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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...

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Autores principales: Tang, Dan, Jin, Yongai, Zhang, Kun, Wang, Dahua
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
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.
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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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