Based on the 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data, we empirically analyze the effect, heterogeneity, quantile differences and influencing mechanisms of mobile Internet use on loneliness in the elderly. The study found that the loneliness of the elderly who used mobile Internet was 33.1% lower than that of the elderly who did not use the mobile Internet The study also passed the robustness test. There is heterogeneity in the effect of mobile Internet use on loneliness among the elderly of different ages, educational levels and marital status. Among them, the use of mobile Internet has a significant alleviating effect on the loneliness of the 60–70-year-old elderly, those of junior high school education level and below, and the elderly with a partner. The quantile regression analysis showed that the elderly group with a high level of loneliness benefited more from the use of mobile Internet. Mediation analysis further showed that mobile Internet use can improve parent–child relationship, increase offline interactions with children, and reduce children’s tangible support, which we interpret as a potential mechanism for mobile Internet use to alleviate loneliness in the elderly.

Digital inclusion is related to the physical and mental health of the elderly, and the relevant policies formulated by the government have an important impact on it. This article analyzes 69 policies related to digital inclusion of the elderly released by the central government of China. The results of the content analysis show that the current policies generally attach importance to the service and building of digital inclusion for the elderly, and gradually shift the policy focus to aging adaptation, smart device use, and learning guidance. The evaluation results using a policy modeling consistency index (PMC‐Index) indicate that the quality of the current Chinese government's policies to help the digital inclusion of the elderly is generally high. However, PMC‐Surface shows that there is still considerable variability in the scores of the main‐indicators for each policy. The evaluation results suggest that we can still improve the effectiveness of policies by expanding the scope of policy audiences, establishing good policy timeliness planning, and enriching policy contents, so as to effectively help the elderly integrate into the current rapidly developing digital society.

China has a unique background of “religious practice without religious belief”. As China enters the digital age, it is necessary to consider religious practices from the perspective of internet use. In this research, we used data from the 2017, 2018, and 2021 years of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) to explore whether internet use affects Chinese religious practices. The results show that internet use significantly influences Chinese religious practices. We also constructed a parallel mediation model involving relative deprivation and social trust, demonstrating that relative deprivation positively mediates the effect of internet use on religious practices, while social trust negatively mediates this effect. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that internet use has a greater impact on religious practices in eastern and central regions, among women, and urban residents. Our research underscores the significant role of religious practices in Chinese society, profoundly influencing everyday life and challenging external perceptions of China as “faithless”.

Exploring the influencing factors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and summarizing countermeasures is of great significance for effectively addressing potential public health crises. Based on survey data from China, we employed a Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT) model and conducted SHAP interpretability analysis. The results show that in the primary series of COVID-19 vaccines, the important factors include social norms, vaccine knowledge, anticipated regret, age, vaccine safety, social responsibility, education level, religious belief, vaccine effectiveness, and perceived severity. While for booster shots, the important variables include age, vaccination experience, vaccine knowledge, vaccine effectiveness, gender, perceived severity, concerns about the epidemic, social norms, anticipated regret, and sense of social responsibility. The differences in the composition and significance of these core predictive factors suggest that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is dynamically evolving. This pattern of evolution is manifested as a shift in the decision - making basis from social norms to subjective experiences, in the focus of vaccines from safety - first to effectiveness - priority, and in the decision - making mechanism from emotion - dominated to cognition - driven. The research findings inspire us that when formulating vaccination strategies, multiple factors need to be comprehensively considered. Moreover, strategies should be adjusted in a timely manner according to changes in the vaccination stages to align with the shift in public concerns and decision - making mechanisms.