ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1628076
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Health Outcomes: The Role of Social Security Systems in Improving Residents' Health WelfareView all 67 articles
New Media, Lifestyle Transformation, and Public Health: Unraveling the Digital Divide in China
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou, China
- 2School of Social Research, Renmin University of China,, Beijing, China
- 3Veterans Development Research Center of the Institute of Social Work and Development, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
With the rapid advancement of internet technology, new media has deeply integrated into the daily lives of Chinese citizens, influencing their communication patterns, consumption habits, and choices of leisure activities. These transformations in lifestyle have not only altered individual social behaviors but also exerted profound impacts on public health. Drawing on data from the 2018 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), this study analyzes the effects of new media usage on the leisure lifestyles of Chinese citizens and explores its potential implications for public health. The findings indicate that as new media usage increases, participation in social leisure activities among Chinese citizens rises significantly, while engagement in cultural and entertainment activities declines. The crowding-out effect of fragmented online entertainment facilitated by new media on offline activities may negatively impact mental health and social networks. Employing the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method, the study further reveals disparities in lifestyle diversity between new media users and non-users, highlighting the influence of the digital divide on health behaviors across different social groups. This research offers new insights for the field of public health, suggesting that while promoting digital transformation, the government should address the health challenges posed by new media and formulate targeted health intervention policies to foster a balanced development of public health and lifestyles.
Keywords: Public Health, lifestyle, digital divide, New media use, lifestyle transformation
Received: 13 May 2025; Accepted: 26 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ma, Zheng, Wang and Gu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tenglong Zheng, Veterans Development Research Center of the Institute of Social Work and Development, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China, Beijing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.