While research has focused on algorithmic content selection, older adults’ temporal negotiations remain understudied. Through abductive analysis—a recursive, theory-building method that moves between data and interpretation—we examine interviews, think-aloud observations, and diaries with 45 Chinese Douyin users (aged 55–90). We show how participants treat platform time as morally rather than neutrally framed. They enacted fixed quarantine (a disciplined pattern of keeping platform time outside sacred or care-bound hours) and hierarchical pedagogy (treating non-response as a lesson in subordination). They used three Confucian principles— li (ritual propriety), shi zhong (timely equilibrium), and quan (situational weighing)—to manage temporal boundaries. The Confucian triad explained these temporal negotiations better than Western sociotechnical baselines. Two longitudinal trajectories — pragmatic drift (moral discipline giving way to convenience) and ritual ossification (reflexive adjustment hardening into fixed habit)—delimit the framework’s scope conditions. We propose a culture-centric lens for algorithmic literacy and gerontechnology design.
Zhou et al. (Tue,) studied this question.