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Internet Use, Social Networks, and Loneliness Among the Older Population in China
While the rate of Internet use among the older population in China is rapidly increasing, the outcomes associated with Internet use remain largely unexplored. Currently, there are contradictory findings indicating that Internet use is sometimes positively and sometimes negatively associated with old...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9133735/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35645921 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.895141 |
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author | Tang, Dan Jin, Yongai Zhang, Kun Wang, Dahua |
author_facet | Tang, Dan Jin, Yongai Zhang, Kun Wang, Dahua |
author_sort | Tang, Dan |
collection | PubMed |
description | While the rate of Internet use among the older population in China is rapidly increasing, the outcomes associated with Internet use remain largely unexplored. Currently, there are contradictory findings indicating that Internet use is sometimes positively and sometimes negatively associated with older adults’ subjective well-being. Therefore, we examined the associations between different types of Internet use, social networks, and loneliness among Chinese older adults using data from the Chinese Longitudinal Ageing Society Survey (N = 1863). Internet use was classified as interpersonal communication and information acquisition, and social networks were divided into family and friendship ties. The results showed that both interpersonal communication and information acquisition were associated with lower loneliness. Interpersonal communication can increase social networks, and family ties have a mediating effect on the association between Internet use for interpersonal communication and loneliness. Although information acquisition can directly decrease loneliness in older adults, it can also damage existing social networks and further increase loneliness. Family ties act as a suppressor in the association between Internet use for information acquisition and loneliness. Our study further discusses important implications for improving the subjective well-being of older adults in the digital era, based on the empirical findings. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9133735 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-91337352022-05-27 Internet Use, Social Networks, and Loneliness Among the Older Population in China Tang, Dan Jin, Yongai Zhang, Kun Wang, Dahua Front Psychol Psychology While the rate of Internet use among the older population in China is rapidly increasing, the outcomes associated with Internet use remain largely unexplored. Currently, there are contradictory findings indicating that Internet use is sometimes positively and sometimes negatively associated with older adults’ subjective well-being. Therefore, we examined the associations between different types of Internet use, social networks, and loneliness among Chinese older adults using data from the Chinese Longitudinal Ageing Society Survey (N = 1863). Internet use was classified as interpersonal communication and information acquisition, and social networks were divided into family and friendship ties. The results showed that both interpersonal communication and information acquisition were associated with lower loneliness. Interpersonal communication can increase social networks, and family ties have a mediating effect on the association between Internet use for interpersonal communication and loneliness. Although information acquisition can directly decrease loneliness in older adults, it can also damage existing social networks and further increase loneliness. Family ties act as a suppressor in the association between Internet use for information acquisition and loneliness. Our study further discusses important implications for improving the subjective well-being of older adults in the digital era, based on the empirical findings. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9133735/ /pubmed/35645921 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.895141 Text en Copyright © 2022 Tang, Jin, Zhang and Wang. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Tang, Dan Jin, Yongai Zhang, Kun Wang, Dahua Internet Use, Social Networks, and Loneliness Among the Older Population in China |
title | Internet Use, Social Networks, and Loneliness Among the Older Population in China |
title_full | Internet Use, Social Networks, and Loneliness Among the Older Population in China |
title_fullStr | Internet Use, Social Networks, and Loneliness Among the Older Population in China |
title_full_unstemmed | Internet Use, Social Networks, and Loneliness Among the Older Population in China |
title_short | Internet Use, Social Networks, and Loneliness Among the Older Population in China |
title_sort | internet use, social networks, and loneliness among the older population in china |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9133735/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35645921 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.895141 |
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