Zhang Ying, 62, was watching a mini-drama on her smartphone while taking the Metro home. When she finally lifted her nose from the screen, she found she had missed her stop three stations back.
The series that so engrossed her is entitled "Flash Marriage With an Old Tycoon," one of the most popular mini-dramas among seniors. It has 69 episodes, each lasting only two minutes.
Since it was released in August, its related videos have collected more than 2.6 billion clicks on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and most of its fans are middle-aged or elderly.
Amid a stereotype that it's only young people who are obsessed with watching entertainment on electronic devices, an increase in numbers of older viewers has become a trend in the market.
According to iResearch, a leading consulting service on emerging economic trends, about 37 percent of mini-drama audiences are aged between 40 and 59, and 12 percent are seniors 60 years or older.
A scene from the mini-drama "Flash Marriage with an Old Tycoon."
What's the allure of these short dramas?
"They show a life that I could never have, and watching the story of a character just like me unfolding gives me a sense of satisfaction," said Zhang, who is a retired civil servant.
Since earlier this year, mini-dramas targeting seniors have mushroomed on hundreds of mobile applications. They are typical Cinderella-style stories, but the "princesses" in this case are usually older women. "Flash" marriages, or unions between people who have known each other only a short period of time, are often key elements.
"Flash Marriage With an Old Tycoon" is but one example. The plot revolves around a 58-year-old divorcee who, after being evicted by her daughter-in-law, enters into a snap marriage with the president of a company. His adopted daughter, it turns out, is actually her own long-lost child. With the help of her newfound family, the kind-hearted protagonist triumphs over her cruel daughter-in-law, her cowardly son and her snobbish relatives, and finds true happiness.
"I can somehow relate to the protagonist," Zhang said. "I often struggle with family relationships, especially with my daughter-in-law. Such drama is an escape from my real life. It's not only young people who can daydream."
The titles of many mini-dramas aimed at seniors cater to fantasy dreams.
These "daydreams" can have their drawbacks.
For one thing, they can be a costly flight of fancy for viewers. Mini-dramas are typically free to watch for the first one third or so episodes, and then they start charging around 2 yuan (28 US cents) per episode. That may not sound like much, but since these dramas can have 100 or more episodes, each ending with a cliffhanger, the expense can add up quickly without a viewer even realizing it.
According to QuestMobile, a mobile Internet business intelligence service provider, half of middle-aged and elderly mini-drama viewers this year have spent between 1,000 yuan and 1,999 yuan on episodes every month.
There are more extreme cases. Legal Daily reported that one 65-year-old man spent more than 40,000 yuan on mini-dramas.
"My father was watching five mini-dramas at a time, and we found at least 100 mini-drama apps on his smartphone," Fang Can, the man's son, told Legal Daily. "We sought to get the money back, but the apps said my father was a healthy adult and was fully responsible for his actions, so any refund was refused."
Eventually Fang and his family had to switch on the "parental control" mode on his smartphone to limit his viewing access.
Smartphone addiction – not just mini-dramas but also short videos, games and social networking services – among seniors seems to be a global problem.
According to a survey carried out by Statistics Canada in 2020, about 12 percent of people 65 and older were checking their smartphones at least every 30 minutes, and more than 22 percent said it was the first thing they do after waking up.
Jay Olson, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, has been studying problematic smartphone use for years. He said that around the world, across genders and all age groups that his team studied, troublesome smartphone use was rising. That includes older generations. He predicted it will continue to be a growing problem.
Are seniors particularly vulnerable to mobile addiction?
"Unlike young people, Internet and mobile devices are still relatively new to seniors and open an exciting new door for them," said Jin Yong'ai, a professor with the Research Center for Population and Development of Renmin University of China. "We shouldn't blame them for becoming obsessed, but we should make efforts to provide richer and healthier content for them. At the same time, we need to improve our community services so that seniors can enjoy life both online and off."
