Abstract:
Smart elderly care is closely related to the health of the elderly, and the physical and mental health problems of the elderly under the existing pension mode are prominent. In this research, the relationship between social media use and mental health of the elderly was explored, and an in-depth study was conducted on its internal mechanism. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to explore the internal mechanism of the influence of multiple social media use patterns on the mental health of the elderly in 8 smart health elderly care communities (taking loneliness as an example). The relationship between active social media use, passive social media use, functional social media use, self-esteem, objective social isolation, life satisfaction and service satisfaction and loneliness among the elderly was analyzed. The results show that, based on social presence, social comparison and social support theory, different social media use patterns had a significant impact on the mental health of the elderly; functional social media use negatively affected the self-esteem of the elderly; self-esteem negatively predicted both upward social comparison and loneliness. In addition, objective social isolation moderated the relationship between upward social comparison and loneliness, and objective social isolation positively predicted loneliness in the elderly. This study provides a research basis for using social media to intervene loneliness in the elderly in the future, enriches the research on mental health of the elderly, and also provides support for the development of smart elderly care.