Chinese Senior Citizens Have a Hard Time Using Smartphones During the Pandemic

WeChat Pay and Alipay are the two most popular mobile payment methods in China, and they both provide a downloadable App for smartphone users. While almost all young and middle-aged Chinese have abandoned traditional payment methods, senior citizens who don’t know how to use smartphone technology usually stick to their old-fashioned cell phones and use credit cards to make payments. When everyone was ordered to stay indoors during the past several months, the seniors ran into great difficulties. In the following video released from Tianjin, many seniors went to the natural gas provider to make up for missing payments. They have lived without natural gas ever since the utility bill was past due. In late March, an old man who tried to go out for a walk was blocked by guards at the community checkpoint. The new lockdown rule required that everyone must scan their QR codes before entering or leaving the area. The old man explained that his phone did not have such an app. Instead of helping him install the app, a guard quarrelled with him and then started a fight with him. A more tragic incident occurred in Wuhan on March 3. An old couple committed suicide together by jumping off their building. According to their neighbors, they lived alone and did not know how to order food online.