What needs to be done to make more elderly people enjoy digital convenience？
Figure ①: Recently, students from Xi ‘an Jiaotong University Student Association are helping the elderly to learn how to operate smart phones. People’s visual map ②: Wuxi Railway Station in Jiangsu Province opened a service channel without health code to provide convenient services for the elderly. People’s vision
Online booking registration, scanning code to pay for goods, and online car travel … … With the rapid development of mobile Internet, digitalization has profoundly changed people’s daily lives, but at the same time, it has also made some elderly people feel at a loss — — I can’t scan the health code and wander at the door of the community. I don’t need mobile payment to worry at the checkout counter. I won’t make an online appointment to go to the hospital and I can’t hang up the number … …
China has stepped into an aging society. According to the forecast of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the elderly population in China will exceed 300 million during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. On the one hand, it is an increasingly prominent aging phenomenon, and on the other hand, it is a rapidly developing digital society. How can the elderly keep up with the times and enjoy the dividends of scientific and technological progress?
The General Office of the State Council recently issued the "Implementation Plan on Effectively Solving the Difficulties of the Elderly in Using Intelligent Technology", which made arrangements for further solving the difficulties encountered by the elderly in using intelligent technology, adhering to the parallel of traditional service methods and intelligent service innovation, and providing more comprehensive, intimate and direct convenience services for the elderly.
What specific difficulties do the elderly currently face in using intelligent technology? Let them better adapt to and integrate into the smart society, what other aspects need to be exerted? The reporter conducted an investigation and interview on this.
The elderly have accelerated their "touching the net" and become a group of network users that cannot be ignored.
Continuously optimized smart devices and network services make life more convenient and fun for the elderly.
"Small degree, turn on the bedside light belt." As soon as the voice fell, light appeared in the dark night. This is the Yanshou Community Pension Service Station in Dashilan Street, Xicheng District, Beijing. Last summer, relying on Baidu artificial intelligence products such as "small smart screen", 71-year-old grandma Fang Kejie intelligently transformed her residence.
Click Bluetooth with one click to automatically connect devices. Fang Kejie, while skillfully operating, told reporters: "In the past, I always looked for my mobile phone in the dark before getting up at night, and turned on the light by the screen light. It was inevitable that I would bump into it when I was old. Now that you have a smart speaker, you can light the bedside lamp by moving your mouth, which is particularly convenient! "
"The registered population of Dashilan Street accounts for nearly 30% of the elderly over 60 years old, far exceeding the national average of 18.1%." Ma Naiqi, director of the "Silver Crane Zero Distance" Overall Dispatching Center in Dashilan Street, said that the simple mobile phone operation for ordinary people will become more complicated for the elderly. With the help of artificial intelligence products such as intelligent control lights, you can make an appointment for nutritious meals and get health information, so that the elderly can better enjoy the convenience and fun of intelligent life.
At home, the ever-changing smart devices make the elderly more comfortable; Going out, continuously optimized software services also make the elderly more worry-free.
Walking into a community in Haidian District, Beijing, Aunt Xin, who was strolling in the community after dinner, was surrounded by several neighborhoods who were both in their 60s. When she got closer, it turned out that she was introducing her online registration experience to everyone — — Open "Jing Yi Tong" WeChat WeChat official account, select "Medical Service", click "Register", fill in the list of hospitals and the date of medical treatment, and finally the online payment is completed.
"It’s so convenient, we have to try it!" The neighbors were amazed. Aunt Xin said that she used to queue up at the hospital at 5 o’clock in the morning, but now she can register on WeChat without leaving home. After tasting the sweetness of "touching the net", now I go to the market to buy food and go to the supermarket to shop. Aunt Xin has also joined the "cashless family". "With a light sweep, I can pay on the code!"
Older people enjoy digital life and take more actions on the road. In Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, more than 700 universities for the elderly have set up smart phone training courses to teach the elderly to learn how to pay by scanning code and register online. Since its opening, the number of applicants has almost been full. In Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, State Grid Power introduced the chip into smart plug, and the electricity consumption can be checked in real time through the mobile APP, which is convenient for the elderly to handle abnormal situations in time; A number of network platforms have launched formats specially designed for the elderly, and large fonts make the elderly no longer have reading disabilities … …
At present, with smart phones as the entrance, more and more elderly people are stepping into a new life of "mobile internet". According to Tencent’s Mobile Internet Report for Elderly Users, since 2012, the number of mobile Internet users in China has increased by 79%, and the number of elderly Internet users has increased by 130%. The speed at which the elderly touch the Internet is 1.6 times that of the overall mobile Internet popularization. In the use of apps, about 50% of elderly users downloaded more than 30 apps, including not only shopping and square dancing, but also financial stocks and securities, TV shopping sales, social security medical care and old-age care.
Entering the overlapping period of digitalization and aging, it is more and more important and urgent for the elderly, as a group of network users that can not be ignored, to meet their growing demand for information use and public services — —
"With the widespread use of information tools in society, the popularization of information technology will be a necessary condition to ensure the elderly to participate in social activities." Zhu Lihua, head of the Research Center for Smart, Healthy and Aging of Qingdao University, said that research shows that for the elderly, the Internet and social media can play a role in close communication with relatives and friends, promote social integration, improve healthy habits, enhance self-care ability and subjective well-being, and help to achieve a happy old age.
The significance of the elderly "touching the net" does not stop there. Liang Ma, a professor at the School of Public Administration of Renmin University of China, believes that breaking the consumption barriers of the elderly in the digital world will help release the consumption potential and greatly promote the development of e-commerce and digital economy.
In the longer term, letting the elderly enjoy digital convenience will also promote technological innovation in the opposite direction. According to Feng Wenmeng, a researcher in the Social Development Research Department of the State Council Development Research Center, with the increasing number of elderly people, they will become an important service target for future product development, and technological innovation around the elderly group will become a new blue ocean for enterprises to participate in market competition.
It is convenient for the elderly to "touch the net" and break the obstacles of digital life for the elderly.
Increase the aging transformation of product technology to alleviate the anxiety of the elderly about new technologies.
In recent years, China’s Internet has continued to penetrate into the elderly population, but compared with the increasing number of elderly people, the current proportion of the elderly people surfing the Internet is still low, and many of the elderly who have "touched the Internet" cannot enjoy the digital life.
Where are the obstacles?
"The information barriers of the elderly mainly exist in three levels: access level, whether access services can be obtained; On the skill level, whether the software and hardware of information products will be used; At the content level, can you search, identify, use and manage relevant information on demand? "
Zhu Lihua analyzed that with the improvement of network infrastructure and the improvement of the consumption ability of the elderly, the current problems mainly appear at the skill level and content level.
On the one hand, the current technology and services are not friendly enough for the elderly, and it is difficult to meet the aging needs.
"Most of the products and services on the market are developed for the younger generation, and the needs of elderly users are not fully considered in the design concept." Wanglili, deputy director of the Institute of Aging Economy and Industry of China Aging Science Research Center, said, for example, the current mobile phone touch screen can’t provide a better touch feeling than physical buttons; In the interface interaction, it is mostly visual-oriented, lacking physical feedback, which increases the error rate and frustration of the elderly.
In this regard, Uncle Wang, a retired professor at Hongxing Community in Kunming, Yunnan, was deeply touched: "The words on the smart phone are too small to be seen without reading glasses, and there is only one screen. Sometimes I can’t find where the buttons are and I don’t know how to unlock them."
From the perspective of public services, compared with the construction of environmental accessibility, all sectors of society pay less attention to the information accessibility of the elderly. Wanglili said that in some places, when providing related services, they failed to fully adjust to aging. For example, they had to make an online reservation to book tickets in advance, refused to buy things in cash, and only provided a code-scanning travel channel, which made the elderly feel at a loss and difficult to adapt.
On the other hand, the elderly themselves have physiological dysfunction, and they are prone to anxiety in the face of new technologies.
In Guangming Community, Shushan District, Hefei City, Liu Li, who founded a smart phone training class, bluntly said that the elderly "classmates" have strong acceptance but are forgetful, and the two-hour course can usually only train one function.
Not only that, industry insiders analyzed that when facing smart devices such as computers and mobile phones, the elderly are always worried that they will damage their products by misoperation or be cheated by the Internet, which makes them often feel anxious when accepting new technology products.
This was confirmed in an interview with reporters. Although she is now a "network expert" in the community, Aunt Xin admits that at the beginning of her "touching the net", she always felt that the Internet was full of traps, fearing that mobile payment would be bound to a bank card, and the money on the card would be transferred away by others. After my son’s constant persuasion and repeated training, I was relieved to integrate into online life step by step.
In Zhu Lihua’s view, a good social environment for the elderly to participate in digital life has not yet been fully formed. The elderly have great individual differences, and their physical condition, psychological state, hobbies, past experiences and other factors will affect their attitude and behavior towards the Internet. All sectors of society have little understanding and concern about the difficulties encountered by the elderly in the information society at this stage.
"From the supply side, the information barrier-free industrial system and market effect for the elderly have not yet been fully formed, and it is difficult for related enterprises to make profits, resulting in fewer end products that can be used by key beneficiary groups and are cost-effective and easy to operate, and the effective supply in the market is obviously insufficient." The relevant person in charge of the Information and Communication Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.
The information barrier-free construction has achieved remarkable results, alleviating the contradiction between supply and demand of digital life for the elderly.
Efforts should be made to improve market supply, optimize public services, and unite various forces.
It is the proper meaning of building an information society in an all-round way to better ensure the convenience of the elderly to participate in online life. In recent years, letting the elderly enjoy digital life is gradually attracting the attention of all walks of life. In 2015, the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Actively Promoting the" internet plus "Action" and proposed "building a network platform for old-age information services"; In 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and other ministries and commissions jointly issued the Action Plan for the Development of Smart and Healthy Pension Industry (2017— 2020), detailed planning of the road map for the development of smart pension products and services … … The successive introduction of various policies has alleviated the contradiction between supply and demand of digital life for the aged to some extent.
"After several years of development, the information barrier-free construction for the elderly has achieved positive results." According to the relevant person in charge of the Information and Communication Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, since 2013, more than 800 government units have built information accessibility service platforms, and 32,000 government websites have achieved information accessibility. In addition, relevant departments organize some social communication, online shopping, life entertainment, news and information apps to carry out barrier-free transformation, which brings a lot of convenience for the elderly to obtain information.
Scholars and market participants interviewed believe that the following points should be grasped to adapt to the trend of population aging and social informatization and realize the goal of "information accessibility" for the elderly:
— — Improve market supply, guide enterprises to fully consider the needs of the elderly, and develop more high-quality and aging-suitable digital products.
Zhu Lihua suggested that market players should make great efforts to collect, analyze and excavate the demand of digital products and services for the elderly, deeply study the physical and psychological changes of the elderly, develop aging digital products, and accurately optimize the quality of products and services.
"For example, smart phones should consider diversified needs in the general design, so that elderly users can also choose products and services that are easy to accept and use." Wanglili said.
"The next step will continue to play the guiding role of the government and cultivate diversified market players in the elderly intelligence industry." According to the relevant person in charge of the Information and Communication Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is currently working with relevant industry authorities to give preferential treatment to enterprises that have made outstanding contributions to information barrier-free construction in rating evaluation, credit management and social responsibility assessment, so as to further mobilize the enthusiasm of enterprises. Experts believe that the relative profit of digital products and services for the elderly is relatively low, and fiscal and taxation policies should support and encourage them.
— — Optimize public services, give consideration to traditional and emerging lifestyles, and set aside special service channels for the elderly.
"With the rapid development of information technology, the needs of different groups should be integrated, and traditional and emerging lifestyles should coexist for a period of time." Feng Wenmeng believes that before using digital means to facilitate the lives of the elderly, we must first ensure that their lives are barrier-free, and we must retain traditional channels as a transition to help them gradually move towards emerging channels. "In particular, the public service department should leave a window for offline services for the elderly, and traditional methods familiar to the elderly, such as offline customer service, manual telephone calls and paper forms, should be retained in due course."
In addition, the public service department can try to refine the service. For example, record the corresponding tutorial videos for different scenes, teach the elderly to learn how to handle the corresponding online business, alleviate the anxiety of the elderly who don’t know where to start, and also reduce the pressure of offline windows.
In recent years, it has gradually become a fashion to open special passages for the elderly. Jiangsu Wuxi Railway Station has set aside special channels for manual services for passengers who use old man-machine and can’t use WeChat. Many hospitals in Chaoyang District, Beijing have added a new channel &hellip to verify the health status of elderly patients who can’t show their health codes. … All these make the old people travel more smoothly.
— — Cohesion of various forces, relevant organizations, communities and families do their best to help the elderly groups keep up with the times.
"There are a variety of intelligent application scenarios in life, which increases the complexity of the participation of the elderly to a certain extent. It is necessary for multiple subjects involved in the lives of the elderly to do their best and take a multi-pronged approach." Zhu Lihua said.
At the community level, Ma Naichi suggested that various forms of training lectures and on-site classes should be actively organized to provide channels for the elderly to learn new technologies and new products. At the same time, more psychological counseling should be given to the elderly to guide them to actively change their concepts and dare to accept new things. "Relevant departments may wish to support and guide enterprises to increase relevant services by increasing the government’s purchase of services, so as to facilitate the elderly to learn network technology." Wanglili said.
Family efforts are also essential to help the elderly better integrate into the digital society. Zhu Lihua said that on the one hand, young people should use "technology" to feed back the elderly, so that the elderly can have more confidence in learning smart phones; On the other hand, we should also create opportunities to encourage and accompany the elderly to apply digital products and accompany them to learn the necessary digital life skills with more patience.