Ten years of mobile socialization: Bringing positive changes and issues that need to be reflected

Ten years of mobile social networking, how we have been changed

　　Author: HUANG Dian Lin

　　【News Essay】

　　A while ago, WeChat ushered in its 10th anniversary.

Counting from the official launch of Weibo in August 2009, China Mobile's social media development has gone through more than 10 years.

And these 10 years have also been a critical period for China's mobile social platform to develop from germination to maturity, and to bring a full range of impacts to our era and social life.

　　If QQ, BBS (Internet forums) and blogs represent the "barren era" of online social networking, then, with the second generation of Internet technology, the emergence of social networking platforms with user-generated content as the core feature marks The golden age of social media is coming.

With the full popularity of smart phones in the past 10 years, Chinese social media has quickly embarked on the fast lane of mobile social networking.

Social functions have become the standard configuration of various contemporary Internet services and applications.

　　The most intuitive manifestation of this development is the growth of mobile social media users.

At the end of 2010, the total number of mobile Internet users in China was 288 million.

As of June 2020, the number of mobile phone netizens in my country has reached 932 million, of which netizens using various instant messaging services such as social media via mobile phones have reached 930 million, accounting for 99.8% of mobile phone netizens.

This shows that after more than 10 years of development, China has become the world's largest mobile social media market, and the penetration rate of mobile social networks represented by WeChat among netizens has also approached saturation.

With the rapid expansion of the market size, the social communication and information dissemination functions carried by mobile social media are constantly innovating, continuing to reconstruct the underlying logic of all social life levels, from interpersonal interaction, entertainment and work methods to transaction and service models. , Which profoundly changed all aspects of contemporary Chinese society.

　　Ten years later, people find that they almost no longer send text messages and read newspapers.

Smart phones, especially the mobile social applications we install in our phones, have almost become the only information port for interpersonal interaction, access to information, and service.

Mobile social media redefines the way and rhythm of communication between people, and reconstructs contemporary Chinese social relationships, work styles and family models in the form of circle of friends and group chats.

The emerging online cultural patterns represented by short videos, bullet screens, and rice circles symbolize the innovation of entertainment and self-identification in the mobile social era.

　　Online shopping and food delivery have also become the most eye-catching new things in this era of booming mobile social media.

People in this era have become accustomed to the convenient service where their favorite products will be delivered to their doorsteps without leaving home.

The online consumption carnival surrounding the emergence of major e-commerce platforms and emerging live broadcast platforms has not only provided countless people with a way to start a business and become rich, but also spawned a new derivative form of social e-commerce, and profoundly rewritten contemporary Chinese business. The pattern and even the entire economic landscape.

Of course, behind all this is inseparable from the challenge and update of the traditional financial model represented by the ubiquitous little QR code.

　　And when people turn their attention from daily consumption and parental life to relatively ambitious social governance and the relationship between the state and society, they will also find that mobile social media has also profoundly changed the way the government and the public communicate.

In the past 10 years, it has long been the norm for government agencies at all levels to open official accounts on mainstream social network platforms such as Weibo and WeChat. Socialized government communication has undoubtedly become an extremely important part of contemporary Chinese social governance.

The voices expressed by the public through mobile social networks are also constantly promoting policy adjustments and governance model updates, forming a benign interaction with the national will to achieve good governance, thus continuously promoting the process of contemporary Chinese political civilization construction.

　　All of these are the gifts of our age from the development of mobile social networks in the past 10 years.

Of course, the benefits it brings to us go far beyond this.

There are many more changes worth remembering, such as the rapid advancement of charity and public welfare in the era of mobile social media, the knowledge sharing revolution brought about by the crowdsourcing model and the wisdom of the masses.

Undoubtedly, the development of mobile social media has brought positive changes to our society in terms of interpersonal communication, cultural models, economic development, and political communication.

　　However, the 10 years of rapid development of mobile social media are not without issues that deserve our reflection and vigilance.

For example, while greatly facilitating interpersonal communication, mobile social media's pervasive squeeze of private time has also caused an unprecedented increase in work pressure and social anxiety.

Many people are becoming accustomed to the interaction of virtual space and intoxicated by the "comfort zone" constructed by their "information cocoon room", and gradually forget the commendability of face-to-face dialogue and listening to different voices.

The loud noises of social media do not necessarily bring people closer together. Face-to-face but the "group loneliness" of each person using their mobile phones has become a common sign of this era.

The online shopping frenzy fueled by social media has caused many people to fall into the trap of consumerism.

The insufficient supply of authoritative information in the social media space and the disorderly dissemination of false information have become a hotbed of increased trust costs, cognitive biases and social anxiety.

While big data technology provides us with convenience, it also raises concerns about personal information leakage and privacy protection risks.

And when we ran all the way along the direction that the mobile social network guided us, we forgot to stop and wait for those people who are far behind by this era of QR codes and mobile phones.

　　All of these seem to be the "other side" that we cannot avoid in the era of mobile social media.

In the next 10 years, how to maximize the strengths and avoid weaknesses so that mobile social media can better serve the development of the country, the progress of the society and the well-being of the people will be a major proposition that requires continuous consideration.

　　(Author: Huang Dian Lin, associate professor of the Department of Communication University of China Institute of propagation)