This blog is talking about the negative influences that Internet and blogs bring to China’s generation Y. To start with, some Gen Yers spending too much time on writing blogs and becomes disconnect with family and even the outside society. Then, privacy issues caused by posting personal information and emotion are inevitable. Before starting the argument, clarification of what China’s generation Y is has to be explained first. China’s ‘Generation Yers’ are the Chinese youth born after 1980s till 2000s. The statistic shows that in China there are approximately 367 million people under age of 18, Gen Yers composed of approximately 200 million individuals between the ages of 15 and 25. These young people are the first generation of the one-child policy, as the globalization and liberalization together with Internet technology arrives in China, by experiencing both economic reforms and open markets policies, the Generation Yers develop culture which greatly influenced by Japan, Korea, and Western influences, but is starting to create a lifestyle on its own in result of fashion style, music and especially personal blogs.
First of all, the use of blogs sometimes leads to disconnection with family and even with the society. Nowadays, as the development of Internet technology and as China opens up to the world, teenagers today get a million times more information than their parents did back in the old days. Unlike their parents who went through the Cultural Revolution and lived in a rather close environment, Gen Yers today receive education and information from all over the world. When teenagers find things that they do not know, they tend to ask Google, Baidu or post the question on their blogs for answers rather than asking their parents. Also, China’s Gen Yers are often the only child in the family due to the one child policy and their parents mostly experienced the Cultural Revolution during Mao’s period. Because the difference in culture and education, Gen Yers in China experience generation gap with their parents. Gen Yers often use blog as a mean to express themselves, to record their daily lives, provide links to their friends and leave comments on each other’s blog pages. Because they have generation gap with their parents and do not think their parents understands them, instead of spending time communicating with their parents, they turn themselves to blogs. Writing down whatever they want to say, checking on friends’ blogs, leaving comments and chatting through blogs; all of these takes a lot of time and can make these teenagers lost in the online world, especially those who are afraid of talking to people face to face, blogs creates a easier way for them to communicate with other people which makes them not want to go out and socialize even more. In these severe cases, these Gen Yers may be diagnoses with autistic disorder that is a really serious psychological issue. For example, a sixteen-year-old boy in Changchun has been diagnosed as autistic disorder because he gets obsessed with the computer during summer holiday and merely talks to his parents, when he comes back to school, there is a dramatic change in his personality. He is not talking to anybody, always staring blankly, skipping classes and when he is interviewed he said the internet is the only thing that can cheer him up, people and things surround him is so bored that he is too lazy to look at. (Chang) The earlier kids starts to engage with computer, the more chance for them to get autistic disorder without the right guidance and limit.
Secondly, another problem that blogs may cause is privacy issues. As the interviewees in the article say, they keep diaries in their blogs. It is kind of interesting where they put such a private document on a rather public platform where everybody can see. In China, the line between private and public has been blurred. So is the line of what is real and what is not. In China, there is a website resembles Facebook which widely used by Gen Yers called Renren and just like Facebook, Renren uses real-name registration system where Renren users willingly submit their personal information in order to get on this website. Imagine that this website is like a huge database with archives of people’s personal information, emotions and interests, isn’t it dangerous? Despite the danger Gen Yers are still willing to submit their personal information even detailed to their address and phone number. The loose awareness of Internet safety sometimes leads to Internet fraud. “Zhang Xinfeng, vice minister of public security, said Tuesday that mobile phones and the Internet have become the most extensively used channels for exchanging information in recent years, but some criminals also use them to commit fraud.”(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2004 China to Fight SMS, Internet Fraud) Criminals often use fake identities to get access to post messages under massive blogs like you win a lottery and ask you to wire tax or insurance fees to them. "Common people are easily tempted by these offers of prizes or goods, which are usually color TVs, laptops or millions in cash. If they contact the perpetrators, the latter usually ask them to remit money to a specified bank account for payment of tax, postage or insurance fees," Zhang explained.”
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