Practices of Active Aging: Research on Social Support in the Virtual Community for the Elderly

The elderly are considered to adapt to the media society in a slow and asynchronous state, which is often summarized as the digital dilemma faced by the elderly in the process of media development. However, at the same time, media such as the virtual community for the elderly provides a media place to achieve active aging. The social support at the level of information, emotion, self-esteem and relationship generated in the community also provides a strong guarantee for the active survival and life of the elderly. Based on the theory of social support, the “OldKids” virtual community is the object, and the content analysis method and social network analysis method are used to obtain a social support coding scheme that fits the interaction behavior of elderly members. The elderly and their peers have gradually built a stable relationship network through communication and interaction. The community has obvious cohesion subgroups and less social pressure and social constraints. In such a virtual community, the reciprocal role between the elderly replaces the vulnerable role of the elderly. In a word, the practice of social support in the virtual community for the elderly gradually tends to the practice of “active aging”, which promotes the elderly to achieve learning, happiness and doing something in old age.