"Active Elderly":Research On The Construction Of The Image Of Old Internet Celebrities On Douyin

With the sinking of the mobile Internet and the further growth of the aging population,more and more elderly people are participating in the Internet tide and becoming a new generation of people in the Internet.Short video platforms such as Douyin,characterized by low threshold,easy operation,and openness,endow Chinese contemporary elderly people with the discourse autonomy of image construction through channels and opportunities to express themselves through the media.,the image of the elderly is gradually constructed by others led by the media and the community,and gradually developed into a self-construction led by the elderly.Some elderly people can either use it by themselves,or gain traffic and attention with the support of social organizations and professional groups,and gradually become Internet celebrities for the elderly.Based on the above background,this paper proposes the concept of "active elderly" with active aging as the social and policy background.The article mainly selects some elderly Internet celebrities,and analyzes the methods and problems of their identity shaping through network ethnography,case analysis,text analysis and interview methods.The article believes that elderly Internet celebrities are the forerunners of changing social stereotypes,the promoters of reducing intergenerational barriers,the active practitioners of social decision-making,and the disseminators of modern media culture,it has pioneering significance in the process of constructing self-image and elderly group portraits.However,when the elderly Internet celebrities launched an "offensive" to the mainstream vision,there was also a problem that did not match the connotation of the term active aging.Such as the difficulty of independent use of technology,the conflict between social expectations and self-awareness,the behavioral anomie caused by the blurring of the front and back of Douyin,the restriction of content production due to health problems,the commercialization of images and the questioning of audiences,etc.As a result,elderly internet celebrities are passively pulled in the conflict of capital,technology and social relations,which impacts the construction of a "positive" image of active elderly people.On this basis,this paper proposes that there is a relationship between capital and technology in the construction of old Internet celebrities in their own image construction,the operation of institutions,the rules of the platform,and the restrictions of policies have reduced the right of some elderly internet celebrities to speak,the elderly internet celebrities who are the main body of symbols carry out personal sales,the elderly internet celebrities have become a commercialized existence,and their image homogeneity is serious and lack of personality.At the same time,Douyin provides effective self-identity and social identity for the elderly,but the elderly are very easy to rely on and indulge in the virtualized scene of Douyin,and become digital laborers actively or passively under the temptation of economic interests.Therefore,whether it is an individual’s identity imagination or the prospect of aging,the image of "active elderly" pinned on the Douyin platform is limited by many factors,and there are still many problems to be solved.Studying the image construction of old Internet celebrities can not only discover the contradictions in their production and operation processes,but also provide positive guidance for the elderly to access the Internet,and at the same time,it can also provide a better reference for the development direction of an active aging society.