Research On The Practice Of Mobile Phone Media Among The Elderly

In the digital age,mobile phones are increasingly embedded in the daily lives of older people and are connected to them in a meaningful way,making the issue of mobile phone media practices of older people an academic proposition that needs to be studied in depth.This paper examines the mobile phone media practices of the elderly in the city of K in the Central Plains region through in-depth interviews and participant observation in order to gain insight into the interconnection between the mobile phone media and the daily lives of the elderly,in the light of Kurdli’s media practice theory.This study not only enriches the vivid examples of media use among the elderly groups,but also helps to expand the connotation of media practice research.The study found that the mobile phone media practices of older people are not only a new technological development,but also a manifestation of relationships,display spaces and everyday life.The mobile media practices of older people can be summarised in three ways: communication,display and transformation.In communication,the three behaviours of group chatting,instant calling and liking and forwarding reflect the cohesion of interaction and relationship among the elderly group;in displaying oneself,active self-expression,displaying oneself and memory of texts are the re-compensation of the elderly group’s emotions,and in the process of achieving their own emotional satisfaction,the mobile phone media is a communication tool and a carrier of emotional expression;in daily life,the elderly group is In their daily lives,older people change their media practices,their ability to search for information changes from passive acquisition to active screening,from being active users of mobile media to being online consumers with ambivalent attitudes,and depending on their status and occupation,retired older people show different trends in their choice of mobile media usage content.The study goes on to analyse the main motivations for older people’s mobile media practices at three levels: their own needs,technological empowerment and the expectations of others.The study draws on British media scholar Maren Hartmann’s "triple connection" framework to analyse the positive effects of older people’s media practices.At the same time,however,there are some problems,such as the ambivalence of the elderly towards technology,their dependence on mobile phones wrapped in technology and the gaps in their ability to learn new media.In response to these negative issues,the main actors should focus on the development of media literacy skills,family members should focus on cultural feedbacks,and media platforms should do a better job of training and gate-keeping,and introduce age-appropriate content,in order to further help older people use mobile media better.