Social Support and Social Satisfaction for Older Adults in Online Virtual Communities

We argue that older adults experience psychological changes based on significant events in their lives, and that their usage of online virtual communities (VCs) is driven by their varying needs for social support and social satisfaction. We propose that socioemotional choices they make, particularly their use of online VCs, are driven by a combination of need for social support and social satisfaction. We use survey data collected from older adults participating in three online VCs focused on retirement life in China. We expect our study to fill the gap in the literature on online VCs by providing insights into the motivation and satisfaction of older users in using online VCs, which can help in designing online virtual communities that can better cater to the psychological needs of older people.