Report of Instant Messaging

  Because of the particular security policy of China, I have no chance to use Skype or Twitter before though they are both most popular social networks and tools for communication around the world. The instant messaging and chatting tools which I get used to are QQ, Wechat and microblogs, almost each Chinese people who have a smartphone or computer would install one of them on their alliances actually. But in my view, they are not traditional ‘IM’ services or chat rooms which provide real-time communication and status posting functions singly, they are the integration of communication and real life.

  Essentially, people can use them for real-time communication tools like Skype. They can send instant messages to their friends by typing or audio inputting and add some shorthand symbols, abbreviations and emotions for decoration to make communication more vivid, they can also transmit various common types of documents or folders for educational or commercial purpose when they are communicating with others. And the messages and documents people have sent to others on QQ or Wechat can be recorded and saved automatically forever as long as they won’t delete the initial recording folders embedded in dedicated area of software. So people can search recording messages easily and they don’t need to worry about the security of saved recording because there is an individual password for record which must be different from the login password.

  People can also use QQ or Wechat to do a free phone call or video communication by just clicking or touching dedicate button on the interface of software. For example, I usually use Wechat for video chat with my mom because it supports smooth and high-quality video and much easier for operation in all ages than QQ. Some American friends asked me what could I do if I missed my family deeply in China, I just replied that I have installed Wechat on my phone and recommended it to them. It’s an obvious fact that the appearance and development of instant message tool shorten the distance between people from different counties and make it more convenient comparing to the traditional mails.

  But as what I mentioned before, QQ and Wechat are not only communications tools, they are a kind of online lifestyles tied closely to the real normal life. I think it’s the biggest difference from Skype or Twitter. For example, Chinese people can use Wechat to do online shopping without login in dedicated websites like Amazon by using dedicated embed payment tool; reserve a table of restaurant，seats of cinema or hotels without making a phone call; buy tickets of train or bus without operating on other relative Apps; pay for telephone bill, water tariff, electricity charges; enquire the balance of debit or credit card and transfer money directly to friends’ account without any tips.

  So you can see, Chinese people can use Wechat to do almost everything conveniently just by clicking or touching some dedicated buttons or labels, and it’s not difficult to be used and accepted by them.

  Instant messaging tools can be benefit in educational area because teachers can implement them on teaching to make effective communication with students and receive the immediate feedback from them. But I don’t think it’s a good idea for Chinese teachers to pay attention to Wechat or QQ for educational purpose, because it’s much harder to monitor students’ behavior when they use them. And, absolutely, students are experiencing the real complex and tempted life, not just communication.