Abstract
Grounded in the theory of intersectionality, this study proposes an approach to unpack the nuances of aging in the era of misinformation. Instead of focusing solely on individual aging factors and the digitally relevant divide, this approach enables an in-depth analysis of how older adults’ experiences with misinformation can be constrained by structural factors and the broader digital landscape, alongside information policies in local contexts as the broader background. Meanwhile, this approach allows for a contextualized comprehension of the agency of older adults, illuminating their prioritization of news values which might not always lie in the authenticity. Guided by this approach, our study gives voice to the low-income older female adults in China, revealing their ongoing engagement with misinformation during the COVID-19 infodemic where exacerbated digitalized information inequalities were likely to be accompanied by their evolving definition of misinformation and information sharing behaviors.
Introduction
The digital milieu appears to magnify the impediments encountered by older adults concerning their vulnerability to misinformation and their ability to discern it. Extensive discussion has revolved around the cognitive attributes precipitated by the aging process, encompassing diminished self-efficacy, declined memory, and eroded analytical reasoning skills (e.g., Dodson et al., 2015; Roediger III and Geraci, 2007). Simultaneously, limited digital literacy and restricted access to digital devices under many circumstances exert a profound influence on older adults’ information assessment and validation (Seo et al., 2021). This is further compounded by the tumultuous online information landscape, which is notably deficient in robust fact-checking mechanisms (Banerjee and Rao, 2020). In addition, the preponderance of targeted disinformation campaigns, underpinned by sophisticated algorithms, can be strategically tailored to exploit the vulnerabilities of this demographic group (Brashier and Schacter, 2020).
While the aging population is often portrayed as passive information recipients who are gullible to deceptive claims and erroneous messages, there is short of an in-depth investigation unveiling the possibly intricate dynamics of their encounters with misinformation. In particular, little is known about how older adults perceive misinformation, and what factors motivate their information sharing behaviors, even in instances where the veracity of the information remains uncorroborated.
These inquiries necessitate a more nuanced and contextually grounded comprehension of the constraints faced by older adults, which tend to go beyond the conventional accounts of cognitive decline and the age-based digital divide. In particular, in a more marginalized aging context, such as the socio-economically restricted older women in China examined in this study, the constraints impeding their navigation in online environments are deeply intertwined with a web of multi-faceted structural elements encompassing gender, socio-economic status, stereotypes and bias associated with aging, political ideology, and local information management policies.
Notably, in addition to constraints, the usage of technologies can also afford older adults with actions and choices. The older group could adapt to, circumvent, selectively use or decide not to use a particular technology at all (Peine and Neven, 2021). The technology becomes “appropriate” and meaningful only through the process of usage (Martínez, 2022). Therefore, it is also important to shed light to the agency of older adults, prompting an exploration of their possibly unique definition of misinformation within their socio-cultural context. It is essential to examine whether, and if so, how they enact strategies, albeit often within the scope of their abilities, to explore the complexities of online information landscape. Such an approach offers a more comprehensive perspective capturing the dynamics embodied in older adults’ interactions with and responses to the increasingly complicated digital environment. This understanding, in turn, can inform the development of more tailored intervention strategies by policymakers and relevant aged care institutions, better facilitating online information-seeking practices among diverse aging groups situated across different contextual settings.
To address this research gap, our study proposes intersectionality as a critical approach to comprehend aging in the era of misinformation. This approach allows for unpacking the power aspects of aging, where age-related disparities are entangled with multiple uneven social structures and digital inequalities, contributing to experiences with misinformation that are both contextually situated and dynamically negotiated. Through this lens, our study gives voice to the low-income older women in China, illuminating their ongoing engagement with misinformation in the COVID-19 infodemic, where exacerbated digitalized information inequalities coincided with their evolving definitions of misinformation and information sharing behaviors.
Misinformation, aging, digital divide, and beyond
Misinformation is characterized as the phenomenon where “people hold inaccurate beliefs, and do so confidently” (Kuklinski et al., 2000: 792). The perceived misinformation encompasses a spectrum of inaccuracies, including incomplete information, outdated information, deliberative deception, unauthorized information, software tricks (e.g., external links in mobile Apps), and biased information (Fitzgerald, 1997). Research has extensively underscored the vulnerability of aging populations who tend to grapple with difficulties in discerning falsehood embodied in misinformation (Brashier and Schacter, 2020) and thereby exhibiting susceptibility to the dissemination of misinformation (Guess et al., 2019; Seo et al., 2021).
Studies from the lens of psychology and neuroscience have predominantly examined cognitive declines associated with aging, highlighting how diminished memory capacity, reduced analytical acumen, and the decreased ability to absorb new knowledge can all play a part in affecting older adults' recognition of fabricated information (e.g., Dodson et al., 2015; Roediger III and Geraci, 2007). They tend to rely on their perceived knowledge to make initial judgment (Pennycook and Rand, 2020). While the older adults may occasionally succeed in differentiating between true and false information upon the initial exposure, they can be easily misled when viral fake news repeatedly appear in their news feeds and interpersonal communication networks (Chia et al., 2023).
This vulnerability can be further reinforced in digital environments, where misinformation proliferates across multiple media channels and platforms that lack stringent gatekeeping mechanisms (Xu et al., 2022). Age-based digital exclusion has also emerged as another pivotal factor further marginalizing the information accessibility of the aging groups (e.g., Gadjanova et al., 2022; Seo et al., 2021). This exclusion consequently can isolate the older adults from fact-checked information updates and rumor debunking from credible sources, thereby distancing the marginalized group from the mainstream information society and media landscape (Loader, 1998). In addition, older adults may misunderstand the mechanisms through which algorithms curate their news feeds, or overlook the implicit endorsement conveyed through sharing content (Brashier and Schacter, 2020).
Despite the focus on highlighting the vulnerability of older adults, there remains a dearth of knowledge regarding their perceptions of misinformation. Specifically, little is known about how older adults define misinformation from their own perspectives and the underlying factors affecting their decision-making processes when evaluating and disseminating misinformation. It is important to note the “perceived” (Karlova and Fisher, 2013) or “normative” (Losee, 1997) nature of misinformation, as its original definition is highly reliant upon “beliefs” of audiences (Kuklinski et al., 2000). Research has denoted that misinformation, although misleading and sometimes incomplete, might not always be regarded as normatively wrong (Losee, 1997). Information can be simply categorized as true or false, but rather as generally accepted or debunked within a specific social context (Ruokolainen and Widén, 2020). For instance, Waruwu and colleagues (2021) argued that in many occasions, sharing information that is not normatively “true” can act as a strategy to build and maintain social relationships between senders and receivers. Thus, the perception of truth can be contextual and influenced by various factors (Karlova and Fisher, 2013), so as the judgment of misinformation.
Consequently, when studying aging populations, it is important not only to explore cognitive declines, information literacy limitations, and digital divide, but also to comprehend how older adults' perceptions of misinformation are affected by their situated social structures, cultural, and political environment, and how they construct beliefs when making judgments on information derived from digital media. Therefore, moving beyond the binary notions of falsehood and truth, it is necessary to delve into the interplay between aging, digital factors, and social structures, as these elements may collectively shape and impose contextual constraints on the information-seeking and processing behaviors of older adults. Guided by this perspective, we particularly focus on marginalized low-income older women.
Meanwhile, it is also vital to understand how older adults negotiate agency within these constraints to develop their own definitions of truth and falsehood. From this departure point, we aim to obtain a more contextualized and nuanced understanding of how low-income older women socially construct misinformation, and how they experience misinformation in the constantly digitalized daily environment—that is, how they age in the era of misinformation. To reach this research goal, we draw upon the theory of intersectionality.
Intersectionality
Intersectionality, initially introduced to illuminate the unique marginalization faced by African American women due to both race and gender identity, offers a framework that recognizes the intertwined nature of various social divisions rather than focusing on any singular dimension (Crenshaw, 1989; Hooks, 1982). Originating as a feminist approach, intersectionality has been gradually applied to illuminate the complexity and dynamics embodied in the aging processes (Rogers et al., 2020). Holman and Walker (2021) emphasized the synthesis of intersectionality from a life course perspective, which provides novel insights into “unequal aging” (p. 1). Especially, intersectionality allows for a broader understanding of older adults and their life experiences by transcending the definition of age as a mere chronological marker, and instead unveiling aging as “dynamic and systematic phenomenon” (Alejandria-Gonzalez and Sanchez, 2018: xv). This approach enables the discovery of the intricate nuances of aging experienced by varying social groups in their embedded contexts, which consequently enables a more contextually situated understanding of the network of constraints and simultaneously the accessible resources through which older adults can possibly negotiate their agency as responses (e.g., Adams, 2016; Warner and Brown, 2011).
Although not focusing on online information-seeking and sharing, recent studies have started to introduce digital adoption and usage as an increasingly indispensable element of intersectionality in an aging context (e.g., Bourdeloie, 2018; Pei and Fu, 2022). Especially, the lens of intersectionality enables scholars to transcend a static understanding of age-centered digital divide. As noted by Van Leeuwen and colleagues (2023), “level of digital in/exclusion are not easily explained based only on chronological age” (p. 3). Instead, intersectionality enables the investigation of digital practices of older adults as “a process of negotiation” (Bourdeloie, 2018: 147) where digital practices are intertwined with intersectional impacts arising from multiple unequal social structures (i.e., gender, ethnicity, economic status). For instance, Liu (2021) revealed that gender, ethnicity, and social status simultaneously affect the digital health divide, quality of life and loneliness experienced by older adults in UK. Tan et al. (2022) indicated how senior females’ mobile usage experience in Malaysia is likely contingent upon a combination of multiple factors including mobile culture and supportive environment, family roles, socialization, education and economic backgrounds, digital literacy level and their well-being.
With an emphasis on the responses of older adults to misinformation, our study aims to build upon the theory of intersectionality to develop an analytical approach to comprehend how aging populations, especially the socio-economically marginalized older adults, negotiate their definitions of falsehood and truth, and how they make decisions for information sharing within their situated socio-cultural context. Especially, we are interested to examine older adults' agency in consuming and sharing online information by considering the interconnections between technology, social context, and human agency (Greenhalgh and Stones, 2010). Our study aims to explore the “situated” agency of older adults in technology adoption and usage within specific social contexts, particularly the inherently “restricted” nature of agency due to complex structural constraints (Peter, 2003).
As Nguyen et al. (2017) suggested, understanding such agency requires attention to both the motivations and constraints under which an individual acts. Their research indicated “the very situated nature, contingency and individual circumstances that shape strategic negotiations of agency are observed” (p. 171). It is therefore necessary to spotlight the intersectional impacts of multi-faceted constraints on the agency of older individuals—particularly, how these constraints shape their restricted access to resources needed to engage with and benefit from digital technologies. Simultaneously, it is equally important to understand the negotiation of agency within the boundary of one’s abilities - how older adults make use of digital technologies to navigate constraints and achieve their sense of empowerment (Neves et al., 2018).
Therefore, we aim to unfold the dual facets of the stories—how older adults are confined to an interlocking system of constraints due to aging, digital factors, structures and identities, and in the meanwhile, whether and how they enact their own strategies to respond to these constraints? Situated within the COVID-19 infodemic, our study draws attention to the marginalized group of low-income older women in China.
COVID-19 infodemic and low-income older women in China
The proliferation of misinformation during COVID-19 was described as “infodemic” by the World Health Organization (Patel et al., 2020). The private unfiltered networks on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, WeChat enable the flows of information derived from preliminary observation and subjective assumptions without verifiable truth (Cinelli et al., 2020). Despite efforts by social media platforms to address this issue through measures like fact-checking, labeling, and limiting the sharing of misleading information, as well as the removal of verified false news (Nguyen and Catalan, 2020), a considerable amount of false and misleading content continues to remain active on these platforms (Brennen et al., 2020). Against this backdrop, an increasing research stream has examined the challenges exposed by COVID-19 infodemic to aging populations within the tumultuous digital media environments, such as their behaviors in spreading rumors (Rocha et al., 2023) and the influence of misinformation on their perceptions of COVID-19 and vaccination (Chia et al., 2023).
With an emphasis on the low-income older women in China, it is important to note contextualized factors which may play a part in shaping their information-seeking and sharing behaviors during the infodemic. First, regardless of a prominent surge in digital adoption among older adults in China, they continue to face a persistent digital divide compared to young cohorts in terms of digital access, as well as digital literacy (He et al., 2022). While the number of older mobile adopters has reached 274 million in China in 2020 (Xinhuanet, 2021), nearly 140 million elders in China lack the access to the Internet via mobile devices (Xinhuanet, 2021), and there is a high dropout rate of usage due to the absence of guidance (Zhao et al., 2020).
This digital divide tends to be further reinforced by gendered inequalities and socio-economic constraints. Yang et al. (2018) indicated that the complex set of socio-economic disadvantages faced by Chinese marginalized older women not only results in their social exclusion but also engenders a diminished sense of agency and financial deprivation. Moreover, the intricate interplay between gender dynamics and the cumulative disadvantages associated with aging, as identified by Yang and Du (2021), restricts the economic and social capital of older women in China, thereby impeding their access to digital technologies.
The examination also needs to consider the general information management policies in China during the pandemic. The Chinese government responds to COVID-19 infodemic with “anti-online-rumor” measures (Rodrigues and Xu, 2020). Cities and villages are adorned with propaganda banners reminding citizens, “do not produce, circulate or believe rumors and be law-abiding citizens.” All these actions focused on reinforcing the information authority of the official media channels while imposing rigorous surveillance and control on information spread by informal channels on social media (Hou et al., 2020). This inevitably results in the dissemination of information that strictly aligns with the political ideology in China and fosters nationalist sentiments (Jia and Luo, 2023).
The influence of information surveillance and control could be particularly remarkable for the aging population in China born and raised during Mao’s era. They are more likely to internalize the socialist normative ideology (Guthrie, 2012), which often lead to their information access, preferences, and selection processes in conformity with the propaganda disseminated by the Chinese government (Wang, 2021). Considering the intersection of the above-mentioned factors encompassing aging, gender, socio-economic status, government information policies during pandemic, and political ideology of the older women, our study proposes the following two research questions:
Methods and data
This research includes twenty-two older women aged between sixty-five years old and eighty-three years old. The respoondents were located in Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang provinces, which are the major provinces going through the transitions into aging society in China (Wan, 2021). Respondents were recruited through snowball sampling, based on referrals between respondents. With a shared working-class background, respondents worked either as factory workers or primary school teachers in remote suburbs of third-tier Chinese cities prior to retirement. The third-tier cities refer to cities with large populations that have a relatively developed infrastructure but lack economic or political significance (China.com.cn, 2023).
Respondents’ average annual pension income ranged between thirty thousand and forty thousand RMB. Respondents shared a limited literacy level and educational background. Twenty-one respondents held secondary or high school diplomas, and one did not complete primary school education. All respondents were smartphone users, with usage ranging from less than one year to five years. Additionally, two children and two husbands were interviewed to provide complementary insights into respondents’ smartphone adoption and usage.
We conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews alongside digital ethnography to foster a triangulation for data collection and comparison across 2020 and 2021. The research protocol was approved by a university-level institutional review board, ensuring anonymity during interviews and observations. Respondents were informed of their rights to terminate interviews or decline to answer any sensitive or private questions.
In-depth interviews allowed us to capture respondents' narratives of daily digital experiences (Josselson, 2013). Due to lockdown and social distancing policies, twenty interviews were conducted through WeChat video calls, and four were conducted in person. Among all interviews, two were conducted with respondents and their families together - one interview was with one respondent and her husband and the other was with one respondent and her child. Two interviews were conducted separately with family members only, including one interview with a husband and one with a child. Each interview last between thirty minutes and one hour. The questions in each interview were customized to the respondents’ characteristics and context, making them adaptable as needed. The researchers’ presentation and interactions with respondents had an impact on the data collected (Wiederhold, 2015). The shared gender identity of the first author facilitated the sharing of gendered smartphone experiences, while the age difference positioned the first author as a representative of the younger generation, encouraging respondents to share their life stories as elders.
On-site observation of respondents’ digital engagement (Kozinets, 2020) was conducted in a WeChat group called “Sunset Glow Friends’ Group” (wanxia qunyou 晚霞群友) which was exclusive for low-income older women and six respondents were group members. The first respondent introduced the authors to the WeChat group where she was a member. After obtaining consent from the rest of the group members, the author began the digital ethnography in this group. To avoid affecting the original interaction patterns between group members, the author remained as invisible as possible and did not participate in any conversations. The author took notes of the communicative threads and captured screenshots of important data related to information sharing. The digital ethnography started on 7th January 2021 and ended on 23rd August 2021.
This WeChat group allowed for a probe into interactions and engagement taking place within the group of marginalized older women. We view this as a valuable space which enabled us to gain a more direct understanding of how respondents gradually developed their ways to exchange information and share social support with their peers. Data collected through observations within this group are particularly precious as they allow us to capture the processes where respondents were engaged in learning how to use mobile message groups to construct their own space of information sharing.
The data set constituted twenty-four transcribed recordings of interviews paired with notes taken during observation. Data analysis followed the constant comparative method (Boeije, 2002). The authors immersed themselves in data reading, made memos to document key points and reflections, and were engaged in multiple discussions to identify and summarize emerging themes until saturation was reached. This process underwent continuous refinement throughout the analysis phases, with outcomes continually informing the category coding process. This method enabled researchers to develop a comprehensive understanding of the data, remain attuned to contextual nuances, and stay open to extending, modifying, or discarding categories.
Importantly, this analysis was guided by our theory and research question. We explored the multi-faceted constraints as well as how respondents navigate misinformation and exercise agency. We focused on the interplay of aging, gender, socio-economic status, information policies enforced by the Chinese government during the pandemic, and political ideology of the older women. This led to the uncovering of complex and dynamic relationships among these factors, going beyond considerations of any individual factor in isolation.
Demographic information of respondents.
Findings
Exacerbation of digitalized information inequalities
Digitalized information inequalities went beyond mere disparities in digital access. Instead, such inequalities encompassed restricted digital engagement, shaped by a complex web of constraints, leading to limited opportunities for accessing and sharing digital information. The COVID-19 pandemic further reinforced these inequalities. Without the access to diverse information sources, respondents became more vulnerable to unwanted information. Moreover, they tended to repetitively circulate unverified information within their existing social networks, which were largely carried over from the offline world to their digital space. Additionally, the general information landscape in China during COVID-19, characterized by pervasive surveillance and control, played a part in enhancing their prioritization of promoting politically correct information.
Access without adequate digital literacy
In the context of marginalized older women, the ability to adeptly maneuver through the complex media landscape of smartphones emerged as a more pronounced dimension of digital divide than the access to the technology. To specify, our respondents were observed to possess the access to smartphones even though the phones were often outdated models handed down from their children. However, the marginalization lay in the limited knowledge and skills for utilizing and engaging with these devices, particularly for information seeking. The proficiency in information-seeking and management among respondents was frequently hampered by their limited ability to use multi-media interfaces. The mobile usage patterns of respondents were typically confined to one or a few platforms.
To specify, first, intersectional constraints tended to restrict their accessible support to obtain necessary skills and knowledge for smartphone operation. The instructions and guidance for mobile phone usage were always absent. This could be attributed to respondents’ reduced decision-making power within the household dynamics due to age, gender, and the significantly declined financial capability (Calvi, 2020). Respondents were often labeled dismissively as “old auntie” by their children, and their digital needs and potential for adopting new technologies were frequently disregarded. Their children were “impatient” (No. 16, 69) and always “had no time” (No. 18, 65; No. 21, 72) to answer questions from the older women on mobile phone usage.
Simultaneously, the intersectional constraints also created bias and discriminations internalized by respondents, reducing their motivations and self-confidence to learn new technologies. Age-related stereotypes and restricted educational background tended to be internalized as the negative self-perception regarding one’s ability to use smartphones. Respondents widely stated that, “why should I invest efforts in acquiring new knowledge at this stage of life?” (No. 8, 83) and “knowing this much is already good enough for not so educated people” (No. 6, 78).
The gender dimension introduced an additional layer of inequality, perpetuating the normative belief in men’s superior ability to master technologies (Vaportzis et al., 2017). As one respondent (No. 3, 82) said, her partner was more capable of “learn(ing) new things rapidly.” This was echoed by the confidence expressed by the two interviewed husbands who claimed that they “possessed a better understanding of mobile phones” (husbands of No. 14, 70) than their wives. Husbands also stated that they had the access to “a much broader spectrum of online news” (husbands of No. 3, 82).
Under comparison, the most frequently used, or more precisely, the accessible platforms of the respondents normally only included WeChat, Toutiao 1 and TikTok, which were either “pre-installed” on their mobile devices or merely “downloaded by children” (No. 1, 81; No. 12, 80; No. 17, 68; No. 19, 68), yet without further instructions.
Such restricted mobile usage often resulted in older women becoming passive recipients of information, rather than engaging in active information management, particularly in a multi-media environment underpinned by algorithms. Random news can be pushed to them automatically by installed applications. Many reported that when switching on the applications, “disorganized and nonsensical” (luanqibazao 乱七八糟) (No. 7, 75; No. 13, 83; No. 20, 75) information just flushed to them. As one respondent articulated, “On WeChat, every day, seventy to eighty pieces of irrelevant news would be constantly pushed to you. It is almost like harassment.” (No. 22, 68)
They wished to avoid such information but were uncertain about how to remove it, as one respondent said, “you don’t even know why you received this information” (No. 2, 82; No. 17, 68). Ironically, concerning news applications they deemed valuable, they could easily find themselves in a situation where they “didn’t know why, perhaps accidentally deleted it and couldn’t retrieve it anymore” (No. 3, 82; No. 12, 80).
Existing social networks as primary information sources
Usage constraints limited smartphone use to maintaining existing social connections in the offline world rather than exploring new functions, establishing new contacts, or finding new news sources. For many participants, the mobile phone was mainly a tool for “staying in touch with family members and old friends” (No. 9, 82; No. 11, 77; No. 12, 80; No. 14, 69)—a digital extension of their social lifelines. This further transformed their social networks into pivotal information hubs on their mobile phones. However, the reliance on familiar networks as major information sources raised concerns. The shared relationship and trust between the older women and their offline networks duplicated on the phones sometimes can easily ensnare the older female users to a loop of repetitive circulation of unverified information within mobile social networks.
Respondents frequently reported instances of news shared within their networks that they initially believed to be true but later turned out to be misleading. One respondent (No. 12, 80) recalled a viral piece of news in her WeChat group regarding a COVID-19 case in her neighborhood. “It was rumored that our city has one (the positive COVID-19 case), and it caused panic. Word was going around that a woman from our suburb, aged thirty-two, had been taken for quarantine at a bathhouse. She was tested positive. This news really frightened me. The person who stayed one floor above me worked at the same bath house.”
Notably, age-associated feelings of social isolation and loneliness often amplified the dependency on these networks, which were perceived as a critical part of their social life that enhanced the quality of life. Respondents expressed how mobile communication with their social networks helped meet their social and emotional needs, “I love calling my old friends. Talking with them makes my life more fulfilling” (No. 14, 69). Such social and emotional needs can be particularly important for older female adults, who, as suggested by Lennartsson et al. (2022), tended to be less socially active than their male counterparts in the later life. Therefore, the marginalized older female adults were more inclined to defer to the authority conferred by social connections, prioritizing the evaluation of social relationships over an objective assessment of information quality.
Such reliance on unverified information can sometimes evoke unnecessary anxiety and negative emotions. As a vulnerable group to COVID-19, respondents frequently expressed their concerns about inadvertently encountering negative COVID-19 information, especially the information regarding the risks and threats posed by the disease to the older people. One respondent (No. 2, 82) said, “Reading such news, I could not even fall asleep at night.”
Additionally, it is intriguing to observe how the design of message group features can make them less inclined to actively identifying and calling out misinformation. In the messaging groups, once information was introduced by a member, it became instantly visible to all, and any subsequent commentary recorded in the chat history can be seen by the entire group. This public record of conversation can deter the older adults from questioning the veracity of shared information due to the social pressures and fear of confrontation within these trusted social groups. Consequently, some (No. 2, 82; No. 3, 82; No. 4, 65; No. 18, 65; No. 19, 68; No. 20, 75) opted for silence over the potential discord of correcting misinformation, preferring to “ignore” rather than to challenge.
Sharing within boundaries
The rigorous information surveillance and control systems enforced in China during the COVID-19 pandemic was another constraint influencing the information sharing of our respondents. Respondents (No. 13, 83; No. 22, 68) reported the experience of encountering “disappearing” information, a phenomenon attributed to the prevalent censorship practices. This situation further narrowed the scope of available information for older adults who were already quite constrained in terms of online information sources, restricting their ability to stay informed and connected.
Especially, such censorship in some cases could compel older adults to share whatever news accessible to them. This usually occurred when the information pertained to their family members, and they were worried that the information might vanish if they did not share immediately.
We also noticed that deeply rooted gender roles as caregivers drove the older female adults to engage in news sharing behaviors. For instance, one respondent shared her experience of sending information to her grandson overseas during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, which was described by her grandson as “exaggerated” (No. 2, 82).
Furthermore, the information surveillance and control curtailed the freedom in exchanging information concerning sensitive political matters. Because of their upbringing in an authoritarian regime during Mao’s era (Guthrie, 2012), the older women were more likely to adhere closely to prevailing political ideologies promoted by the government when interacting with news related to COVID-19. For instance, one respondent expressed her reluctance to repost or comment on news about Xinjiang during the pandemic, “As you know, we cannot discuss issues related to Xinjiang. It’s not permitted. I won’t share these sensitive topics online.” (No. 10, 67)
In a similar vein, we observed that respondents exhibited a passionate interest in news depicting and sometimes exaggerating the challenges faced by foreign countries in managing the pandemic, while promoting China’s success in controlling virus transmission. Especially, exposure to such news can be continually reinforced by the algorithm-driven news feeding system which kept on pushing relevant news to them based on the previously detected news preference. One respondent enthusiastically shared her recent discovery of such news on TikTok, “There was a quote from Karl Marx stating that in the event of a public health crisis, socialist countries can manage it, whereas capitalist countries cannot.” (No. 11, 77)
Contextualized misinformation perceptions and information sharing strategies
In the face with the constraints, the marginalized older female adults responded with negotiating their contextualized definition of misinformation and enacting unique strategies for information sharing during the pandemic. It is important to highlight their focus on how information can fulfill their social and emotional needs, rather than strictly emphasizing content authenticity. They showed the tendency to prioritize the alignment with long-term internalized political ideologies for the purpose of fulfilling civic duty. Moreover, one major motivation beneath their information sharing lay in facilitating the development of social support among the older groups, thus fostering a better sense of community involvement to mitigate the feelings of social isolation and loneliness. Despite facing challenges in adapting to the online information environment, the older female adults demonstrated active engagement and a gradual improvement in their understanding and use of mobile technology, albeit often occurring in a very cautious manner.
Seeking ideological identification
As noted, shared political ideology played a critical role in shaping respondents’ news preferences during the pandemic. Respondents often derived their ideological identification from engaging with politically correct news, and such identification tended to reinforce their perception of such news as authentic. Especially, the ideological identification enabled them a sense of autonomy to become aware of the ongoing situation, which reduced the social isolation. In their words, sharing this type of news allowed them to “stay updated with the current situation” (genshangxingshi 跟上形势), a phrase they (No. 7, 75; No. 16, 69; No. 17, 68; No. 19, 68) commonly used to refer to staying informed about the party and government policies and regulations related to COVID-19 management.
Respondents showed unequivocal confidence in information released by government, saying that “from the country or reported through official channels,” the information should be regarded as “accurate” and “verified” (No. 11, 77; No. 18, 65; No. 20, 75). One respondent (No. 7, 75) summed up the view by stating that, “Just trust the country. As long as you trust the country, the experts, and the (Chinese Communist) Party, there won’t be any issues. We await the guidance of experts on COVID-19 vaccines and remain obedient, causing no trouble for our nation.”
This was further entangled with the sense that if they diligently followed this news, they were acting the roles of “obedient” and “responsible citizens” (No. 7, 75). They articulated following the government news enabled them to know “how to protect ourselves” and “avoid venturing into risky areas.” More importantly, this allows them to show their commitment to “prevent burdening the country” (No. 2, 82; No. 7, 75; No. 8, 83; No. 10, 67). Such a mindset was deeply rooted in their internalized political ideology, as they grew up in a specific political regime.
Moreover, the ideological beleif was intertwined with an emerging sense of powerlessness associated with their later stages in life. They frequently used the term “burden” to describe themselves, which indicated a self-perception tinged with societal negativity. In their view, adhering to the government’s directives, as communicated through official news channels, was seen as a method of avoiding becoming the burden. In this way, they can make meaningful societal contributions, or more precisely, to avoid falling ill to consum excessive social resources during the pandemic. An illustrative anecdote came from one respondent (No. 7, 75) who beleived that staying informed with government news helped her avoid becoming another “Auntie Yin”—an older woman who attracted public censure for traveling despite being COVID positive, in Shenyang, a province in northeastern China.
Sharing as supporting
Echoing existing research (Waruwu et al., 2021), the act of sharing information, even when not strictly accurate, can serve as a vital strategy for building and maintaining social bonds between the sender and the receiver. In the context of marginalized aging populations, the circulation of information within their close-knit networks often led to repeated exposure to unverified or potentially misleading news. However, this exchange of information was more than news sharing. It was a critical way to send greetings and express care among the older adults. The act of sharing information on topics of mutual interest emerged as a significant step in maintaining the social support network among the older individuals. It fosterd a sense of community involvement, offering a sense of connection and belonging that might otherwise be difficult to achieve for older female adults in our research.
Respondents shared their enthusiasm for using mobile devices to reconnect with old colleagues and friends, especially during pandemic when in-person meetings were banned—“we do not know when and whether we can meet again” (No. 2, 82). They shared a common experience that useful news was often circulated within their groups as a way to show your care, “whenever we went through some useful news, we would share with each other.” (No. 5, 83; No. 7, 75; No. 8, 83; No. 11, 77) They were eagerly to inform their peers about protective measures during the pandemic.
Because of such eagerness, they sometimes can overlook the information accuracy. One such example was a message shared in the Sunset Glow Friends’ Group, which contained an alarming warning: “Delta’s new Covid variant can even affect vaccinated people, so be careful!” It is also interesting to observe that, in their efforts to bolster social support, these older adults (No. 4, 65; No. 8, 83; No. 11, 77; No. 18, 65) displayed a strong preference for sharing information that embodied “positive energy” (zhengnengliang 正能量). They beleived such content could uplift spirits during the emotional moments of the pandemic. The positive news, albeit not always factually accurate, was particularly popular in older people’s WeChat groups. A typical example was a widely circulated message that consuming health products with goat milk could combat the coronavirus. This suggestion, which seemed implausible given the unknown origins and transmission routes of the disease, nonetheless gained attention from the older adults. The popularity of such messages reflected their desire to “stay healthy and live long,” coupled with a belief that “there is anyway no harm in learning more about health” (No. 14, 69).
Progressive and cautious exploration
Despite the complexities and constant changes in the online information landscape, marginalized older female adults were not passive recipients of information. Despite facing various challenges that impeded their quick adaptation to digital environments and restricted their ability to utilize technology effectively for their own purposes, we found their active involvement in exploring the new technologies. Such exploration, although often with caution, evidently resulted in an enhanced comprehension of digital technologies and a developed understanding of various platforms and different functions.
For instance, one respondent (No. 18, 65) shared how she started to understand the records of mobile usage data and therefore became more cautious about making any statement and sharing any information online. “It (the mobile phone) keeps traces of your usage. You must be self-disciplined and be cautious, so make sure that you are conscious when using your phone.”
Some respondents became more aware of the differences between their private mobile space, characterized by one-on-one mobile communication, and the public mobile sphere, such as platforms where a broader audience can access their posts. Consequently, some of them became more careful about sharing content within this public mobile domain, as it can become visible to less intimate acquaintances. One respondent (No. 2, 82) provided one example regarding her WeChat Moments, “Generally, I prefer not reposting anything in WeChat Moments. I will not post any random news there.”
It is worth noting that a few respondents, albeit in limited numbers (only two individuals), ventured beyond their comfort zones to explore new functions that expanded their channels for accessing information. Importantly, this exploration was often related to their gender roles, driven by the desire to gather more information for their family members. One respondent (No. 7, 75) shared that her concerns for her grandson’s COVID-19 protection strategies motivated her to use search engines, “I frequently check (Baidu), and whenever I had concerns, I would conduct searches on Baidu to take a look and find answers to my questions.”
Discussion and conclusions
Grounded in the theory of intersectionality, our study advances the theoretical approach, yielding valuable insights for future research in capturing the nuances of aging in an era characterized by the persistent spread of misinformation. Although our research is situated in a marginalized aging context in China during the pandemic, this approach can be applied in other research contexts to examine how diverse aging populations interact with and respond to misinformation. It supports a more comprehensive understanding of aging in the era of misinformation that go beyond focusing only on the factor of aging or the age-centered digital divide. Instead, this approach enables an in-depth analysis of how such experiences are shaped by the interplay of aging, structural factors, the broader digital landscape, and local policies that influence the broader information control and management.
To specify, at the structural level, this approach informs us to understand digital information inequalities related to aging by considering the influence of various stratified social structures, including gender, socio-economic status, and potentially other factors. These elements work together to configure context-specific unequal aging processes (Holman and Walker, 2021), and moreover, the varying digital behaviors of the older adults in terms of information acquisition and dissemination. In the case of the low-income older women, the long-standing gender inequalities, limited digital literacy and educational backgrounds, constrained economic resources, and deeply rooted political beliefs intersect with age-related factors. Together, these factors impact both older adults' confidence in navigating the digital environment and their ways of coping with online misinformation.
Beyond structural constraints, the evolving multi-media digital landscape, shaped by algorithms, further contributes to the ongoing stratification of older digital users into distinct “information cocoons”, in which individuals are repeatedly exposed to a narrow and self-reinforcing range of content aligned with their prior preferences and behaviours (Zuiderveen Borgesius et al., 2016). In the meanwhile, this landscape places increasing demands on older adults to navigate the complicated and ever-changing media environment, as well as to indentify, interpret, and manage their specific informational needs within the algorithmically curated news feeds.
Another critical factor is the overall information environment during the pandemic. The turbulent and rapidly changing information environment often conflicts with the reinforced information censorship by the government. This tension tends to further reduce the information accessibility while simultaneously intensifying the feelings of panic and anxiety, particularly in relation to sharing information that is perceived as valuable or necessary for health and safety of older adults' families.
The complex interplay of structural, digital, and policy factors contribute to digital information inequalities experienced by older adults, especially those in a more marginalized situation. Our findings demonstrate that these information inequalities tend to confine older adults to continual exposure to low-quality and misleading information, leaving them limited opportunities to escape from this cycle, unless proactive measures are implemented to broaden the avenues for information retrieval.
Simultaneously, this approach also illuminates the agency exhibited by marginalized older individuals, even though such agency is often constrained (Rasi-Heikkinen, 2022). Their agency, rather than being limited to seeking alternative news sources or adopting news verification strategies, is likely contingent upon intersecting factors. In the context of the low-income older female adults, these factors include gendered caregiving roles, reinforced social isolation, and the desires for social identification, which amplify the imperative to seek social and emotional support through information seeking, consumption and sharing. Therefore, we observed that in their engagement with news content, considerations of credibility often give way to the social and emotional needs.
In addition, our study documents how the marginalized older populations actively forge their own paths toward news verification and discernment, often in ways that are subtle yet meaningful. It is important to recognize this progress is unfolded at their own pace, as they gradually become acclimated to the digital environment in accordance with their individual needs and capacities. This emerging phenomenon deserves more attention at the intersection of population aging and accelerated digitalization processes across the globe especially during the pandemic, when an increasing number of older adults start to embark on the journey of negotiating contextualized strategies to cope with digitalized challenges in daily lives and to cultivate their own practices of digital information consumption.
Beyond its theoretical contributions, the empirical findings of our study provide significant value for practices, informing policy and decision-making related to the design of effective intervention strategies. First, our study underscores the need to differentiate digital exclusion experiences across diverse older groups, particularly by attending to how intersecting social structures generate highly contextualised challenges. For instance, low-income older women often face financial restrictions compounded by gender inequalities, which can consistently marginalize their digital needs within the household. Second, we recommend that future interventions actively involve adult children as key stakeholders, given their potentially critical role in supporting older parents’ digital adoption and use. Engaging adult children is therefore essential for building effective technical support systems that enhance digital engagement among older family members, especially within the context of Chinese family culture. Finally, we propose more community-oriented approaches to digital literacy education for older adults. Rather than focusing on individuals, it is highly recommended to organize workshops targeting groups of older adults who already share social ties. This approach can help them develop a stronger sense of a learning community and foster both social and informational support.
For future research, we would suggest conducting longitudinal studies to map the stage-wise transitions of knowledge acquisition as older adults adapt to the digital environment over time. Moreover, it would be meaningful to track the differences across age cohorts among the older adults (i.e., sixty year-old vs eighty year-old). In this study, we adopted a holistic approach by focusing on the retired, low-income older women to capture the broad constraints faced by a large segment of the older populations. However, we acknowledge that differences in cognitive capacity, access to technological resources, and digital needs may exist between younger-older and older-older groups. We suggest future research provide nuanced and comparative analyses to better understand how agency is negotiated across different aging stages (e.g., Offerman et al., 2024; Olsson and Viscovi, 2023). Such work would offer critical guidance for researchers and policymakers in the development of interventions that aligns with the learning trajectories and capacities of diverse aging groups.
Footnotes
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.