Gaining Technological Autonomy and Soci-emotional Support: A Case Study of How and Why Chinese Older Adults Engage with a Semi-acquaintance Online Community

Abstract

Older adults are often underserved and marginalized in technology engagement due to their reluctance and the barriers they face in adopting and engaging with mainstream technology. However, Pinxiaoquan, a social feature of an e-commerce platform in China, has gained a large number of older users. This work investigates how and why Chinese older adults use Pinxiaoquan, aiming to unveil the underlying logic and inspire technology-inclusive design for older adults. To this end, we conducted a mixed-methods qualitative study over two years, which included online observation, and semi-interview. We found that Pinxiaoquan's success among Chinese older adults is mainly due to its ability to inspire technological autonomy and provide social-emotional support. Rather than simply lowering technical barriers or asking them to seek assistance outside the platform, Pinxiaoquan builds a semi-acquaintance online community based on location and social ties that allows older adults to realize technical support mutually. Pinxiaoquan also fulfills their social-emotional needs, such as free online expression, memory creation and preservation, relationship expansion and maintenance, and a sense of value. Our research contributes to the HCI community by highlighting the importance of improving older adults' technology autonomy following their specific social and cultural background and social-emotional needs. This work also provides unique insights and implications for building inclusive technology for the growing aging population.