Make every effort to cultivate richer forms of entertainment and leisure for them, and help them build a fuller inner world.

　　Recently, an observation by Zhao Xiangyun, an associate professor at Northwest A&F University, on his return to his hometown has drawn attention: many rural elderly are addicted to earning money by scrolling apps. They mainly watch videos and advertisements on the platforms, and after watching for a certain amount of time they can obtain gold coins, which can then be exchanged for cash.

　　However, this way of earning money by scrolling apps has a very low rate of return and poor benefits. Even if they watch nonstop all day, they can only earn two or three yuan. Even so, many rural elderly still enjoy it tirelessly; they do not worry about personal information being leaked by some apps of unknown origin, nor do they care that their efforts and returns are simply not proportional at all.

　　Some people attribute the cause of this phenomenon to the mentality of some rural elderly who like to take small advantages, believing it to be driven by human greed. But would truly greedy people spend a whole day for two or three yuan? Would people who truly love to take small advantages expend a great deal of time and energy for petty gains? Simple accusation probably does not help analyze the problem; we also need to conduct an in-depth discussion of this phenomenon from the perspective of deeper cultural psychology.

　　Judging from media reports, the above phenomenon is basically concentrated among rural elderly groups. They often have a great deal of spare time but lack sufficiently rich forms of entertainment. Many elderly people have long lived in remote rural areas and also lack the companionship of their children. Their inner world is often extremely empty, and the lack of spiritual fulfillment and mental distress frequently trouble them. When there is nothing to do, scrolling apps becomes a kind of "game" that can kill time; it both passes a large amount of time and gives them a sense of their own "existence." Some elderly people even place their personal value on this, believing that scrolling apps is beneficial to physical and mental health.

　　Rural elderly should not have empty inner worlds in the first place, but reality is often disappointing. First, some rural elderly have a low level of education, lack understanding of internet culture and smartphone software, and lack vigilance against some merchants' tricks. They are very likely to blindly trust the advertisements of some app merchants and then be "harvested like leeks."

　　Furthermore, some rural elderly clearly know that being addicted to scrolling apps is useless, but they truly have nothing to do and do not have the awareness or ability to obtain spiritual nourishment through reading, so they can only slide bit by bit into the traps set by merchants. Even when reminded by family members, some elderly people remain stubborn and fail to realize the problems involved, going further and further down the path of obstinacy.

　　Young people who see similar phenomena may wish to remind the elderly in their homes more often, so that they stay as far away as possible from mobile apps that are meaningless or even harmful to life. In this regard, young people should help the elderly understand the current internet ecosystem as much as possible, tell them that internet products also vary greatly in quality and cannot be easily trusted based on some merchants' promotions. At the same time, they should use various cautionary cases to advise elderly people addicted to scrolling apps, so that they realize the harms involved and become more vigilant about such phenomena. These are relatively concrete and direct measures to help the elderly.

　　In addition, the most fundamental thing is still to find ways to solve the problem of rural elderly people's spiritual emptiness, make every effort to cultivate richer forms of entertainment and leisure for them, and help them build a fuller inner world. Nowadays, the state attaches great importance to the elderly care issue of rural elderly people. It not only provides them with a certain material guarantee, but has also set up cultural and sports facilities in many rural areas and townships, such as activity centers for the elderly, community service centers, as well as reading spaces and fitness venues. These resources should be effectively utilized and brought into positive play as much as possible to help rural elderly people have a better old age.

　　When rural elderly people have better choices for where to place their life value and possess more interests in life, they will naturally no longer waste time and energy on scrolling mobile apps. Only by making the inner world of rural elderly people fuller is the "root-cause" solution to the above problems.