Old man who dropped in the digital age

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Whether you go online or not

The numbers of the elderly are serious

Digital tools represented by the health code cause a large number of offline spaces to be digitized, which affects the basic rights of non -network user social life. This phenomenon can be called "digital exclusion".

Studies have found that one of the most common factor that causes exclusion is age. The elderly have always occupied the biggest proportion of non -Internet users. As of December last year, the non -netizens group in China 60 and above accounted for 39.4 % of the general non -netizens, which was 20 percentage points higher than the population of 60 and over the country.

In the past, many elderly people could also live out of digital space, but they are now forcibly dragged into digital space, which causes a series of problems. According to reports, as of the end of 2021, the size of Chinese netizens reached 1.032 billion. Among them, 11.3 % of the elderly netizens over 60 years old. Only 30 % of these elderly people can independently complete the use of health code and stroke cards, 23 % can buy daily necessities online, and 20 % can find information online. In other words, only one of the five elderly people can use mobile phones to complete these operations relatively skilled.

Regardless of the Internet or not, the numbers of the elderly are serious. In this regard, we can make three basic situation judgments:

First, the 60 -year -old and above population exists in the digital gap. According to the seventh national census, the population of 60 and above is 260 million, accounting for 18.7 %; of which, the population of 65 and above is 190 million, accounting for 13.50 %. If the population is subdivided, the elderly over the age of 75 may treat technology with a fearful attitude, and most of them will not use computers and smartphones. Only a little younger for elderly talents has more technical experience.

Second, we must classify the elderly. For example, how many empty nest elderly people, how many elderly people live, how many demented people, how many depression patients, etc. Only by touching it can eliminate the number of rejection of numbers.

For example, most of the technologies designed for network exchanges depend on the ability of watching, listening and reading, and among the elderly, patients with severe visual impairment and severe hearing impairment are basically missed the Internet. In addition to health factors, lack of technical knowledge is another key factor to prevent the elderly from participating in the network. The sensitivity of the elderly has decreased. They need help when trying to learn using smartphones or tablets. At present, can this help mainly depend on children, can social support increase? If our society cannot provide technical access and training for the elderly, they will be locked out of the digital gate, which will exacerbate the trend of isolation and loneliness of the overwhelming elderly people.

There is also a level of problems with design ethics. As we all know, digitalization often ignores the elderly and the disabled, and does not deliberately consider their needs when developing technology. In order to facilitate the elderly who may suffer from disabilities related to aging, to avoid their rejection of new technologies, they should use "digital barrier -free" as technical ethics guidelines to design products and services.

Third, I don't know if anyone investigates the predicament of the elderly in the epidemic. For example, the elderly have become unsecured people, and there is no way to go out to take a bus, or go to the supermarket and park; if you face the control, if you do not adopt offline solicitation orders, or do not volunteer to help group purchase, the elderly are unfamiliar with smartphones because they are unfamiliar with smartphones. Operations and e -commerce shopping will have difficulties in buying food and buying medicine.

Although there are many communities with more elderly residents, they usually have many conventional services for the elderly, but these original service systems are paused under the epidemic. The lesson we get is: not everything can be solved online. Among the dilemma caused by many epidemics to the elderly, the impact of medical treatment is the most serious. For example, some elderly people need to install a pacemaker urgently, but before emergency surgery, they had to wait for the results of nucleic acid testing. If this treatment is a little careless, tragedy will occur.

There are many ways to affect the elderly, infected, or delay the treatment of other diseases. And if an old man is trapped in the room in the last year or last quarter of life, he cannot see and contact others, and such a evening scene is quite sad.

During the epidemic, many elderly people were forced to isolate and cut off their only face -to -face social relationships with their loved ones, which has caused serious social problems. As the short -term isolation measures have repeatedly appeared, the physical and mental health of the elderly, elderly people, and elderly people in the empty nest must attract great attention.

This also proves the incompetence of technology again: No matter how high the Internet is singing, technology cannot replace people's contact after all. Especially at the aging stage, the technology is not so tall.

Send 2022.6.20 Total Issue 1048 "China News Weekly"

Magazine title: The elderly who "drop" in the digital world

Author: Hu Yong

Edit: Wang Xiaoxia

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