Metamemory: Exploring the Resilience of Older Internal Migrants

TL;DR

This paper investigates the social adaptation challenges faced by older internal migrants, highlighting their resilience and proposing a metaverse-based approach to enhance reminiscence and support their integration.

Contribution

It introduces a novel concept of 'Metamemory' by integrating reminiscence with the metaverse to aid older internal migrants' social adaptation.

Findings

Older internal migrants show remarkable resilience, especially through reminiscence.

A new metaverse scene design connects past and present experiences.

Strategies to leverage the metaverse for better support of older migrants are proposed.

Abstract

Immigration and aging have always been significant topics of discussion in society, concerning the stability and future development of a country and its people. Research in the field of HCI on immigration and aging has primarily focused on their practical needs but has paid less attention to the adaptability issues of older internal migrants moving with their families. In this study, we investigate the challenges older internal migrants face in adapting socially, using metadata surveys and semi-structured interviews to delve into their life struggles and resilience sources. Our findings highlight the older internal migrants' remarkable resilience, particularly evident in their reminiscences. We explore the integration of reminiscences with the metaverse, identifying the necessary conditions to create a "Metamemory". We introduce a novel design for a metaverse scene that bridges past and present experiences. This aims to encourage discussions on enhancing older internal migrants' reminiscence, leveraging the metaverse's positive potential, and devising strategies to more effectively address older internal migrants' concerns in the future.