Ageing with Smartphones in Urban China

Abstract

100 v Contents List of figures vi List of charts xiii List of tables xiv Series foreword xv Acknowledgements xvii 1 Introduction 1 2 Ageing and retirement: ruptures and continuity 29 3 Everyday life: daily activities and the digital routine 60 4 Social relations: the guanxi practice beyond family ties 99 5 Crafting the smartphone 6 Crafting health: the moral body and the therapeutic smartphone 7 'Doing personhood' in revolution(s) 8 Life purpose: searching for meaning in revolutions and reforms 9 Conclusion Appendix 1: The brief function of top 24 apps on the top 10 list and app analysis method Appendix 2: The super app WeChat Bibliography Index vi List of figures 7.6 Liang Zhu talking about his two revolutions. Watercolour painting by Xinyuan Wang. 7.7 Yu Chen's watercolour painting of Shanghai city centre. Photo provided by Yu Chen. 7.8 Chang Guan's 'Meipian' blog posts. All photos by Chang Guan. Screenshots by Xinyuan Wang. 8.1 'Forget Me Not': a short film featuring Mr Shou and his photography project. Watch the film at: https:// www.yout ube.com/ watch?v= -LZf X1rj dCM&t= 5s. 8.2 Screenshot of Shuli's 'Buddha' WeChat profile (left) and a Buddhist-related short video that she sent via the Buddha WeChat account during the global pandemic (right). Screenshots by Xinyuan Wang. A2.1a WeChat Moment (left). Screenshot by Xinyuan Wang. A2.1b WeChat subscriptions (public account) (right). Screenshot by Xinyuan Wang. A2.2a WeChat interface (left). Screenshot by Xinyuan Wang. A2.2b WeChat Pay (right). Screenshot by Xinyuan Wang. A2.3 WeChat mini-programs. Screenshot by Xinyuan Wang. xiii List of charts 5.1 Age and gender distribution of app analysis research participants. Infographics by Xinyuan Wang. 5.2 The top 10 smartphone apps list. Infographics by Xinyuan Wang. 5.3 The average number of apps in different age and gender groups. Infographics by Xinyuan Wang. 5.4 The use of apps between couples. Infographics by Xinyuan Wang. xiv List of tables 2.1 Table showing demographic data from Shanghainese households. Created by Xinyuan Wang. 39 A1.1 Brief function of top 24 apps, Created by Xinyuan Wang. 268 xv Series foreword This book series is based on a project called ASSA -the Anthropology of Smartphones and Smart Ageing. It was primarily funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and located at the Department of Anthropology, UCL.The project had three main goals. The first was to study ageing. Our premise was that most studies of ageing focus on those defined by age, that is youth and the elderly. This project would focus upon people who did not regard themselves as either young or elderly. We anticipated that their sense of ageing would also be impacted by the recent spread of smartphone use. Smartphones were thereby transformed from a youth technology to a device used by anyone. This also meant that, for the first time, we could make a general assessment of the use and consequences of smartphones as a global technology, beyond those connotations of youth. The third goal was more practical. We wanted to consider how...