Why does WeChat lower the overall IQ of Chinese people?

The Internet is a portal. In the past, when people went online, young people went to Tencent, people who read news went to Sina, people who played games liked to go to NetEase, and new Internet users liked to play Sohu. But since the emergence of Tencent's WeChat in 2011, people have increasingly preferred WeChat, resulting in a narrower portal, making the news people are exposed to every day (even not news but chicken soup) remain at the level of a few WeChat public account editors for a long time. You don't even have time to buy a local evening paper to read, and you don't even have the interest to turn on the TV and sit in front of the TV to watch the news broadcast. The news you receive every day are the four or five pieces pushed to you by WeChat. The topics that everyone cares about and talks about are the same, resulting in information convergence.

In traditional times, people always said "rumors stop at the wise" and "three cobblers make a Zhuge Liang", but after the emergence of WeChat, rumors did not stop at the "wise men". Instead, many specious things appeared in the circle of friends, and many rumors were spread. In the WeChat era, after three cobblers got together, not only did a "Zhuge Liang" not emerge, but their overall IQ was lower than that of one cobbler.

WeChat is a strong relationship application, which means that people who add each other as friends and know each other on WeChat are at least in your address book. Why do you become a group? Because someone pulls you in, you have common friends, and only when you have intersections can you form a group. Chinese people have always said that friends of friends are friends. However, Chinese people are a face-saving society. It was in our childhood that we dared to point out others' mistakes to their faces. We call it "The King's New Clothes". Only the children in Andersen's fairy tales have such courage. WeChat is like a show. When the leader quoted a Tang poem to show his talent, he actually quoted a Song poem, but you not only liked it, but also forwarded it. This is an entertainment society. Everyone faces it with a playful attitude, and a playful attitude dispels people's pursuit of the truth. The acquaintance society will further strengthen the power of authority, making people dare not and unwilling to question people with social advantages. The party A with certain resources often receives the most likes in WeChat Moments, which will also create new social inequality. In the WeChat era, people will find a lot of information, for example, about lost children. Among a hundred pieces of information, 99% may be false and can be verified by just making a phone call. But why don’t people verify it? Because people’s thinking has become simple, especially when they see their friends forwarding it.

Another characteristic of the Internet age is that you give your brain to others. Chinese people touch their phones 150 times a day. The first thing they touch when they wake up and the last thing they touch before going to bed is their phones, which is also due to the timely feedback from their phones. With the emergence of WeChat, people's average sleep time has been reduced by 40 minutes. Who can guarantee that they won't put their phones in the bedroom now? Because there is a huge amount of information and timely feedback, you can enter the bedrooms of all your friends. Now, even your boyfriend, girlfriend, and even your goddess, your favorite female classmate, even if her husband is right next to her, because of the emergence of WeChat, her husband sleeping next to her does not prevent you from talking to her.

The era of Weibo is a kind of square effect. When you upload something that seems to be true in the square, there will be a rumor crusher. When you post a current event poem such as "XXX was arrested for taking drugs" in the square, experts and scholars will soon tell you that it is not true. Because Weibo is a society of square people, a world of strangers, anyone who comes out and shouts out will quickly crush the rumor.

In the WeChat era, since everyone is familiar or only half-acquainted, it has entered a strong relationship society. At this time, all kinds of rumors have spread like wildfire. Rumors have not decreased, but increased. It stands to reason that in a strong relationship society, out of mutual trust, people will not spread rumors because it will damage their own credibility. In fact, the opposite is true. Rumors have become more powerful.

Convergence means that everyone has a single source of information, and a single source will cause this kind of rumor to spread. Many people use WeChat the most frequently and for the longest time every day. Some people even only use WeChat as an application every day, and even only follow a limited number of public accounts. This leads to a convergence phenomenon - everyone's IQ level will be equivalent to that of the editor of the WeChat public account, because everyone reads similar articles on WeChat and Moments every day. Therefore, WeChat will lower the overall IQ of Chinese people. After information convergence, when everyone faces the same information, sometimes they will make the same judgment, thereby amplifying the influence of some events and ultimately causing panic.

To cure this low IQ or to break the rumor, there is only one tool, two words: "transparency". When you make everything transparent, you will find that when the Japanese tsunami hit, the nuclear pollution will not spread to China's coastal waters. Since most of our country's salt is well salt, consumers may think that Chinese salt has nothing to do with Japan's nuclear pollution.

Of course, you will find that the Internet is a double-edged sword. It also has a good side, which is that it becomes very easy to crush rumors. Unlike in traditional society, a rumor will not circulate for a long time, so it becomes an "instant rumor", but the lethality of an instant rumor is also very strong. So at this time, we must call on everyone to beware of the arrival of this low IQ society. We still need to advocate independent thinking and distinguish right from wrong, even if it is something said by an acquaintance, even if it is something said by an authority, even if it is something said by your leader or boss. We used to say "I love my teacher, but I love the truth more", which means that we should add more question marks, so that we can improve the IQ of the entire society and distinguish right from wrong.

The Internet has promoted progress, but when you are too addicted to WeChat and your circle of friends, it leads to a narrowing of social connections. When your circle of friends is filled with seemingly plausible inspirational quotes and rumors, with people constantly talking about saving dogs today, looking for children tomorrow, and saying that the water in a certain place is undrinkable the day after tomorrow, you will fall into a kind of mental anxiety, which we call: Internet anxiety. So at a certain point, shouldn’t you clean up your circle of friends?

Of course, the world trend is mighty and powerful; those who follow it will prosper, and those who go against it will perish. As the world's largest mobile app, it is definitely unrealistic to refuse to use WeChat. But when the entrance to the Internet becomes narrower and narrower, you must remember that WeChat is not the whole of your life. The Internet is vast, but everyone needs navigation. Reading thousands of books is not as time-consuming as traveling thousands of miles, and traveling thousands of miles is not as good as being guided by a master. We know that learning is a journey of hardship, but at the same time, we must find a guiding light.

In fact, the most terrible thing about WeChat is that it has brought about a society where people just follow the crowd. WeChat has established a strong relationship society, and the Chinese people's face problem will intensify the spread of rumors. At this time, we should "love my friends, but I love the truth more" and stop blindly liking. There is nothing wrong with liking, but at the same time, we need to give kind reminders, which of course requires skills.

In short, we cannot rely on WeChat to understand society, nor can we rely on it to manage it, and we certainly can’t rely on it to learn. WeChat is just a tool, a window to the world, not the whole world.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.