A gateway to acquaintance community: Elderly migrants’ collective domestication of interest-oriented group chats in China

Abstract

WeChat interest-based group chats (IGCs) are becoming popular among China’s elderly migrants. Previous domestication research paid little attention to mobile services that highlighted shared goals and teamwork beyond familial boundaries. To reconsider the approach of domestication in the emerging mediascape, this study employs the concept of “collective domestication” to analyze how elderly migrants in the W community of Xiamen, China, use and make sense of WeChat IGCs. Nonparticipatory observation of four IGCs and in-depth interviews with 21 elderly migrants indicate that IGCs are effective supplements to offline activities; they serve the role of a gateway to an acquaintance community in elderly migrants’ lives. Implications for Chinese elderly migrants’ digital inclusion and the domestication approach are discussed.