Investigating links between Internet literacy, Internet use, and Internet addiction among Chinese youth and adolescents in the digital age

IntroductionIn current digital era, adolescents’ Internet use has increased exponentially, with the Internet playing a more and more important role in their education and entertainment. However, due to the ongoing cognitive, emotion, and social development processes, youth and adolescents are more vulnerable to Internet addiction. Attention has been paid to the increased use of Internet during the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of Internet literacy in prevention and intervention of Internet addiction.MethodsThe present study proposes a conceptual model to investigate the links between Internet literacy, Internet use of different purpose and duration, and Internet addiction among Chinese youth and adolescents. In this study, N = 2,276 adolescents studying in primary and secondary schools in East China were recruited, and they completed self-reports on sociodemographic characteristics, Internet literacy scale, Internet use, and Internet addiction scale.ResultsThe results showed a significant relationship between Internet use and Internet addiction. To be specific, the duration of Internet use significantly and positively affected Internet addiction. With different dimensions of Internet literacy required, entertainment-oriented Internet use had positive impact on Internet addiction, while education-oriented Internet use exerted negative effects on Internet addiction. As for Internet literacy, knowledge and skills for Internet (positively) and Internet self-management (negatively) significantly influenced the likelihood of Internet addiction.DiscussionThe findings suggest that Internet overuse increases the risk of Internet addiction in youth and adolescents, while entertainment-oriented rather than education-oriented Internet use is addictive. The role of Internet literacy is complicated, with critical Internet literacy preventing the development of Internet addiction among youth and adolescents, while functional Internet literacy increasing the risk

MindShift: Leveraging Large Language Models for Mental-States-Based Problematic Smartphone Use Intervention

Problematic smartphone use negatively affects physical and mental health. Despite the wide range of prior research, existing persuasive techniques are not flexible enough to provide dynamic persuasion content based on users' physical contexts and mental states. We first conduct a Wizard-of-Oz study (N=12) and an interview study (N=10) to summarize the mental states behind problematic smartphone use: boredom, stress, and inertia. This informs our design of four persuasion strategies: understanding, comforting, evoking, and scaffolding habits. We leverage large language models (LLMs) to enable the automatic and dynamic generation of effective persuasion content. We develop MindShift, a novel LLM-powered problematic smartphone use intervention technique. MindShift takes users' in-the-moment physical contexts, mental states, app usage behaviors, users' goals & habits as input, and generates high-quality and flexible persuasive content with appropriate persuasion strategies. We conduct a 5-week field experiment (N=25) to compare MindShift with baseline techniques. The results show that MindShift significantly improves intervention acceptance rates by 17.8-22.5% and reduces smartphone use frequency by 12.1-14.4%. Moreover, users have a significant drop in smartphone addiction scale scores and a rise in self-efficacy. Our study sheds light on the potential of leveraging LLMs for context-aware persuasion in other behavior change domains

Seizing the window of opportunity to mitigate the impact of climate change on the health of Chinese residents

The health threats posed by climate change in China are increasing rapidly. Each province faces different health risks. Without a timely and adequate response, climate change will impact lives and livelihoods at an accelerated rate and even prevent the achievement of the Healthy and Beautiful China initiatives. The 2021 China Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change is the first annual update of China’s Report of the Lancet Countdown. It comprehensively assesses the impact of climate change on the health of Chinese households and the measures China has taken. Invited by the Lancet committee, Tsinghua University led the writing of the report and cooperated with 25 relevant institutions in and outside of China. The report includes 25 indicators within five major areas (climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerability; adaptation, planning, and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement) and a policy brief. This 2021 China policy brief contains the most urgent and relevant indicators focusing on provincial data: The increasing health risks of climate change in China; mixed progress in responding to climate change. In 2020, the heatwave exposures per person in China increased by 4.51 d compared with the 1986–2005 average, resulting in an estimated 92% increase in heatwave-related deaths. The resulting economic cost of the estimated 14500 heatwave-related deaths in 2020 is US$176 million. Increased temperatures also caused a potential 31.5 billion h in lost work time in 2020, which is equivalent to 1.3% of the work hours of the total national workforce, with resulting economic losses estimated at 1.4% of China’s annual gross domestic product. For adaptation efforts, there has been steady progress in local adaptation planning and assessment in 2020, urban green space growth in 2020, and health emergency management in 2019. 12 of 30 provinces reported that they have completed, or were developing, provincial health adaptation plans. Urban green space, which is an important heat adaptation measure, has increased in 18 of 31 provinces in the past decade, and the capacity of China’s health emergency management increased in almost all provinces from 2018 to 2019. As a result of China’s persistent efforts to clean its energy structure and control air pollution, the premature deaths due to exposure to ambient particulate matter of 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5) and the resulting costs continue to decline. However, 98% of China’s cities still have annual average PM2.5 concentrations that are more than the WHO guideline standard of 10 μg/m3. It provides policymakers and the public with up-to-date information on China’s response to climate change and improvements in health outcomes and makes the following policy recommendations. (1) Promote systematic thinking in the related departments and strengthen multi-departmental cooperation. Sectors related to climate and development in China should incorporate health perspectives into their policymaking and actions, demonstrating WHO’s and President Xi Jinping’s so-called health-in-all-policies principle. (2) Include clear goals and timelines for climate-related health impact assessments and health adaptation plans at both the national and the regional levels in the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for 2035. (3) Strengthen China’s climate mitigation actions and ensure that health is included in China’s pathway to carbon neutrality. By promoting investments in zero-carbon technologies and reducing fossil fuel subsidies, the current rebounding trend in carbon emissions will be reversed and lead to a healthy, low-carbon future. (4) Increase awareness of the linkages between climate change and health at all levels. Health professionals, the academic community, and traditional and new media should raise the awareness of the public and policymakers on the important linkages between climate change and health.</p

Investigating modern-day talaria : mobile phones and the mobility-impaired in Singapore

Revisiting the medical and social models of disability, this study adopted the integrated biopsychosocial approach to examine experiences of 25 mobility-impaired respondents in Singapore with using mobile phones. We found that mobile phones provided respondents a greater degree of mobility, a sense of control, and opportunities to escape the stigma of disability, thus challenging the boundaries between the able-bodied and the disabled. Mobile phone appropriation allowed the management of personal identities and social networks, leading to a sense of empowerment. However, mobile phone usage might act as a double-edged sword for disabled people, creating mobile dependencies and a spatial narrowing of social connections. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Diffusion, convergence and influence of pharmaceutical innovations: a comparative study of Chinese and U.S. patents

Abstract Background Despite the significant impact of pharmaceutical innovations on healthcare, our understanding is still limited because previous studies explored only a few cases and largely came from a linear perspective. This study presents a detailed case of the Chinese and U.S. pharmaceutical patents and investigated advancements that the global pharmaceutical industry is experiencing. A network analysis approach was used to identify certain aspects regarding the diffusion of pharmaceutical innovations, including innovation attributes, adopter characteristics, and clustering. Methods Based on a patent database, network analysis and visualization, this study captured the structure of patent networks for the global pharmaceutical landscape in a large set of patents. A large volume of patent data, 15,422 patent filings citing Chinese pharmaceutical patents, 28,075 citing U.S. patents, and 6064 citing both Chinese and U.S. patents during 2014–2015, were retrieved from the world patent database, Derwent Innovation Index. The networks reveal many interesting features of technological innovation, convergence trends and diffusion patterns. Results Convergence innovations were identified, with the advantage and influence of U.S. patents shown in a variety of areas, and their Chinese counterparts were concentrated in traditional Chinese medicine. Early adopters of Chinese patents were mainly universities within the national sector, while early adopters of U.S. patents were academic institutions and large international pharmaceutical corporations of balanced quantity, contributing a higher degree of technology convergence. Technology convergence in the cancer-treatment sector is expected to have a high future development potential. Conclusion Chinese and U.S. pharmaceutical innovations contributed differently to the growth and development of the global pharmaceutical industry. The findings of this study can provide rich knowledge about the influence, diffusion and convergence trends of Chinese and U.S. pharmaceutical innovations. In the pharmaceutical industry, the findings may provide implications for researchers, policy makers, health professionals, and the general public to help improve the overall health of society

Lifestyles, gratifications sought, and narrative appeal : American and Korean TV drama viewing among Internet users in urban China

In recent years, online viewing has become an important way for Chinese audiences to watch foreign TV dramas. This exploratory study investigated the predictive power of lifestyles, gratifications sought, narrative appeal, and demographics on the viewing preference for and frequency of American and Korean TV dramas among a sample of 455 Internet users in urban China. The results show that narrative appeal, viewing habits, and gender were predictors of viewing preference. Lifestyles were significantly linked to gratifications sought. Frequent American TV drama viewers tended to be motivated by learning about American language, culture, and fashion; attracted by the complicated plot; and preferred online viewing. The study supports and expands understanding of the uses and gratifications theory, and argues that viewing foreign TV dramas could be an index of social distinction in urban China. Practical implications for the media industry are discussed

Silent but brewing: Reactive ethnicity and interculturality among chinese students in Singapore

The study takes an indirect approach towards the intercultural experience of migrants and explores how they perceive discrimination from host society and in turn stereotype it. Previous studies have highlighted how interculturality facilitates the adaptation of migrants in the host country. This study explores (i) how face-to-face (FTF) and mediated contact and perceived discrimination predict stereotyping, and (ii) how contact, perceived discrimination and stereotyping predict interculturality. A web-based survey was conducted among university students from the People’s Republic of China (n = 585) in Singapore. FTF contact reduced stereotyping better than mediated contact. Perceived discrimination increased stereotyping of the host society by migrants, whereas stereotyping negatively affected interculturality. The study calls for better contact between locals and the migrant population