It Is Difficult for Many Elderly People in China to Cross the "Digital Divide"
The digital wave has brought convenience to people's lives, but for many older people, it has created an insurmountable "digital divide". According to the Statistical Report on Internet Development in China, the number of Internet users in China has reached 904 million by March 2020, and the Internet penetration rate has reached 64.5%. However, the proportion of Internet users aged 60 and above is only 6.7%. By the end of 2019, the proportion of the population aged 60 or above is about 18.1%, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics. It is estimated from these two figures that there are hundreds of millions of elderly people who fail to catch the information express in time. Compared with the elderly who do not know how to surf the Internet and do not know how to shop online, the elderly who have joined the online shopping group are still in the minority. In addition, it should be noted that due to the development of online ride-hailing, online ticket purchase, online medical appointment and IT-based living infrastructure construction, window ticket sales, instant taxi and other services have also been reduced accordingly, which also increases the inconvenience in daily life of elderly who are not adapted to the digital society. Especially after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus epidemic, in order to reduce the risk of person-to-person contact, many stores no longer accept cash payments, and even shopping has become difficult. Since some elderly do not use the health code applet, they also face various restrictions when going out daily. Even if they successfully catch the express train of the mobile Internet era, the elderly who have more spare time, weak identification ability and insufficient network security knowledge can easily become the targets of Internet fraud. All these make the elderly who lack the right to speak and the ability to learn become a vulnerable group in a sense in the digital society. The mobile Internet is developing fast, but the faltering elderly have the right to be "slow". In addition to trying our best to help the elderly integrate into the mobile Internet world, we must accept the fact that they are getting older, and consider more targeted solutions when it is difficult for them to cross the "digital divide".