In the digital age, how to break the 'Internet addiction elderly'?

Text |

The seventh census data shows that the elderly aged 60 and above account for 18.7% of the total population. The huge group has quickly attracted the attention of the society.

The development of technology has made society more efficient, but it has also created an insurmountable "digital divide" for many elderly people. In recent years, the government has issued a number of aging-appropriate policies, and the aging-friendly transformation of smart terminals is also in-depth. With the support of all parties in the society, the proportion of the elderly using smartphones has increased year by year, and the breadth and depth of access to the Internet has continued to expand, and more and more Many elderly people feel the joy brought by electronic products and digital networks.

However, after crossing the "digital divide", new problems arose one after another - many elderly people fell into "digital addiction". According to the "Report on Internet Life of the Elderly in 2020", more than 100,000 elderly people are online for more than 10 hours a day on average. That is to say, in addition to basic life, they spend almost all their time on the mobile Internet and develop into a severe "internet-addicted old age".

However, behind the Internet addiction of the elderly, it is affected by multiple factors such as physical, psychological, personal and family. When seniors retire, they have more time at their disposal. In the absence of care and companionship for their children, it is easy for them to find sustenance on the Internet to pass the time. In addition, whether it is a short video or an online game, there is an addiction mechanism behind it. Experts in neurology have pointed out that the self-control ability of the elderly weakens with the weakening of the control of the cerebral cortex. In other words, under the "calculation" of artificial intelligence, the self-control ability of the elderly is vulnerable.

The elderly are also prone to health problems when they are addicted to numbers. Among them, the degeneration of the cervical and lumbar vertebrae, blood stasis in the lower extremities, and local synovitis of the knee joint caused by sedentary periods are the most prominent. At the same time, eye diseases are also "hardest hit". Prolonged contact with electronic screens can easily lead to visual fatigue and dry eyes. At present, the elderly in China have become a high-risk group of fundus macular disease, which is significantly related to the addiction of the elderly to the Internet.

How to help the elderly get out of digital addiction and return to a healthy life requires joint solutions from multiple parties. From a social perspective, it is necessary to create more opportunities and spaces to allow the elderly to reintegrate into society without derailing from reality; from a community perspective, more activities can be held to enrich the lives of the elderly; from a family perspective, children should increase their companionship , so that the elderly do not feel alone.

"Old and old and old people", the problem of old age in the Internet age, is worth thinking about by everyone.