Cities offer digital help to elderly residents as use of apps grows

GUANGZHOU－When Wang Jiaxiang left his village to stay with his metropolitan-based son, the first real obstacle he encountered was a virtual one.

After arriving in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, the 70-year-old villager from Southwest China's Guizhou province soon realized that urbanites now use mobile applications to run most of their daily errands.

However, Wang could not figure out how to use those "colorful icons" on his smartphone to make an appointment with a doctor, buy train tickets, order takeouts, or hail a taxi.

Wang once asked his son to teach him how to book a train ticket through the phone but failed to complete the complex steps due to "poor eyesight and fading memory". After several attempts, Wang gave up as his son "became impatient".

"In a big city, it seems everything is done with a smartphone, which is too difficult for me. I can only use the voice chat function on WeChat (an instant messaging app)," Wang says.

Wang is not alone in China's rapidly graying society.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2019, China's population over the age of 60 had reached 254 million people. It is estimated that more than 100 million of them are not using internet.

The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted elderly people's predicament, with digital technologies playing a significant role in the battle against the virus.

From the widespread use of health codes to restaurants replacing menus with QR codes to booming e-commerce, tech innovation was in full throttle.

To tackle this digital divide, many cities have swung into action.

During the National Day holiday in early October, the Wuxi railway station in East China's Jiangsu province opened a passage for those without a digital health code. This act of facilitating elderly travelers won applause.

In Southwest China's Sichuan province, local authorities instructed hospitals to set up a dedicated channel for the elderly so they could line up to register, see a doctor and pay the fees without the use of smartphones.

In Lecong township of Guangdong's Foshan city, social workers have been helping the elderly overcome technology-related problems. Classes on using smartphones, held every Tuesday in local communities, have become highly popular among elderly residents.

"Many old people are eager to catch up with the growing digital society," says Chen Zhihui, a community worker in Lecong and an instructor of the smartphone course.

She says many elderly residents feel reluctant to disturb their busy children and prefer to seek help from the community.

Chen teaches the use of WeChat, Douyin (known as TikTok outside China) and navigation apps as part of the training course. She often starts by presenting the apps' instructions in large fonts to help the elderly understand.

"Progress can be a little slow because old people need to go over the content several times to remember it," Chen says.

"Instructions that are easily comprehensible for young users need to be repeated four to five times for older learners to retain."

Xie Kundi, 70, says the classes are rewarding.

After learning to master their smartphones, Xie and her husband became fond of traveling and made musical presentations out of the pictures taken during trips. They shared their work in a family WeChat group and received "likes "from other members.

Ouyang Zhijie, an official of the Guangdong Ruizhi Social Work Service Center, calls for joint societal efforts to narrow the digital divide.

"Government departments must make their digital services friendly to the elderly. They must retain manual and face-to-face service channels. App developers should provide elderly-friendly versions," he says.

Sun Yang, a social worker in Guangzhou, says young family members should have more patience and enthusiasm when teaching the elderly new technology so that they can adapt better to changes in social life.

Xinhua