China’s Youth Leads Communication Revolution

Global Business

China has 600 million internet users– 80% of them using their phones to get online. Most use it for chatting, shopping, and email. But as Wu Guoxiu reports, some worry about the missing human interactions.

Wang Zhongyi, is part of the 80s generation, that has grown up in the wired world. He works for a literature and information website that publishes online books and original novels. He says tens of thousands of readers flock to his company’s website every day.

Today even window shopping is a stationary activity. Wang is one of 300 million people in China who shop online. He says Internet shopping allows everyone, everywhere to shop for just about anything.

China’s Youth Leads Communication Revolution

China has 600 million internet users-- 80% of them using their phones to get online. Most use it for chatting, shopping, and email. But as Wu Guoxiu reports, some worry about the missing human interactions.

By the end of 2013, China has more than 600 million internet users and 80 percent of them used their smart phones to get online. Internet access is now so ubiquitous (U-bee-qui-tous) the upcoming generation can’t imagine life without it. They brag that online chats bring them virtually closer to friends and family, but admit it’s widening the gap in face-to-face interaction.

Wang of course never had to use a corner-store telephone to make a call nor has he experienced an unannounced drop-in from friends and family who had no way to contact him in advance. Despite the advantages brought by today’s wired world people like Wang are asking: is China now more or less sociable.