Relationship Between Excessive Use Of WeChat And Psychological Security In Older Adults

With the rapid development of the Internet and information technology,intelligent services are widely used in every aspect of daily life,which has a profound impact on the lives of older adults.We Chat is the most widely used platform for older adults to socialize and learn new things on the Internet.While enjoying the convenience brought by technological innovation across the “digital divide”,older adults also face problems such as improper use of “digital addiction”.At present,there are few studies on the excessive use of We Chat specifically for the elderly population,and there is still a lack of discussion on its influencing factors and mechanism.This study consisted of three sub-studies.The first study investigated the overuse of We Chat among older adults and explored the factors influencing different levels of We Chat use separately through network analysis.In the second study,the path of influencing factors on the overuse of We Chat by older adults was further explored based on the results of the first study.In the third study,the longitudinal relationship between the psychological security and the excessive use of We Chat among older people was further investigated through the use of tracking data.Study 1 discusses the overuse of We Chat among older adults and its influencing factors.A total of 913 elderly people who used We Chat were surveyed using the psychological security scale,sensation-seeking scale,and We Chat overuse scale.The results showed that the psychological security of older adults in the We Chat overusing group was significantly lower than that of the non-overusing group and the averageusing group,while sensation seeking was significantly higher than that of the other two groups.In addition,further network analysis showed that there were significant differences between the network model of the overuse group and the network model of the non-overuse group,but not significant differences from the network model of the average use group.Specifically,the overuse group…Study 2 further examines the mechanism between the overuse of We Chat and the influencing factors.It focuses the discussion of psychological security and sensation seeking.The results showed that psychological security negatively predicted the degree of We Chat overuse.Sensation seeking played a partial mediating role.Meanwhile,long-term residence moderates the impact of sensation seeking in the second half of the mediation mechanism on We Chat overuse.Specifically,the sensation seeking of the urban elderly has a greater predictive effect on We Chat overuse than that of the rural elderly.Study 3 discussed the relationship between excessive use of We Chat and psychological security and the longitudinal mediating effect of sensation seeking from a longitudinal perspective.The results showed that there is a significant cross-lag between overuse of We Chat and psychological security,indicating that there is a cyclic relationship between the two.The cross lag between We Chat overuse and sensation seeking is not significant,indicating that sensation seeking cannot play a mediating role between psychological security and We Chat overuse vertically.In conclusion,this study explores the influencing factors and mechanism of excessive use of We Chat by older adults through horizontal and vertical evidence.The research results show that the psychological security of elderly people can influence their overuse of We Chat by influencing their sense seeking,and the relationship between psychological security and overuse of We Chat has a cross-lagged bidirectional relationship in the longitudinal data.The results suggest that families and society should pay attention to the “digital addiction” of older adults and the related psychological security issues,and provide ideas for the intervention of the bad Internet use behavior of older adults.