Under the national situation of aging and childlessness, intelligent elderly care products and services represented by companion robots are coming into families. For companion robots to better serve the elderly, inner social support from the family is important. Through 9-month participant observation and 4-stage in-depth interviews, the study found that the inner social support from children, grandchildren, and spouses in the family that aging people get from using companion robots is mainly reflected in instrumental, informational, and emotional support. Intergenerational support shows a dynamic and intertwined process of “nonsupport- limited support-moderate support-excessive support”. Aging people also generate reverse support for their children and grandchildren. Spousal support is predominantly emotional, and male older adults are less likely to support their female partners, while female older adults are more dependent on spousal support. The companion robot is more of a mediator in the family that connects aging people than a companion in human-robot communication.

Online health information avoidance, a modern form of “ignoring health issues”, has become a crucial public health concern in the context of an aging society. This study aims to uncover the mechanisms by which algorithm-recommended content influences elderly individuals’ health information avoidance behaviors and to evaluate the effectiveness of digital intergenerational support as family intervention. Study 1 (N = 343) constructs a influence model of health information avoidance behaviors of the elderly based on the “Stress - Strain – Outcome” (SSO) framework, which is validated using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Study 2 (N = 110) conducts an intergenerational digital support intervention experiment to test its intervention pathways and effectiveness. The findings are as follows: 1) The similarity and overload of algorithm-recommended content contribute to health information avoidance behaviors through increased information fatigue of the elderly; 2) Information relevance does not lead to health information avoidance; 3) Intergenerational digital support significantly reduces elderly individuals’ information fatigue regarding digital health content and effectively mitigates subsequent health information avoidance behaviors. The conclusions provide both theoretical insights and practical guidance for understanding health information avoidance behaviors among the elderly and developing effective interventions.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has led to significant advancements in human-computer interaction. However, the resulting confusion regarding self- identity and the emerging crisis of human-computer trust warrant closer attention in theoretical research. The emergence of AI anchors has not only driven profound changes in the intelligence transformation of the online live-streaming industry but also presents significant opportunities and challenges for reshaping media trust and constructing new forms of human-computer trust relationship. This study employs social trust theory as the foundation and media equation theory as the research perspective. Utilizing survey data and structural equation modeling, it examines the mediality of AI anchors and reveals the path and mechanisms of human-computer trust construction under the iterative development of artificial intelligence technology. The study found that anthropomorphic and intelligent mediality presentations directly impact the formation of human-computer trust in AI anchors; mediality also indirectly affects the human- computer trust relationship through the mediator variable of perceived value; technology self- efficacy plays a moderating role in the relationship between mediality and the trust formation, and individuals with higher levels of technology self-efficacy being more likely to develop trust in AI anchors during interactions. The innovative ideas put forward in the study can promote the construction of a new human-computer relationship with the core concept of “intelligence for good, technology for humans”, and thus improve the social trust system in the context of new technologies.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence enabled it to closely link various things such as human-cyber-physical system, creating a social pattern of interconnection of everything positioning AI as an increasingly critical media force. However, how countries understand, shape and govern the mediated use of AI remains an area that requires further in-depth analysis. Utilizing the discourse network analysis method, this research dissects the AI governance policies of China, the United States and Europe. It specifically scrutinizes the structural composition and authority distribution within their collaborative governance systems. Through this analysis, the research aims to unravel the imagined content, subject relations, and construction logic of the AI sociotechnical imaginaries. It is found that there are some differences in the governance objectives and key governance stakeholders across countries, leading to distinct challenges related to discursive closure. It also verifies that the AI collaborative governance is a subjective political decision. To prevent the AI sociotechnical imaginaries from succumbing to Collingridge’s dilemma due to discursive closure, this research suggests that China can enrich the content of AI sociotechnical imaginaries and foster the diversity of imaginary actors by examining the governance systems of other countries, while grounding its approach in the context of its own national conditions.

The rapid development of live-streaming e-commerce in China has led to the formation of a business model uniquely characterized by affective interaction. Based on Slavoj Žižek’s critical psychoanalytic theory, this study employs digital ethnography and in-depth interviews to offer a “symptomatic interpretation” of the affective labor performed by e-commerce livestreamers. It examines deep connections between ideological mechanisms and the psychological dimensions of the livestreamers, within the framework of the political economy of communication. The research finds that the affective labor of e-commerce livestreamers is reconstructed into a “hybrid affective labor” through the mediation of digital technology, with its core symptom being digitalized intimacy. This symptom manifests as a dual fragmentation of the subject, perceptual fragmentation and cognitive fragmentation, which reveals the contradictions and complexities of commodified affects. By analyzing the exploitative forms that result from the simultaneous operation of capital logic and desire logic within hybrid affective labor, the study examines how to transcend the surplus enjoyment illusion of the digital big Other on two levels: namely, the reshaping of affects and the reconstitution of identity. The study proposes that e-commerce livestreamers should reconnect with the essence of labor by emphasizing the embodied and authentic dimensions of affective labor, thereby effectively resisting capitalist ideology.

The emotional/affective turn represents not only a shift in the knowledge agenda but also highlights the prominence of emotions in contemporary social life. Reckwitz refers to the internet as an “affect machine” in his theoretical diagnostics of contemporary society, yet he does not elaborate on this concept in detail. This article draws on Reckwitz’s theories of practice and the society of singularities to analyze how the internet becomes an affect machine.Since the 1980s, modern society has been evolving into a society of singularities, characterized by the significant role of affect. The internet serves as a crucial arena where social entities compete for singularity. Whether these entities are recognized and acknowledged for their singularity depends on their ability to affect others. Therefore, the core function of the internet is not to impartially disseminate news as an information medium, but rather to affect others through narrativization, aestheticization, and other means as an affect machine, producing what is known as affective publics. This provides an alternative perspective on why breaking out of echo chambers fails to make the affectively-driven platform less polarizing.

The practice of “self-certification” has become widespread in contemporary Chinese fandoms. From selling fan-made merchandise and joining online communities to publicly expressing emotions, self-certification has become a crucial prerequisite for establishing trust among fans. The normalization and routinisation of “self-certification” reflect the trust crisis faced by individuals in the digital age, providing an entry point for studying digital communication among young people. This study conducted semi-structured interviews and participatory observations with fan groups from different areas to sort out the genesis and operational mechanisms of the digital “self-certification” phenomenon from the theoretical perspective of “the transparency society”. The findings reveal that the rise of self-certification reflects a shift from private interactions to the public sphere, in which fans retroactively construct transparent identities on social media and engage in self-governance according to fanquan rules. In building a trust system, fan groups generate “reputation capital” through diverse practices and evaluate emotional intensity using a complex “multi-currency” system. As interpersonal trust among fans becomes more abstract and technologically-mediated, digital tools like lists, screenshots, and watermarks play an increasingly central role. However, the logic of digital transparency, characterized by an overload of data and the erasure of emotional nuance, also brings about existential anxieties and deepens the difficulties surrounding trust. The potential for underlying violence within these dynamics deserves further exploration.

As digital connectivity causes four harms which include time displacement, interference, boundary blurring, and exposure effects, disconnection and optimization of connection based on technological affordances have become alternative choices for social media users. Unlike WeChat Moments, which is a curated circle of friends, and Weibo, where no one cares about posts, WeChat Status has built a middle stage where users can show their authentic selves and gain attention from close friends through imagined visibility and concrete visibility provided by the platform. Based on the qualitative analysis of 23 WeChat Status users’ in-depth interviews, this paper finds that users domesticate some functions of WeChat Status in order to break the “online siege”, reduce social burnout, and regain the dominance of the “social neighborhood”, thus increasing the “de-connecting” online social behavior in the middle region. In order to meet the new social needs that are difficult to perceive, can be forgotten online, and can shape identities, users have appropriated traditional in-person communication ways such as “electronic diaries”, online “tree holes”, and ceremonial “wish pools” through WeChat Status to find the middle region of online social spaces and have shown a new “reconnection” behavior of online interactions that will balance users’ desire for privacy and expression. Whether it is the de-connection social regulation based on the connection function or the reconnection social expression based on the disconnection demand, it is a communication behavior of user domestication technology and reversing connection function, in which online social mediation is achieved in the process.