Today I want to talk about a topic that makes me sad, but I must cover:
In the rapid development of intelligent society, what will happen to an old man?
The cause was to see this news on the Internet, a 70-year-old aunt in Chongqing, because the WeChat account was blocked, cried on the hot search.
"I've been lonely all my life,
It cannot be used for life,
Then I will be lonely for the rest of my life. ”
She received free paper at the supermarket, and had to use her mobile phone to operate it and send it to promote. She didn't understand, gave the mobile phone to the young man to help, who knew that she was judged to be a violation and blocked the number.
There are more than 5,000 comments under this news, and some people say that she is greedy for small and cheap, because of small mistakes.
Some people are puzzled, how big a deal, isn't it enough to reapply for one?
Others laughed, "Internet addiction aunt", "It is recommended to send to the elderly Internet addiction management center".
To be honest, seeing these comments, I don't feel very good in my heart.
If you listen carefully, you will understand her tears.
"I can't see WeChat for two days,
It's all fun, what to do?
Those old friends, old classmates,
Sometimes I can't find it when I want to get together. ”
This is not an old man who is afraid of losing WeChat.
It was an old man who was afraid that her connection with this society would be closed and cut off by Shengsheng.
Auntie is not alone.
I found two sets of data on the Internet that made me embarrassed.
In the mainland, the number of elderly people over 60 years old, 267 million.
What about Internet users over 60?
119 million.
That is, more than half of the elderly are not connected.
Numbers may not be perceptible. Here's what I've picked out from a lot of news, their state of life.
Countless "whys":
Why doesn't Medicare accept cash anymore?
Why do you always stop hailing a taxi?
Why do you need face recognition for your pension?
And, a series of "what to do":
What should I do if WeChat quits?
How to turn on the newly bought TV?
How to send red envelopes in the family group?
In a way, they are a bunch of old people who "lost their signal",
And a group of elderly people in a rapidly changing world, trying to keep up, trying to connect with vulnerable signals.
One writer said that an old man is a child who knows nothing about old age.
In the development of intelligent society, they suddenly face a series of abandonment.
Rejected.
I don't want to tell more about the scenes of elderly people being stopped by smart devices, I just want you to listen to their voices again.
Jilin, an elderly man who lives alone wants to buy vegetables. Rejected and asked for a group purchase, he pleaded:
"Have pity on me."
In Sichuan, a grandfather wanted to see a doctor. The hospital canceled on-site registration, and he was angry:
"You can't turn the old man away."
More often than not, they don't even have the opportunity to ask for help.
Instead, it is simply ignored.
When doing this, I always think of my grandmother, who is in her 90s, lives alone, and lives in a small fishing village in the southernmost part of Guangdong.
Over the years, her friends have passed away.
In the empty house, the only thing that could accompany her was a small TV that was less than 20 inches old.
The year before last, the TV was old and broken, and my mother went to the mall for a long time, but could not find a TV suitable for her operation.
What is a set-top box? What is a top member?
She doesn't understand and doesn't need to.
This is the only thing that a grandmother who has been strong all her life and can still get out of bed and move:
I want the simplest one, no need to connect to the Internet, can watch "Miss Mermaid", can accompany her to spend long days and nights on TV.
I found a set of data showing that 40.4% of TV viewers are over 55, nearly half.
But on the market, they have very few TVs that can be easily operated.
Unable to understand the complex membership system of smart TVs, they copied the title of the show on paper.
If you can broadcast it, tick it one by one.
The surrounding scenery changed rapidly, and the group of old people seemed to be silently left in another world.
When I went back to my hometown, my grandmother always asked me, where do you read the articles you wrote?
I told her, WeChat public account. Then take out your phone and demonstrate how to find the WeChat official account.
Grandma was amazed at first, and now the articles are all reading on the phone? Then he bowed his head.
She doesn't have a cell phone.
It was also a scene that took years for me to really read.
When I went to my uncle's house for the New Year, after eating, everyone lowered their heads and was busy grabbing red envelopes.
No one noticed, sitting on the sidelines, cramped, staring blankly at the grandmother on the TV.
She also prepared red envelopes for everyone.
I remember when I went back to my hometown a few years ago, we juniors always complained that my grandmother's house had a bad signal and no Wi-Fi.
Nowadays, Wi-Fi is installed and the signal is good.
For the first time, I realized that the only one who could not receive the signal was my grandmother.
There is no signal, what to do?
It's not that they haven't looked for an entrance.
I saw a news story in which a 65-year-old aunt used a very clumsy method to print out chat records with her daughter and post them everywhere.
What is written above?
The method of online registration, the method of using the electric toilet, the method of playing square dance music...
She is afraid to ask too much, and her daughter is annoyed.
I suddenly remembered another old man who was trying to enter the online world, Wang Rongjuan.
She was self-taught.
At first, the grandson played the game, she stood back and watched, was chased by the grandson, and went to do your thing.
She asked, what am I going to do? My grandson, who is in the third grade of elementary school, went back to the kitchen to wash vegetables.
(Screenshot from Polar Daylight Studio)
She was not convinced, bought a tutorial, learned a little bit, and when she met someone who didn't understand, she took advantage of chatting and asked people watching cars on the side of the road.
From her interview, I pieced together a very typical picture of the life of the elderly -
Few people listened to her. The husband was silent and rarely responded, she wanted to vent, and the words of her children blocked her:
"Give you a tape recorder, record it, save it and repeat it."
In recent years, I have occasionally opened her Weibo. She didn't post much, mostly writing about her routine.
Write about community milk delivery.
Write about the difficulty of doing antigens alone during the Shanghai lockdown.
Write that the fixed words at home are broken, and they are "degree (Baidu)", and it is difficult to find maintenance.
In the Weibo, which is very lively every day, there are few replies.
But she said in interviews that her mobile phone was her "best friend" and heard her say many things her husband and children did not want to hear.
She said that by posting Weibo, she found a sense of participation in society, "life became more open."
I knew she was desperately looking for an interface.
So, what about the old people who can't find the interface? What about the elderly who can't connect smoothly?
I remember a story for a long time, from Liu Li, a 77-year-old Wuhan elder.
The first time he posted on Weibo was for help. Under the epidemic, my daughter died, and my granddaughter and wife were infected.
At 1:34 p.m., this account called @Laosu8811 issued the first sentence:
"Hello."
In just two words, I will still cry once I read it.
He can't play Weibo, it's WeChat sent to his niece, and then asked his niece to help send it.
He may have thought that Weibo, like the phone, had someone talking to him on the other side.
Even in the strangest world, even in the most desperate situation, he remains decent and says "hello" to the person on the other side.
Looking at this group of old people, I often think of the 52 Hz whale.
Because of the different frequencies of pronunciation, the same kind cannot hear its sound.
Its song is not heard, sad and ignored.
People say it, "the loneliest whale in the world."
Just like this group of old people who are groping for signals in the vast Internet sea.
Writing here, the 61-year-old aunt who fell in love with Jin Dong came to mind.
Unfamiliar with the online world, she was deceived into believing that "Jin Dong", synthesized with poor audio technology, liked her.
In the live broadcast room of "Jin Dong", she spent a lot of money to buy moisturizing water and lady cream without brands.
She believed in him, would give her a million when she met, and would spend five or six hundred thousand to buy her a house.
Many people think she is a joke. Even her family said that she was humiliated.
But today, I want to re-understand the story.
She is a mother, a wife, a grandmother, but her emotional world is deserted.
When she was young, she always yearned for the outside world and never went out of the small county. She also had a gap with her husband for many years.
She used to use old machines, and this is the first year, she changed into a smart phone and learned to brush TikTok.
It was also the first time that she, as a person, had a person's emotions and needs to be seen:
"Never fell into it, it was him,
My good, my beauty,
My people, my heart, my goodness,
All were sung out by him. ”
In recent years, people have always defined this group of elderly people who are groping for signals, but are addicted and lost in the online world, "Internet addicted old age".
But do you know, how many such old people there are?
Only in the message area and live broadcast room of fake Jin Dong, fake Liu Kaiwei, and fake Liu Tao did anyone listen to them.
This is the fake connection they found in the lively Internet.
One poked and broke, but comforted their dreams.
I am reminded of the book "Bankruptcy in Old Age: The Nightmare of the So-called "Longevity"", which writes that the real pain of aging,
"It lies in the loss of 'connection' with people, society, etc., in not knowing who to live for and why."
It has been said that women are a situation, not just a gender.
I deeply feel that old age is not a situation?
How to face this situation?
This is something that each of us can do – don't laugh at him, ignore him, leave him behind.
Strive to keep "talking" with their world.
Reader @ Little Koi When I was quarantined, I didn't forget my grandparents who lived in the same building.
One day, I helped my grandmother, who had a brain infarction, find a banana.
She was very happy.
A boy in Hebei gives his grandmother a smartphone.
Afraid that she would not use it, it took half a day to draw a manual.
At each step, screenshots and annotations are placed.
Who doesn't age? Who wouldn't be reduced to a weak person like an old man?
What we're going to do,
It is to always "feel the world like a weakling".
We want to live,
It is a society that strives to make a weak person feel dignity and love.
Written by: Deng Yaya
Editor-in-charge: Tintin
Some sources: @ abuse @ Siji ; Polar Day Studios "Old Age Forgotten by Smartphones"