Enriching the distressing reality

Abstract

Based on a field study in Guangdong Province, this paper describes the social med ia use of Ch inese migrant workers in the manufacturing sector. It was found that social media plays a significant role in the lives of young workers who have left their rural ho metowns in early adulthood and struggle to survive in the urban centers. They buy expensive IT devices to gain a social reputation, as social med ia provides opportunities for self-expression; strengthens their self-consciousness; and to a certain extent, influences their wo rld view. For most of the workers in our study, social med ia has become a very important part of leisure t ime and entertain ment. Moreover, the life in v irtual worlds provides them a psychological co mpensation mechanis m to temporarily avoid the pressure of their daily lives. Author Ke ywordsChina; social media; virtual identity; migrant worker; field study ACM Classification KeywordsH5.m. Informat ion interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Miscellaneous.

How Semi-Urbanisation Drives Expansion of Rural Construction Land in China: A Rural-Urban Interaction Perspective

“…This index relies on geo-tagged posts from Sina Weibo users (similar to Twitter in Western countries), which can lead to sample bias across different age groups. However, due to the similarity in age structure between new urban migrants and Weibo users [73] and the proven reliability of Sina Weibo data as determined by Liu et al [57], we believe that such bias had a limited impact. In spite of this, providing more accurate and informative data on migration is imperative for future study.…”