An Intervention Study Of Cell Phone Use On The Alleviation Of Loneliness Among Urban Empty Nesters

Since the end of the 20 th century,the ageing of the population has become an important trend in the development of our society.Due to the continuous development of economy and science and technology,material needs are constantly satisfied,and the digital divide caused by the development of network suddenly appears.For the elderly group,the rapid development of mobile Internet has led to the disconnection of empty nesters from social life,deepening their own sense of loneliness.Therefore,how to alleviate the loneliness of empty nesters in urban communities is the focus of this paper.This paper combines the experience of social work practice with the use of a self-designed questionnaire,semi-structured interviews and the UCLA loneliness scale developed by Russell et al.to investigate the current situation of loneliness and mobile internet use among the empty nesters in community Y.The survey found that there were serious difficulties in mobile phone use among the empty nesters in community Y,and their loneliness was at a high level due to the lack of online social networks and online information access.Therefore,based on social learning theory and social support theory,the author carried out activities in four areas: basic mobile phone use,social software use,leisure and entertainment use and mobile payment,with the aim of improving basic mobile phone use skills,building an online emotional support network and enriching online entertainment,thereby reducing their sense of loneliness.During the group activities,the author guided the group members to participate actively to ensure that the group activities achieved their intended purpose.After the group intervention,all group members reported that their basic mobile phone use skills,social software use skills,leisure and entertainment skills and mobile payment skills had all improved,and their level of loneliness had decreased significantly,making this group activity more effective.This study shows that the functions of video,text chat and video software on the mobile Internet enrich the empty nesters’ free life and spiritual world,and build a strong social support network for them,make older people feel happier and more secure.It is hoped that this paper can provide new references and experiences on the ways to alleviate the loneliness of the empty nesters,and prompt them to share the fruits of informationization with the society at large.