- 期刊
移動連接與「可攜帶社群」：「老漂族」的微信使用及其社會關係再嵌入
Mobile Connecting and ＂Portable Community＂: A Study on the Use of WeChat and the Social Re-Embedding of ＂the Old Drifters＂
摘要
隨子女流動到城市、身體和心靈處於「雙重漂泊」的「老漂族」構成當今「老齡化中國」一幅具代表性的圖景。本研究基於對湖北省武漢市及鄂西某縣老人們的網絡民族誌調查，試圖探討移動社交媒體的使用為「老漂族」的社會交往實踐及社會關係再嵌入提供了怎樣新的可能性。研究發現，「廣場舞」微信群成為「老漂族」在流入地「落腳」、建立新的交往關係的入口，他們在網絡社區裡獲得「親如姐妹」的溫暖情誼。他們因流動而斷裂的舊的社會關係也通過微信的「攜帶」得到了持續的連接和維持，從而獲得一種「流動的地方感」。而在不得不頻繁移動、返鄉的生活中，他們可以通過微信對老家和流入地的不同空間之間的連接和切換，協調流動、暫居、安居不同狀態之間的張力。本研究在佔主導的「數字鴻溝」範式之外，呈現了通常被認為是政治經濟結構和互聯網使用中的邊緣群體–城市老年流動人口如何運用中介化的新傳播科技能動地解決他們的社會交往困境。
並列摘要
Following the flowing of their children to the cities, ＂the old drifters,＂ whose body and mind are in double wandering, form a representative picture of today's ＂aging China＂. This study, based on an online ethnography survey of the elderly in Wuhan, Hubei Province and a county in western Hubei, tries to explore what the new possibilities the mobile social media have supplied for the social interaction practices and the social re-embedding of the ＂the old drifters＂. The study finds that the WeChat groups based on ＂square dance groups＂ provide the entrance for ＂the old drifters＂ to arrive in the cities and to establish new relationships. They gain the warmth of ＂sisterhood＂ in the online communities, through the WeChat groups. Besides, their past social relationships broken in their hometowns due to mobility also can be carried by WeChat, gaining a continuous connection and ＂a mobile sense of place＂. They also use WeChat during returning to native lands to coordinate the tension among their different states of transfer, temporary residence and dwelling. Differing from the dominant ＂digital divide＂ paradigm, this study displays how the elderly mobile population, who is often considered to be a marginal group in political-economic structure and in internet use, utilizes the mediation of new communication technologies to cope with dilemmas and difficulties in social relations.