Empirical Study On We-chat Use Of The Elderly In Main Urban Area Of Baoding City

The percentage of aged population in the total population of China has increased continuously.The increasing aging degree has become an important social problem in China currently.Caring for the elderly and helping them to live a happy life have become the goal of the whole society.However,caring for them is not limited to provide them with food and clothes.More important,their spiritual demands have to be satisfied.As the most popular instant messaging software at present,We-chat plays an important role in improving the communication efficiency of the elderly,enriching their lifestyles and preventing them from being dropped out from the society.As a result,taking the elderly in the city proper of Baoding city as the research object,through deep interview and questionnaire survey,this paper mainly studies the usage of We-chat among the elderly,the functional orientation of the elderly in using We-chat and the reading content of the elderly on We-chat.The analysis reveals that most of the elder users of We-chat live together with their children and are financially successful.The gender difference in terms of the users is insignificant and most of the elder users are aged between 60 and 69.Among their We-chat friends,90% are their friends in reality,showing obvious characteristics of “acquaintance society”.The amount of the elder users is in negative relation to their education degree and “cultural feedback” is obvious in the usage of We-chat among the elderly.The media compensation function of We-chat is an important factor behind the popularity of We-chat among the elderly.Through We-chat,they foster kinship and friendship,participate in communication and entertainment and save money.They pay more attention to articles on health care and food.Although the elderly have used we-chat,in most cases,they are unable to use it independently.They are unable to tell truth from the false ones facing the mixed information on the Internet.As a result,a social environment which benefits the elderly to learn how to use We-chat should be created to improve their media quality.