The Influence Of Social Network Use Behavior Of The Elderly On Loneliness

"Aging" and "smart" has become an irreversible global trend.Loneliness has become the biggest emotional problem for the elderly due to social barriers caused by retirement and physical inconvenience.With the advent of the Internet age,more and more old people are forced to move forward by the tide of The Times.However,the digital life of the elderly has not attracted widespread attention from the social from all walks of life because they have been shut out of the Internet for a long time.It was not until the birth of WeChat that the elderly can be able to step into the "digital society".Nowadays,WeChat elderly users have become a noticeable increment in the network user group.With the penetration of the Internet into the shaping and social interaction of people's lives,more and more researchers attach importance to the relationship between the use of social networks and mental health,but the existing studies have inconsistent conclusions.Some researchers have linked social network use to beneficial effects,such as high self-esteem,while other studies have shown that social networks can have negative effects on users by increasing stress,loneliness or depression.Some researchers believe that the possible reason for the inconsistent results is that network behaviors are not classified according to their social attributes.In recent years,with the rise of social networks on a global scale and the depth of research,scholars have found that social networking is closely connected with the relationship between the real world,online interpersonal relationship mode to a great extent is similar with netizens real relationships form,so some scholars put forward in the study the influence of the social network to users after effect also need to include personality traits in the analysis.After all,the use of social networks and what they mean vary according to the personalities of their users."The rich get richer hypothesis" and "the poor get rich hypothesis" are the personality difference theories that expound the effect of Internet use on the after-effect.They both expound the effect of Internet use on the difference of interpersonal relationship and social communication ability.As a prototype of interpersonal relationship,adult attachment has been found to have an important impact on individual interpersonal behavior and emotional feelings.Therefore,this study used adult attachment as personality difference to explore the possible different effects of social network use on loneliness in the elderly.In order to explore the influence of social network use on loneliness of the elderly,according to the degree of interaction,this study firstly divided the social network use behaviors into interactive communication,passive browsing and publishing behaviors,and then included adult attachment into the study when studying the after-effect of social network use on loneliness of the elderly.Furthermore,due to the unskilled use of some social network behaviors by the elderly and the possible deviation from the typical user's understanding of social network use behavior,the intervention study can better clarify the impact of different social network use behaviors on loneliness.Therefore,this study adopted the method of combining transverse and longitudinal intervention.Study 1 was designed as a cross-sectional study to investigate the relationship between social network use behavior and loneliness in older adults and whether this relationship is mediated by adult attachment.Studies 2 and 3 used experimental intervention design to examine the influence of passive browsing behavior and publishing behavior of social networks on loneliness of the elderly with different attachment characteristics,respectively.research results are as follows:(1)interactive communication behavior is the most frequently used by the elderly on social networks,followed by browsing behavior,and Posting behavior is the least frequently used;(2)attachment anxiety is positively correlated with interactive communication and browsing behavior,while attachment avoidance is negatively correlated with interactive communication.The daily time spent on social network,daily interaction and communication with people,daily time spent browsing moments of friends and other functions(including public accounts,WeChat reading books,etc.)of the elderly with high attachment anxiety were all higher than that of the elderly with low attachment anxiety.(3)both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance can significantly predict the rise of loneliness.The loneliness and negative emotions of the elderly with high attachment anxiety are significantly higher than those with low attachment anxiety,while the positive emotions are significantly lower than those with low attachment anxiety.(4)interactive communication can significantly predict the decrease of loneliness in the elderly,while the regulatory effect of adult attachment is not significant;(5)browsing behavior can increase the loneliness and negative emotions of the elderly with high attachment anxiety,but reduce the loneliness of the individuals with low attachment anxiety;(6)increasing social network publishing behavior can reduce the loneliness of the elderly with high and low attachment anxiety,but for the elderly with high attachment anxiety,increasing social network publishing behavior not only reduces their loneliness,but also increases their negative emotions.This study make individual adult attachment as personality differences to the influence of social network use of loneliness for the first time,enrich the theory of attachment for the elderly in the field of network effect,to a certain extent,solve the inconsistency of previous research results,and through the intervention studies designed to explore the social network passive browsing behavior and publishing behavior of the influence of different attachment characteristics of the elderly loneliness,for different old people how to use social networks to reduce loneliness are instructive.Future research could provide insight into the potential impact of adult attachment in the elderly on the choice and use of social networks.Secondly,in the selection of research objects,it is also necessary to focus on the individuals with high attachment avoidance who are loneliest and most prone to Internet addiction,so as to explore how to make the elderly with high attachment avoidance use the Internet to reduce loneliness.Furthermore,the use of self-tracking devices can be considered to improve the accuracy of measuring social network usage behavior or methods.Finally,a more long-term follow-up intervention design can be selected to explore the changes in the effects of social network use on the psychological feelings of the elderly,so as to find the possible point of diminishing or negative returns in the use of social network.