Report on Chinese Internet social mentality published

The recently-published Annual Report on the Internet Social Mentality of China provides a helpful analysis of the different mentalities and personalities of the five generations born from the 1950s through the 1990s, China Youth Daily reported.

The report was based on statistics collected by researchers at the Communication and State Governance Center at Fudan University in Shanghai during a two-year study of 1,800 Chinese netizens drawn from various sectors of the population.

The report found that those born in the 1990s are relaxed and optimistic; those born in the 1980s are comparatively conservative and divided; those born in the 1970s are relatively realistic and enterprising; those born in the 1960s are mostly superior and restless, while those born in the 1950s and earlier are generally nostalgic, leisurely and not superior.

Dr. Gui Yong, who was in charge of the project, said that the study's conclusions were based on articles and comments published by the 1,800 netizens on Weibo, Chinese version of Twitter.

The post-1990 generation

Young people born in the 1990s are mostly confident about the county's future development, with 76.7 percent optimistic about politics and 85.7 percent optimistic about the economy, even though they show comparatively low interest in social issues, government activities, and media interactions.

This generation mostly likes to kill time by surfing the Internet. 95.2 percent of those studied recorded their daily life on Weibo, 92.8 percent shared their moods with friends, and 92 percent played online games. These figures ranked first among all the generations studied in the project.

A total of 57.5 percent of subjects from this generation said they feel the pressures of life, compared to 53.3 percent of those born in the 1980s and 39 percent of those born in the 1970s. Although 24.4 percent of the post-1990 generation think of themselves as "poor, short and weak," only 3.4 percent described themselves as "unhappy."

The post-1980 generation

Among those born a decade earlier, 19.4 percent are very optimistic about the country's future economic development and 70.6 percent are "cautiously optimistic"; only 10 percent said they were pessimistic.

This group mostly likes to engage in social activities and shopping via the Internet, with 70.0 percent making friends on Weibo, about 14 percent more than the post-1950 generation. About 50.1 percent of the 1980s generation engage in online shopping, about 31 percentage points higher than the post-1950s generation.

The post-1980 group's online activities focus mainly on economic interests, and the frequency of their efforts to ensure personal rights protection is the highest among all five groups. This generation pays comparatively high attention to income distribution and has comparatively low satisfaction with it.

The post-1970 generation

This group is neither as optimistic as the 1990s group, nor as pessimistic as the 1950s group, showing a relatively neutral and conservative attitude, according to the report.

There is strong interest in social issues, such as housing prices (29.9 percent), the changing residence registration system (14.3 percent), food safety (22 percent), income (21 percent) and employment (14 percent), with these percentages all ranking first among all the generations studied.

Although the number of the post-1970 group who visit Weibo for entertainment, socializing and shopping ranks second to last, 41 percent of this group like to collect information from Weibo.

As the social mainstay, this group has a strong sense of development efficacy and social superiority. At the same time, they show a prominent negative social mood.

The post-1960 generation

This group is most active in Internet discussions and comments, the report shows. They frequently appear in Weibo interactions that also involve government and the media.

These people are comparatively aggressive, with 10.1 percent involved in disagreements and outright quarrels with other netizens, ranking first (1.9 percent for the post 1990s, 3.4 percent for the post-1980s, 6.6 percent for the post-1970s, and zero percent for the post-1950s).

The report says that 52.7 percent of the post-1960s generation thinks they enjoy a comfortable life, the lowest percentage among all the generations in the study, revealing a typical characteristic of this group - anxiety and unease. However, they still show the strongest sense of superiority (42.3 percent compared with 16.7 percent for the 1990s group, 14.5 percent for the 1980s group, 31.5 percent for the 1970s group, and 10.7 for the 1950s group).

The post-1950 and earlier generation

This group of people likes to kill time by surfing the Internet - only the post-1980 and post-1990 groups exceeded them in this regard. However, they don't like to engage in online social and business activities.

The report says that members of the post-1950 generation have a strong sense of being "relatively deprived," and a weak sense of superiority. They have relatively adequate leisure time and relatively ample social security.

Compared with young people, they have a stronger desire for security.