Recently, Douyin and the Population and Development Research Center of Chinese Min University jointly released the "Survey Report on the Use of Short Videos by Middle-aged and Elderly People" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). The "Report" shows that short video applications such as Douyin provide new tools for contemporary elderly people to obtain knowledge, social entertainment, and show themselves, strengthen the social connection of the elderly, and enhance the social adaptation and social participation of the elderly after they withdraw from the labor market. At the same time, Douyin also jointly launched the "Silver Shine Expert Advisory Group" with the Chinese Society, planning to carry out in-depth cooperation with the academic community, continue to explore new ways and new methods to help the elderly cross the digital divide, and discuss the value of Douyin services to actively cope with the strategy of population aging.
Li Ting, director of the Family and Gender Research Center of Chinese University and professor of the School of Society and Population of Chinese Min University, said that the "Report" has great practical significance and social value, on the one hand, it provides a new angle for guiding Internet products to adapt to aging and helping the elderly to cross the digital divide, on the other hand, it has found a new way to help enhance the social adaptation and social participation of the elderly.
Li Ting believes: "The elderly get happiness by watching videos, understand external information, and learn new knowledge and new skills, which is to help the elderly maintain contact with society and enhance the subjective happiness of the elderly after they withdraw from the labor market." At the same time, the use of short videos to promote communication between the elderly and family and friends, close their relationship with family and friends, and expand new social relations, "is a kind of virtual space to strengthen the real space."
Li Ting observed that short video applications represented by Douyin are welcomed by the elderly. According to the data, as of April 2021, creators over the age of 60 have created more than 600 million videos and received more than 40 billion likes. "This further encourages Douyin to do a good job in product aging, and maximize the positive role of short videos for the elderly."
Douyin is upgrading from product design, content construction and user services. In terms of product functions, Douyin has launched the elder mode (large character concise mode), giving priority to solving the problem that elderly users cannot see clearly and will not use it; at the same time, gradually upgrading the time reminder and management functions to help elderly users manage time. In terms of content security, Douyin has strengthened the review standards for old-related content, improved the response level of potential risk private message warnings, severely cracked down on illegal advertising, and strived to create a safe content environment for elderly users; in terms of content ecology, Douyin continues to encourage the creation of aging content and increase the proportion of high-quality content pools. In terms of user services, Douyin has opened a "special line for old friends" and has a full-time manual customer service to answer the questions of elderly users. This cooperation with the academic community is also an important part of Douyin's attempt to adapt to aging.
"The ageing of Internet products provides convenience and guarantee for the elderly to integrate into digital life to a certain extent, but helping the elderly to use the Internet and use the Internet well also requires the participation of the whole society." Through her own experience of teaching fathers to use health treasures, Li Ting pointed out that young children can easily ignore the digital divide of their parents and called on children to "digital feed" to their parents.
At the same time, she also put forward higher expectations for the research and practice of internet platform aging. She pointed out that with the rapid aging of the population, we are facing a completely different "new generation" of elderly people from the past and the present, who are generally well educated, have a high standard of material living, and the aging of Internet products therefore needs to be "more refined and differentiated".
(Source: Taiyuan News Network)
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