.
He heard from the old man that before, they liked to take a trolley to the market to go around. Later, many people did not go out, and they were helped by family members or social workers when buying and delivering food.
2
Liu Qingzhong summed up his own way of learning smart phones: think about it by yourself, learn a little with your children, and read a little in a book.
Children are not the best teachers. "Most people who ask for advice are not successful."
He concluded that although some old people live with their children, but their children go out early and go home late, the old people can't bear to disturb them for trivial matters, and the young people don't have the time and patience to guide meticulously. Sometimes it's annoying if you don't have a few words.
"It's not that there are no teachers, but the teachers around you are not easy to use."
Li Guangyuan often goes to various communities for research. These communities generally report that the elderly are used to coming to their offices with questions for inquiries.
Among the more than 1,000 households in Zhang Bin’s community, 40% are middle-aged and elderly people, and nearly a hundred elderly people come here scattered. The questions are mostly trivial: Why are the contacts in WeChat suddenly missing?
How can I send out what I want to forward?
How to book a car online?
How to buy tickets and register?
In 2017, with teaching materials and supporting courseware, Liu Qingzhong and Li Guangyuan opened the first training course in a community in Shijingshan.
In Li Guangyuan’s impression, for the first time in class, the old man brought a variety of mobile phones.
An old man suggested that the phone responds slowly. Li Guangyuan took a closer look and found that the corners of the phone were worn out and the memory was small, so he could only delete the useless software first.
There are also elderly people holding a typical elderly phone and asking themselves why these functions are not available.
He can only tell the other party that you may have to change your phone.
For the convenience of answering questions, Liu Qingzhong and Li Guangyuan later also trained the staff of the community neighborhood committees and enthusiastic residents to teach them to the elderly in their communities. Every elderly person who comes will get a set of books, or you can directly scan the code to enter. Group, look back at the recorded courses.
These social workers concluded that one of the reasons why the elderly cannot play with smart phones is that they dare not use them.
In the eyes of many elderly people, mobile phones costing thousands of dollars are expensive, and they are easy to break when used.
Sometimes, children will not teach, and they will simply say, "Don't be blind."
For this reason, during the lecture, they told the elderly that as long as there is no money involved, they don’t need to enter the password, "press it, the phone will not break."
However, the elderly are indeed closer to danger.
Li Guangyuan remembered that when he was in class, he heard the community staff who came to help said that in this community, an elderly person had suffered a telecommunications fraud.
Li Jingxin's wife is also considered a witness.
Once, Li Jingxin was out shopping for groceries, and her wife was at home alone.
When the call came, there was an anxious and piercing male voice: "Dad, help!" Then another male voice came out on the phone, "Don't call the police, don't hang up, tell me the bank card number and password, or you will tear the ticket!"
The old man panicked. He had no savings in his card, so he had to follow the instructions on the phone to bring the card and cash, put on his clothes and walk to the bank. In order to keep the call, the phone was placed on the table at home.
Downstairs, he was hurriedly stopped by familiar passers-by for questioning, and the two felt that something was wrong after analyzing.
A passerby dialed the old man's son with his cell phone and found out that his son was at work. The old man was relieved and sat down on the ground.
For this reason, Li Guangyuan will repeatedly emphasize during the training, that all links that involve payment and risk should not be easily believed and operated, and should not buy stocks and funds with unknown sources.
In the first training session, more than 80 elderly people came in the first four days, the oldest in their 80s.
Someone is holding a mobile phone while recording in their own notebook.
After class ended at 5 pm, many elderly people left after an hour delay because of questions, and some even delayed picking up their grandchildren.
Some elderly people find the community to help their absent neighbors ask for a textbook.
Residents from communities outside the training coverage also called Li Guangyuan, hoping that they could also come to teach in their own communities.
3
They are chasing the age with the elderly, but sometimes, the running speed is not as fast as the app update speed.
Li Guangyuan remembered that just five days before the "Guide" was compiled and ready to be printed, many of the contents of an App mentioned in the book changed. Even the most commonly used button positions were changed. They had to spend more Update this chapter again in 10 days.
Some apps are fancy, and there will always be large and small activity options on festivals, and flashing icons when they are opened, which also causes interference for the elderly.
They found that the basic search bar became narrower and narrower in the previous and subsequent editions, making it more difficult for the elderly to press keys.
The course runs from street to street, and they are also used to revising the courseware once a month or two.
There are also older versions of some software online, but the keys to change settings are hidden deep.
Many young people are never aware of it, let alone old people who are new to smart phones.
Not long ago, Li Guangyuan learned that a well-known taxi-hailing software had a caring mode specially designed for the elderly. He clicked on the App but couldn't find it. In the end, he had to search for news and start it step by step.
This also made him feel that in order for the elderly to learn smart phones, the whole society must act.
The producer of the software should also simplify complex issues, and while serving the young, it also has functions that are truly suitable for the elderly.
These social workers found that the elderly were used to saving money and could not understand the choice of Internet packages. Many people did not purchase data packages and went out to "return to pre-liberation" on home wireless networks.
In the community where Lu Mingqi is located, many elderly people go out in a hurry to surf the Internet. Sometimes they go to the office of the neighborhood committee. They simply open the wireless network to the elderly for free.
The training brought some changes.
Many elderly people have initially mastered the basic functions of smart phones. Lu Mingqi saw that in his mobile phone community work group, there are active elderly people who greet each other good morning every day.
Lu Mingqi also interacted with the old people in the group. Those old people who used a flower, a mountain, or their grandchildren or a small ornament at home as their avatars on WeChat, occasionally made typos and turned unverified rumors. link.
Zhang Bin has set a special group rule, and he thinks this is a topic to be paid attention to later.
The mother of Yang Ran, director of Sailand Social Work Office, is in her early 60s.
Old people used to often forget the operation of the mobile phone, and always hold the mobile phone and ask their daughter what to order now.
Because of unfamiliarity, new problems always arise.
Now, after listening to Yang Ran for a few classes, in addition to walking around and cooking, her mother occasionally picks up her mobile phone to browse Moments, so Yang Ran urged her, "It's time to cook."
Mother never looked for her because she didn't know the route of travel, she learned how to navigate by herself.
She and Yang Ran learned to edit pictures, beautify the photos with one click, reduce wrinkles, and update the WeChat profile picture.
When going out, she shoots videos to prepare material for the circle of friends.
Yang Ran felt that her mother was regaining her lost life-she added WeChat, an old classmate she hadn't seen for a long time, and 30 years after graduation, they started their first gathering.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Wang Jingshuo Source: China Youth Daily