A Study On Communicating And Using Of ICT Knowledge In The Elderly Virtual Community From The Perspective Of Postfigurative,Cofigurative And Prefigurative Cultures

With the development of the informational society,the digital gap between the elderly and other age groups has gradually emerged.There are preposed disadvantages for the elderly to learn new information and communication technologies(ICT).Yet the elderly virtual community can be regarded as a new method for the elderly to learn ICT.This study takes the ICT knowledge exchange and use in the elderly virtual community as a starting point,and combines content analysis with social network analysis as methods to study the discourse text produced by the elderly in virtual community.Then use Margaret Mead's theory about postfigurative,cofigurative and prefigurative cultures to explain the phenomenon,and discuss whether the elderly can achieve the purpose of learning and manipulating ICT.Results show that elderly people discuss more practical topics such as using devices,sharing audio and videos,and operating the forum in the virtual community.Among them,audio and video software,social software,informational software and basic functions of devices are more frequently discussed.In terms of expression,the post topic can divided into two forms,which are informing and seeking for help.In most posts,users can use multiple media forms to assist in their expression,but the overall quality of the discussion is rather poor.On the aspect of learning and communication effects,more than 1/3 of the posts in seeking for help forms have been resolved through discussion;the overall participation is relatively high,in which non-interactive participation accounts for the main portion;most elderly users have obvious social expression and behaviors in the forum,and emerge stickiness and secondary topics in some posts;the overall density of interactions under topic discussion is relatively low and limited to core members.Key opinion leaders have formed in the virtual community.Communicating and learning ICT knowledge is an attempt for the elderly to adapt to new media and narrow down the digital generation gap.Elderly people's discussion in the virtual community about ICT knowledge can be regarded as using cofigurative model to learn prefigurative culture.For the virtual community provides a cofigurative environment,but ICT knowledge is seen as a representative of prefigurative culture.Compared to other models of culture,cofigurative culture can be seen as a more mentally comfortable environment for the elderly.Nevertheless,although the elderly virtual community can function as a sharing,Q&A and social platform,it still cannot satisfy all the needs of the elderly,nor totally break their restriction on ICT learning.According to the problems found in this study,suggestions are proposed as follows.Under the existing ICT learning channels for the elderly,we can fully utilized the advantages of virtual community as a cofigurative culture platform,and combine the prefigurative ways of culture feedback.From the perspectives of virtual community,the elderly people,their family,government and the society,we should understand their cofigurative culture before providing prefigurative help,and encourage them to accept prefigurative factors.Besides,the government should increase the investment on the ICT learning of the elderly.Put all these measures together,we try to facilitate the learning and adapting of ICT for the elderly people.