gossip
"Short videos for the elderly are 'addicted' and harmful to the body and mind, and they need to be 'quit'?"
The elderly are easily addicted to swiping mobile phones, it is the elderly willpower has declined, for their good, they need to help them "quit", it is best to keep the elderly away from smartphones.
Myth analysis
This statement is too arbitrary.
On the one hand, many short video apps nowadays will use all their resources to get people to watch as much as possible, and people of any age may be addicted. On the other hand, moderate use of mobile phones, including watching short videos, is good for later life, so it cannot simply be "one size fits all".
"My mom was snatched away by a short video"
"What should I do, the short video has already wasted my parents"
"Is there an Internet addiction school for the elderly, register my parents"
……
The addiction of the elderly to mobile phones, especially short videos, has often been called for attention on the Internet in the past two years, and has become a pain point for some families. Is it just because older people have lost self-control? The answer, of course, is not so simple.
Today, let's talk briefly about why the elderly are too interested in short videos.
Recommendation algorithms are addictive
There is a sophisticated mechanism behind the algorithm of short video products - recommendation algorithms. These algorithms will count the user's behavior data, recommend content that matches their interests and attention, and constantly push short videos that people can't stop.
The longer a user uses the product and accumulates more behavioral data, the more the system understands you, and the more accurate the recommendation algorithm is. After the elderly retire, they already have a lot of leisure time, so once they come into contact with short videos, their parents spend several times more time playing with their mobile phones every day than us, and the speed of addiction is of course faster.
And for the elderly, they may not have as wide a range of interests, and they may not know much about recommendation algorithms, let alone how to deal with recommendation algorithms, so once they are involved in a certain type of content, they may easily fall into a repetitive viewing cycle.
So, how do you make your parents aware of this?
The short video is the electronic version of "eating melon seeds"
You can use "swallowing melon seeds" as a metaphor for the short video recommendation system to help parents understand - "Short videos are like melon seeds, there is no burden to swallow, there is not much in one bite, but I ate a whole bag unconsciously." This metaphor can illustrate that although the content of short videos is short, it makes people can't stop. Watching short videos again and again is like eating melon seeds or potato chips - soon "eating support", and time passes quietly.
This addictive mechanism can be explained by the brain's "reward circuit". Our brains secrete dopamine, which is pleasurable, like a reward for beating a level in a game. Whenever we do something that makes us happy, such as watching a short video or eating a snack, our brain releases dopamine, prompting us to repeat these behaviors over and over again. The "feedback loop" of short videos is very short, and a few seconds of video can produce a rapid secretion of dopamine, similar to eating potato chips in two seconds or easily snorting melon seed shells. This instant feedback is addictive and craves more "small rewards".
This kind of continuous small reward will make people can't stop brushing until a whole plate of melon seeds is eaten, or a short video of the day is watched. This is because dopamine makes the brain feel that there is value in repeating this behavior, so people will unconsciously repeat this behavior over and over again.
Short videos are like blind boxes and lottery tickets
Short videos are hard to stop, but also because they use a "blind box mechanism" – every time you swipe the screen, you don't know what the next video is, which can be funny or ordinary. This kind of uncertainty makes people can't help but keep brushing, like opening a blind box, full of anticipation and occasional surprises.
The stock copyright picture, reprinting and using may cause copyright disputes
If you explain it to your parents, you can use the analogy of "buying a lottery ticket": "Watching a short video is like buying a lottery ticket, knowing that the odds of winning the lottery are low, but you can't help but buy the next one." The same goes for short videos, every time you slide, you always feel like the next video might be more interesting. This "random reward" mechanism is addictive by constantly creating anticipation and occasional rewards. While most videos are mediocre, every time you watch a new video, your brain creates anticipation that the next one might be even better.
The platform will even deliberately push a particularly exciting video after a few ordinary videos to give you a feeling of "winning the lottery" and add a sense of surprise. This variable reward mechanism is known as "intermittent reinforcement" and is similar to the reward mechanism in gambling or games. The occasional "good content" will make people feel that they can see more great content if they continue to watch, which makes it more difficult to resist and can't stop.
With this occasional "good content" reward, short video platforms make users feel that it's worth it to keep watching videos, because you never know if the next one will surprise you.
Therefore, it is not that the elderly are "weak-willed", but that this kind of product is really in the hearts of users.
It is necessary to "confiscate" the elderly
Smartphones?
Although I talked about the "addiction" problem caused by short videos for half a day, then again, there is no need for us to regard short videos as a "flood beast" that makes the elderly addicted, let alone completely isolate the elderly from the Internet. After all, the information age is like a high-speed train, rumbling forward. All of us are on the same train, including the elderly at home, and it is neither realistic nor necessary to blindly refuse to let them use it.
On the one hand, digital products do bring some benefits to the elderly as well. A number of social and psychological studies have shown that the use of digital products by older people can provide a wealth of information to a certain extent, leading healthier and richer lives, and also helping to reduce depression, including watching short videos.
On the other hand, we cannot ignore the psychological needs of the elderly. Loneliness is an important potential cause of internet addiction in older adults. Older people are more likely to experience negative emotions such as loneliness due to reasons such as leaving the work environment, declining physical functioning, and weak real-world social networks, making them tend to seek social interaction or entertainment through the Internet to alleviate loneliness.
And in addition to the entertainment attributes represented by short videos and games, the attributes of network tools are divided into many aspects, as well as the communication and social attributes represented by chat software, video calls, etc.
We also have to analyze objectively, the mobile information age still brings a lot of convenience to life. Smartphones also provide a lot of help and entertainment to parents. Of course, we also have to guide and help parents use it healthily. In particular, it is necessary to help the elderly improve their information literacy and avoid all kinds of scams.
For example, one of the author's methods, parents are trapped by the "information cocoon", and you can "pull them out" and it's over - physical drag requires you to use "bull energy", but cyber drag only needs to lift the phone and move your fingers.
Now that we know that short video apps recommend different things to everyone, you can forcibly hold up the popular science, fresh and interesting knowledge, and news in your mobile phone to your parents.
"Look, how interesting this is, in fact, those videos on your phone are mixed with a lot of fake news, and there are many people who deliberately deceive the elderly and make them. The short video app is recommended for college students and white-collar workers in big cities, and it is some more interesting and useful content, don't believe you to take a look. ”
You can tell your parents like this to make them realize that the video on their phone is not the truth of this world, nor is it everything in this world.
Copyright stock image, no permission to reproduce
Of course, if you find that your parents' daily use of mobile phones, especially short videos, has affected their normal life, such as vision loss, sedentary life and other health risks, then we should accompany and persuade them more, help them make their lives as rich as possible, and don't always watch short videos. For example, you can take your parents to go outdoors more, one is to leave the WiFi network, and the other is to go outdoors in the natural environment, which can make people look at their mobile phones less.
Communicating with the elderly, like communicating with children, cannot be blamed, after all, it is not their fault at all.
According to the "rumor" mirror
The prejudice of "quitting mobile phones" ignores the positive effects of mobile phones on the elderly, exaggerates the negative effects, and lacks scientific basis. We should take a comprehensive and objective view of the use of mobile phones by the elderly, help them use mobile phones correctly and healthily, and improve their quality of life. Sometimes, the seemingly unreasonable behavior of the elderly is behind the extenuating demands. We might as well put ourselves in the shoes of our elders and help them meet their needs, rather than blindly blaming and demanding.
bibliography
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[2]Wolfram Schultz . Predictive Reward Signal of Dopamine Neurons. Journal of Neurophysiology 1998 80:1, 1-27
[3]Wang, D., Liu, X., Chen, K. et al. Risks and protection: a qualitative study on the factors for internet addiction among elderly residents in Southwest China communities. BMC Public Health 24, 531 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-17980-6
[4]Zhao X, Wang L, Ge C, Zhen X, Chen Z, Wang J, et al. Smartphone application training program improves smartphone usage competency and quality of life among the elderly in an elder university in China: A randomized controlled trial. Int J Med Inform. (2020) 133:104010. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2019.104010
[5]Jia Y, Liu T and Yang Y (2022) The relationship between real-life social support and Internet addiction among the elderly in China. Front. Public Health 10:981307. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.981307
Planning and production
Author丨Mu Mu, Senior Product Manager, Mathematics at Beijing Normal University, Artificial Intelligence Entrepreneur
Audit丨Yang Xiaoyang is an associate professor at the School of Psychology, Sichuan Normal University
Planning丨Ding Kun
Editor丨Ding Kun
Reviewer丨Xu Lai Linlin