Wen 丨 深火 (ID: shenrancaijing), author 丨 Wang Min, editor 丨 Jin Jiepan
This Spring Festival homecoming, Wei Xiang did not expect that parents in their fifties, amateur life is filled with short videos.
In the week before the Spring Festival holiday in 2022, Wei Xiang, who is in Beijing, pays close attention to the return policy with his parents every day in order to return home smoothly. However, the source of information is different, Wei Xiang is staring at the official announcement, and his parents are brushing the vibrato fast hand.
While brushing the latest local policy information, they simultaneously looked for their compatriots who returned from Beijing, leaving messages asking whether the return trip was smooth and what precautions they needed.
When Wei Xiang successfully returned home, he found that his parents in the small county town could not live without short videos.
Chinese New Year's EveChinese New Year's Eve meals, the New Year's Eve, and the gathering of relatives who have not been seen for a long time, the big events and small feelings that the mother experiences every day, we must send short videos to record, and we must also stare at who likes and who leaves messages.
Mothers with strong desire to "create" do not forget to give others a show. She brushed the new dynamics of "friends" over and over again, commented on the Chinese New Year's Eve meals and family gatherings of other people's homes, and liked them one by one. Although my father did not post much, he was not far behind in brushing short videos and liking friends.
Elders who have worked hard for most of their lives can find fun in short videos, which also makes young people feel happy. But this has also become a problem for many young people, because once the middle-aged and elderly people of the parent generation are addicted to short videos, the degree of madness is not lost to young people, spending a lot of time and energy on it, and may also be deceived.
There are countless complaints on social networks about parents' addiction to short videos: "My mother-in-law can send 20 short videos a day", "If you don't secretly turn off the WiFi at night, they can brush until 6 o'clock the next morning". Young people who used to be urged to go to bed early by their parents now go out of their way to remind their parents to put down their mobile phones.
The position of the network of middle-aged and elderly people has changed
Returning to her hometown of North China during the Spring Festival, what surprised Yang Ru the most was that a short video of her mother would actually be discussed again and again.
Before the Spring Festival, Yang Ru's parents in their fifties went to take a set of wedding photos. This is not common in the local small county, so before she can get the refined photos and finished photo albums, my mother urgently made up a few negatives that had just been screened out, made up a short video and posted it on Douyin, and then sat waiting for the likes and comments of relatives and friends.
Fortunately, the number of likes continues to climb, and the number of comments increases one by one. Under this short video of my mother, not only the friends who often meet in life have come to the scene, but even the friends who have not been in touch for a long time and moved to other places have also emerged to congratulate a wave. Looking at the comments of "really romantic", "happy and happy", and "we also go to make up a set", Yang Ru's mother replied happily.
A short video of "Show Love" sparked a discussion, not only in the comments section.
Wait until the new year's day, when others praise Yang Ru's mother's wedding photos are good, Yang Ru's mother also rushes to respond, "The scenic spot you went to two days ago, the scenery is good", or "The pair of gold earrings that your girlfriend bought for you is very beautiful"... After the commercial mutual blowing is completed, it will be released with friends again.
Yang Ru found that throughout the Chinese New Year, the topics of parents and relatives and friends meeting and talking were always inseparable from each other's recent short videos. They have become accustomed to learning about the latest trends of their friends through short videos, and short videos have become one of the most mainstream chat topics.
Yang Ru's mother's habit is that after opening Douyin every day, she first finishes watching the latest video of "friends" and interacting with familiar friends' comments. Her main position is in Douyin, but she does not forget to brush another wave of fast hands every day to prevent missing some of her friends' dynamics. After brushing up on the acquaintances, she began to brush some funny videos and news information, basically brushing for an hour or two a day.
Chen Shuang's parents, who are home in the Great Northwest, have the same habits of using short video APP as Yang Ru's parents. The first thing to open the short video APP every day is to watch the latest video of the "friend" first.
In Chen Shuang's impression, her mother only brushed her hair in the past, but from 2021, her mother began to take the initiative to create and share dynamics on short videos. Because she often posts it, now she is not idle when she brushes short videos every day, and she will always save music that she thinks is good to use as material for backup.
This Spring Festival home, her mother often pulled her to co-shoot short videos, although Chen Shuang was unwilling but had to cooperate. Working in a first-tier city, she is very full of work every day, not to mention shooting short videos, and even the number of times she opens these apps is very limited. However, her mother is extremely enthusiastic about shooting short videos, and she is also very keen to apply shooting templates, Chen Shuang described, the painting style is simple or even slightly rough.
After the release of the short video, Chen Shuang's mother will not only pay attention to the number of comments and likes, but also open the browsing record, while flipping through the words and commenting, who browsed her video but did not like, who actually came to give her a like.
At the end of the holiday, Chen Shuang was leaving, and her mother also took a short video of the suitcase, with the effect that the daughter came back for a few days and had to leave her hometown to work. Friends and family resonated with the fact that the child was away from home and commented one after another. Before Chen Shuang could be sent to the airport, her mother was already busy replying to comments.
Among those who are keen on short videos, there are also people who are operating as amateur businesses. Compared with Wei Xiang's parents, her aunt in her forties in her hometown is more senior in the short video jianghu, and has been playing Kuaishou for more than four years.
In a small county, the aunt's main daily task is to take care of the children, and if there is no particularly important thing, the time on Kuaishou can be as long as seven or eight hours a day.
Experienced, she has a lot of experience in account operation, often updating videos, paying attention to fan preferences is no longer enough, she often invites "big coffee" to the live broadcast room.
Locals are very interested in local traditional opera, and she often invites relatives who have won prizes in local opera competitions to the live broadcast room. The day before each live broadcast, she posts a teaser video. In order to have a good live broadcast effect, she also specially purchased professional equipment such as microphones.
Today, the aunt, who has nearly 10,000 fans, can earn a few hundred yuan of pocket money every month by live broadcasting. However, Wei Xiang's aunt also knows that there is a local Internet celebrity with more than 20 million fans, and he can earn tens of thousands of yuan per month by live broadcasting, but short videos can only be regarded as a way to communicate with local friends for themselves.
Why are middle-aged and elderly people keen on short videos?
"Parents don't necessarily watch WeChat often, but Douyin seconds back," Yang Ru said to Shen Yan.
In the past, parents were keen to swipe the screen in the circle of friends, but now, their desire to share, changed the venue.
The reason why Yang Ru's mother is anxious to send wedding negatives to short videos is also because the circle she is in is like this, and she will send short videos whenever she encounters something new in her life.
Why did the middle-aged and elderly people in this session "move" social networking to Douyin Kuaishou?
At first, middle-aged and elderly people felt that videos were more vivid than graphics, that there were more ways to play on them, and that they were easy to learn.
Yang Ru's mother recalled that it was probably from 2020 when she was isolated at home because of the epidemic, and the short video added a lot of fun to her boring life. From brushing up on other people's isolation anecdotes to sending your own home routine, after that, life is inseparable from the vibrato fast hand.
Wei Xiang's father also from this time onwards, occasionally sending some short videos of lip-syncing songs. Although the frequency of release is far less than that of the mother, it is always updated every once in a while.
Wei Xiang's aunt summed up the three most common short video types taken by friends around her, "shooting the same model", "lip-syncing" and "gesture dance", "these three types are easier to imitate, and the sense of interaction is also stronger."
Take "shoot the same model" as an example, as long as you click to select the same special effect props, you can shoot and publish. Some exaggerated filters and props in the eyes of young people have become an important way for middle-aged and elderly people to entertain themselves.
Middle-aged and elderly people "shoot the same model", "lip-sync" video source / Vibrato
When there are more people around to shoot, they find that the short video platform has become a video circle of friends.
But whenever you punch in new local attractions, new restaurants, or what good things your children have "honored", friends around them will send a short video to commemorate it. And these "big things" in the lives of middle-aged and elderly people are the most likely to resonate with their peers around them, and they also have the most likes and comments.
When friends around you go to short videos to share their daily lives, it has become a matter of course that they are resident to short video APP. "Friends in the circle are vibrating and sending fast hands, and they can only follow the trend of the times." Yang Ru's mother said.
However, what is more attractive to middle-aged and elderly people is that the short video platform can make people who do not meet often pull into the distance, and even through the function of "people who may know", it can connect old friends who have not greeted for many years.
In order to take care of her grandson, Wang Xin's mother moved to a first-tier city, far from home, and her friends were not around, but she relied on short video updates to attract friends from her hometown to actively exchange recent situations.
Every day after her grandson goes to school, she can send three or four short videos a day. Sometimes it's a selfie like "shooting the same style", and sometimes it's the daily routine of picking up and dropping off your grandchildren from school. It was not until I returned to my hometown during the Spring Festival and returned to the familiar circle that the frequency of sending short videos dropped.
The older generation, who missed the old, also relied on "people who may know" to find new trends in old friends. Wei Xiang's father, who now lives in North China, lived with his family in his hometown in Sichuan for a while when he was a child, but has not returned for many years, and with the death of the older generation, he has slowly broken off contact with many relatives in Sichuan. But through "people he may know", he found some old faces, and short videos became the most vivid way to learn about the latest trends.
In the past, it was common to gossip at the doorstep of the family, but now, the comment area under the short video of parents in many small counties has replaced the short gathering place of parents in the street corner.
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told Shen Yan that short videos, a medium of communication, will be more friendly to middle-aged and elderly people than pictures and texts. Middle-aged and elderly people have more free time than young people, and in the planning of future goals, they are bound to be different from young people, and often have more time to put on short videos.
Middle-aged and elderly people need short videos to socialize, but they must be more careful not to indulge
The relationship network of middle-aged and elderly people "moved" to Douyin and Kuaishou, which is not a bad thing. Many young people who have been in contact with Deep Burning have said that the elders in the family have enriched their amateur life through short videos, and even have a number of online netizens.
Short videos have developed into one of the channels for middle-aged and elderly people to contact and participate in society. According to the 2021 "Survey Report on the Use of Short Videos for Middle-aged and Elderly People", more than 60% of the middle-aged and elderly people surveyed believe that short videos have "increased the joy of life" for them, and nearly 25% believe that short videos are convenient for them to "pay attention to the dynamics of friends, interact with friends" and "enhance communication with their children."
But the question is whether it is "appropriate" or "addictive". Elders are caught up in short videos, and the first thing young people worry about is their physical health.
Chen Shuang's mother has presbyopia, looking at the mobile phone for a long time is originally very difficult, when brushing short videos, every time is until the eyes really can't stand it, they will put down the mobile phone.
Moreover, she found that her mother's schedule had changed because of the short video. Her mother's work in the local area is mainly concentrated in the morning, she used to go to bed early and get up early, ready to fall asleep around 9 pm, and now the night is short video time, and it is difficult to fall asleep until 12 o'clock at night. She slept less at night and was sleepy during the day, so she would take a four-hour nap in the afternoon, and so on. In the long run, she was worried that her mother's cervical spine and blood pressure were affected.
Middle-aged and elderly people putting short videos to sleep is no longer an isolated case. Even if Yang Ru's mother is very busy during the day, before going to bed at night, she must brush a short video for a while to fall asleep. When work is not busy, leaning on the sofa or lying on a recliner, brushing short videos, often brushing and falling asleep.
Excessive indulgence in short videos has also become the fuse of contradictions within some families.
Wei Xiang saw with his own eyes that his aunt had a conflict with her family because of the short video. "She often watched short videos too much, forgot what she had planned to do, was criticized by her family, and was spat at 'sound out, affecting children's homework', so she did not argue with her family."
When Wang Xin's mother urged her children to "play less mobile phones and seize the time to write homework" every day, the children always retorted, "If you brush less vibrato and faster, I will play less games." ”
"Don't eat when the meal is ready, don't sleep at 12 o'clock at night, stay at home with the window curtains are not open, bounce around at home against the vibrato, and call it prevention of Alzheimer's disease", I know that some young people are a little helpless about their parents' addiction to short videos.
The degree of fascination of many middle-aged and elderly people with short videos, like "old houses on fire", burns more and more vigorously. Jin Yongai, associate professor of the School of Society and Population of Chinese Min University, said in a previous interview with the media that compared with young people who grew up in the Internet environment, middle-aged and elderly people have a shorter time on the Internet, and the novelty obtained from the Internet is much higher than that of young people, so they are more addicted.
Due to the lack of contact with the Internet, middle-aged and elderly people who are addicted to short videos have also become "high-risk groups" who are easily deceived. The above survey report shows that middle-aged and elderly people, as Internet "novices", may be more vulnerable to deception. Among the middle-aged and elderly people who have experienced online, nearly 80% have encountered "false advertising" and "online rumors".
In the face of "100 yuan for likes and forwards", "big guys send money" and other "make money" lies, a large number of middle-aged and elderly people have paid time, energy and even money, and finally they have been cheated. There are "fake Jin Dong", "fake Dong Qing", "fake Ma Yun" and other "harvesting techniques" that rely on synthetic technology in the front, and middle-aged and elderly people also need to improve their ability to distinguish.
Zhu Wei said that in the face of short videos that may contain false propaganda information, the identification ability of middle-aged and elderly people is not as good as that of young people, and they may often fall into it because of some small interests.
At the same time, he also pointed out that middle-aged and elderly people spend a lot of time in short videos, one of the reasons is that there is a digital gap between middle-aged and elderly people and mobile Internet, and few other platforms can meet the social and entertainment needs of middle-aged and elderly people outside of short video platforms.
In this regard, Jin Yongai suggested that these platforms can emulate the youth protection model, set the elderly mode, set a suitable viewing time for the middle-aged and elderly, and help them filter out the content that is easy to be deceived.
Short videos are a double-edged sword for middle-aged and elderly people. The original intention of parents is to fill the blanks and monotony in life, but once it is excessive, it is afraid of being eaten by it. To help the elders to have proper entertainment in the short video jianghu, young people also need to practice slowly.
Note: At the request of the interviewees, Wei Xiang, Yang Ru, Chen Shuang and Wang Xin are pseudonyms in the text.