摘要
基于社会网络视角,利用2020年中国家庭追踪调查数据考察短视频对老年人生活质量的影响,并探讨其内在机制。研究发现:(1)使用短视频能够显著提升老年人的生活质量,即使用短视频的老年人拥有更高的自评健康水平和主观幸福感以及更低的抑郁程度;(2)短视频通过维系代际间的情感关系、增进老年人社会参与抑制老年人社会网络的衰退,从而起到改善老年人生活质量的作用;(3)社区层面的老年人服务、活动设施能为老年人参与社区活动提供便利与支撑,促进社会网络机制发挥更大作用;(4)短视频的使用效果存在显著的城乡异质性,这种异质性有利于缓解城乡老年人精神状态的差距,但有进一步加剧城乡老年人身体健康差距的风险。在弥合“数字鸿沟”、促使更多老年人享受“数字红利”的同时,应积极推动线上与线下养老的互补融合,合理配置城乡间的医疗、养老等公共资源。
Since the beginning of the new century,aging and digitization have emerged as prominent socio-economic characteristics in China.The impact of digitalization on positive aging is crucial and needs attention.With the reduced costs and accessibility to mobile Internet,short-video platforms represented by TikTok and Kuaishou are rapidly extending to the elderly population,which has gradually become one part of their daily life.This phenomenon probably significantly influences their well-being and quality of their life.However,as the short video is a nascent object,few literatures have focused on its impacts on the elderly.Therefore,it is rarely known how the short video affects the well-being of the elderly.This paper examines the impact of the use of short video apps(USVA)on the elderly’s well-being and explores its underlying influential mechanism.To achieve this,we use the data from the 2020 China Family Panel Studies.Our findings indicate that:USVA improves the well-being of the elderly.The elderly who use short video apps have a higher self-rated health level,happier life,and lower levels of depression.USVA inhibits the shrinking of the elderly’s social networks by strengthening their ties to their children and increasing their social participation,therefore improving the quality of life of the elderly.Community venues and equipment for the elderly can provide convenience and support for the elderly to participate in public activities,which helps the social network mechanism work more efficiently.The above findings support the opinion of the“network gains effects”which states that the application of digital information technology can maintain and build new social relationships,promote the social participation of the elderly and expand their social networks.Furthermore,we find that the impact of USVA on health is different in urban and rural areas.USVA is conducive to narrowing the gap in mental health while widening the gap in physical health between the elderly in rural and urban areas.This heterogeneity can primarily be attributed to significant variations in cultural and exercise facilities and activities,as well as public resources such as medical conditions and elderly care.The contributions of this paper are as follows:firstly,we conduct a systematic analysis of the mechanism through which USVA affects the well-being of the elderly,based on the theoretical perspective of social networks.Secondly,we explore,for the first time,the role played by community support in constraining the“network gains effects”of USVA among the elderly.Thirdly,considering there are significant differences in aging and digitization between rural and urban areas in China,we examine heterogeneity in how USVA affects the well-being of urban and rural elderly populations.Fourthly,we discuss and address potential endogenous issues in the estimation by using propensity score matching methods and instrumental variable estimation.Our findings are beneficial for comprehending the impact of developments in digital information technology on positive aging and providing policy implications for enhancing the well-being of the elderly.The main policy implication is that we should bridge the“digital divide”and help more elderly people to share the“digital dividend”,and the integration of online and offline elderly care and the fair distribution of public resources should be actively promoted.
作者
张驰
向晶
ZHANG Chi;XIANG Jing(School of Public Administration,Zhejiang University of Finance&Economics,Hangzhou 310018,China;Institute of Population and Labor Economics,Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,Beijing 100028,China)
出处
《西安交通大学学报(社会科学版)》
北大核心
2025年第1期186-196,共11页
Journal of Xi'an Jiaotong University:Social Sciences
基金
浙江省软科学一般项目(2022C35096)。
关键词
短视频
老年人
积极老龄化
数字生活
公共服务
生活质量
社会网络
short video apps
the elderly
active aging
digital life
public service
the quality of life
social network
