Why contemporary urban youth like to keep pets
Have you found out that cute kitten and puppy photos have occupied your circle of friends since some time?
When you swipe it, you will see that the company colleagues are showing dogs again. He is always in the company on weekdays, holding the puppy and smiling brightly.
After graduation, Wang Qi joined an Internet company in Beijing to work. The classmates and sisters who used to stick together all the time were scattered all over the place. She liked the excitement and could only return to the empty room after get off work, lying on the bed and playing with her mobile phone.
The cats posted by her colleagues and friends in the circle of friends made her feel itchy. Every time she followed a video of her boyfriend in a different place, he would show off his kitten, which made her envious.
Finally, Wang Qi couldn't hold back, took back a kitten and named it "Jinbao".
"Every morning when I wake up and see Jinbao lying beside me quietly watching me, I feel that the world is very gentle, and I feel that I have the courage to face a new day full of work." Wang Qi said.
In big cities, more and more young people are starting to keep pets.
The workplace beauties in the company, after returning home, many people return to the most simple identity - shit shoveling officer.
Data show that from 2010 to 2020, the number of pets in China has soared from 59 million to 189 million, of which the number of urban pet cats and dogs has exceeded 100 million.
Psychologist Erik H Erikson (Erik H Erikson) believes that in the youth of 20-40 years old, the main task of human psychological development is to gain intimacy and avoid loneliness.
For young people who work hard in big cities, although they long for love and marriage, the reality is full of difficulties. Therefore, keeping pets has become an alternative choice for many young people to gain intimacy.
There is experimental data showing that interacting with pets can lower blood pressure, slow heart rate, and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the body.
This greatly relieves the work pressure of contemporary young people and improves their quality of life.
"I can eat dirt, but my kitty must have something that other kittens have!" On Weibo, a netizen's joke resonated with many people.
This generation of young people is also unequivocal in pet consumption.
Netizen Xiao Ai posted on the Douban group: "I eat takeout for 15 yuan per meal, but my dog has to eat a bag of dog food for three or four hundred yuan." In 2020, the pet market will be close to 300 billion yuan, more than According to the market size of infant milk powder and diapers, the pet market size is expected to reach 445.6 billion yuan in 2023.
Some people find it difficult to understand, what are urban young people thinking about pets?
According to Wei Ran, a registered psychologist of the Chinese Psychological Society, this phenomenon is not contradictory.
When young people get sufficient companionship and intimacy from their pets, they become emotionally dependent on pets and look forward to the continuation of the relationship. Spending money on pets is a natural behavioral expression of this emotion.
In the process of consuming pet products, it also subtly enhances the sense of belonging of young people in the "pet circle".
Enter "why keep pets" in the search bar, and a word with a high frequency of search results is "cure".
In the bustling and bustling big city, groups of young people are shouldering various pressures from further education, employment, workplace, housing loan, etc., and tenaciously want to take root in this city.
Back in the room after a hard day's work, they always have a way to heal themselves.
Li Xiaoyang, a fresh graduate, is conducting an interview "wheel battle". At most, he conducted 3 interviews a day, and sometimes he didn't even bother to eat lunch.
"I'm not afraid of hard work, but it's really hard to maintain self-confidence when I'm announced to be eliminated in the interview. Sometimes I even think, is there no place in this world that needs me." Opening the door, the little teddy dog Lucky shook his head with joy, whimpering as he rushed over.
"At this moment, I feel that in the eyes of the puppy, I am everything, and that self-doubt will be slowly wiped out by this feeling of being needed."
"When young people realize that they can be responsible for their pets and feel the pet's dependence on them, their 'needed' needs are met invisibly, making them feel their irreplaceability, enhancing their sense of self-worth and A sense of strength. This largely eliminates the sense of powerlessness and even low self-esteem that 'migrant workers' often have." Wei Ran said.
He Zihan, a 27-year-old girl, is considering marrying her boyfriend of five years.
She feels that the significance of having a pet is that since having a pet, her relationship with her boyfriend has become more harmonious.
"It's not just two people together, pets make me feel at home."
In March last year, He Zihan and her boyfriend brought back the kitten "Orange" from the adoption center. The two novice shit shovel officers who had never raised a pet were in a hurry.
In order to allow the kitten to adapt to the environment as soon as possible, she and her boyfriend have a clear division of labor. The boyfriend is responsible for learning the knowledge of raising cats, and she is responsible for purchasing cat food, cat litter and other materials.
If there is a problem, the two will discuss together or study online.
"After raising cats, we began to have a common goal and learned to take responsibility, which made me feel that both the two of us and our relationship are gradually maturing."
Wei Ran believes that treating pets as members of the family shows young people's desire for "home".
At the same time, titles like "Dad" and "Mama" also present a sense of responsibility.
Although He Zihan and her boyfriend moved frequently due to work reasons, she felt that no matter where they moved, as long as there were "Oranges" around, a warm home would be waiting for her after get off work.
"Because you know there's always a furry cutie waiting for you at home."
Qi Yuanjiao Source: China Youth Daily
February 25, 2022 Version 07