There is one similar social media in China called Weibo or its latest version Wechat. Both of them are very popular and tons of people use it every day to communicate. I have the account in both of them and realize they are really time-consuming. This is also the reason I have been so rejective to Twitter.
I started my Weibo to record my daily life. I have a lot of followers and followed many of my friends, famous people, and interesting web pages. I enjoy receiving people's comments, viewing increased followers and reading friends' post. However, I gradually notice that the Weibo grows in a different path which is something I don't like. For example, people want to use Weibo to make money. Actually, it is totally fine with their purpose, but the way they are using to achieve it is not recommended. To be specific, people want to earn money when they follow "someone's " Weibo. As the result, there are a lot of fake accounts in Weibo society. People who hold a Weibo webpage want to attract the audience by posting "adult literature" that not appropriate to children. Gradually, the Weibo lacks creativity and the genuine, fewer people use it.
Wechat then came out. The most distinguished feature of it is "friend circle", "the moments", and "Wechat pay". With Wechat, you only can see your "friends'" post rather than unknown people in the "society". You can also customize your friend circle, deciding who can or cannot view when you post "the moments". Only the friends in the same circle can see each other's comments. This feature provides the privacy and feeling of safety to users. Moreover, Wechat has another feature: wechat pay. Wechat pay is similar as Apple pay but it is more prevalent and applicable in China. As long as you scan the QR scan, you can pay through your Wechat. And because of a large group of consumers, almost every store, such as grocery store, retail stores, and restaurants offer the Wechat pay. The interesting fact is Chinese people can satisfy self-needs even don't need to bring wallet or credit card.
I feel I spend a lot of time on scanning friends' meaningless post, such as where they are traveling, what do they cook for dinner, how they have a relationship with others. There are a lot of gossips in my Wechat as well as Weibo. I spent a lot of time in reading “nonnutritive sentences". I also feel it is so hard for me to delete the app because I do want to know what happened around my "friend circle". Therefore, I did not register for another "Wechat" in U.S.
EME 6414 asks students to have a Twitter account. I think maybe I should be open-minded and try this popular social media. "You won't truly know it unless you use it". I started to follow the tutorial provided on the course site, read articles about Twitter and registered my very first Twitter account. I hope I can obtain a lot of benefits from it! And so far so good, I can feel some difference from my previous impression already. Looking forward to exploring more!
China's social media
Really interesting infograph!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with Twitter! I do find because of the conventions of 140 characters, many Twitter users post short and sweet updates, rather than lengthy ones you might find on Facebook or perhaps Wechat. I've also found I rather differentiate my Facebook and my Twitter in terms of purpose, in that I pretty much exclusively use Facebook to follow friends' updates, but mostly use Twitter for news and commentary and don't follow many friends on there. Hope it goes well for you!
There are a lot of "adult literature" posts which not appropriate to children at Twitter as well. And I believe Twitter and Weibo they are doing the same thing is blocking the inappropriate posts and accounts. Of course, the majority reason for people posts the inappropriate content is to make the profit.
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