Microblog A Double-Edged Sword

Microblog A Double-Edged Sword

Name: 王悦

Student ID: 20113289

Major: 光电信息工程

Microblog is a broadcast medium in the form of mini blog. It differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size. Microblog allows users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images or video links.

The first microblog was known as Tumbleblog in 2005. But it was by 2006 and 2007 that the form of microblog provided by Tumblr and Twitter, two social networking companies in United States, came into greater usage. And soon it was popular all over the world. However, since Twitter is blocked in mainland China, the Chinese internet users are facing a different situation. What resembles Twitter in China are Sina weibo and Tencent weibo and so on, most of which were developed in 2010. These weibo services also allow users to comment to others’ posts, post with graphical emotions or attach images, music and video files. The content of a microblog is usually limited within 140 words to ensure the

simplicity of each microblog. It has been reported by CNNIC in July 19th, 2011 that in just one year, the number of microblog users has sharply rose up to 195,000,000, which reflects that microblog must have a wide influence on all areas of society.

Thanks to microblog, it has been even quicker and easier for anyone, no matter rich or poor, famous or ordinary to share links with a large number of people without the involvement of a traditional media organization. In the other word, everyone could collectively act as a broadcast networker. Now let’s have a look at how microblog acts on our life on earth.

With the increasingly rapid pace of life today, people suffering from high pressure are eager to limit stress and release by exposing various feelings. In the meanwhile, getting attention and receiving cares from others are essential to remit aloneness. Microblog just provides such opportunities. Microblog users could share what they observe in their surroundings, the changes of their mood, personal opinions on the fresh news, the hot topics or what they have just encountered with other users, including friends and strangers, thus helping them to pouring out negative emotions, release the repressed feelings and express personal thoughts. Also the replies form other users must satisfy the bloggers’ need of being concerned for the most part. So there is no doubt that microblog has enhanced the quality of our life.

Microblog not only make it convenient for people to release emotions but also allow users to post new items quickly, which could reach the audience in seconds for microblog’s short nature of update. Here is a typical example. In July 23rd 2011, there happened a rear-end collision of motor trains in Wenzhou. Hardly when the accident had happened, several microblogs asking for rescue from victims were posted to the public, an hour earlier than the traditional media, and in the following half an hour, thousands of microbloggers forwarded these microblogs. Owing to the rapid spread of the news, the public was quickly appealed to paying attention and the rescue was in time. It is the features of convenient, quick and efficient of microblog that makes the torrent of information posted as earlier as possible, attracting attention from each aspect of society.

Well, it seems that microblog does benefit us a lot, but everything has two sides, microblog not excepted.

On the one hand, no one can ensure the authenticity of each microblog, for everyone acting as sensors or sources of data which could lead to important pieces of information. Once the information related to some hot topics touch the sensitivities of the public, there will be plenty of followers in a short time, ignoring whether it is authentic. Then follow the problems. Take the event of robbing salt tide for example. In March 2011, the panic for nuclear leakage struck on China after the nuclear

power station exploded in Japan. At first, just a fraction of people, including some so-called professors, broadcast through microblog that our unpolluted salts are extremely limited because the nuclear waste from Japan would pollute almost all the seawater around our land, from which we abstract salts. However, these microblogs were transmitted thousands of times per second and such rumors were widely spread in an instant, leading to masses of people making panic purchase on salts madly. It was reported that the number of the salts that someone bought were even enough for three generations, which can’t be absurd more. Though the government refuted rumors immediately, the negative influence that the fault information from microblogs had on public was indelible.

On the other hand, privacy is another major issue because users may broadcast sensitive personal information to anyone who views their public feed. Microblog platform providers can also cause privacy issues through altering or presenting users’ privacy options in a way users compromise their personal information. Also it cannot be ruled out that someone would disclose private information of their enemies or libel on them to destroy their reputation out of revenge or other reasons, which must be illegal in real life but not in cyber world.

Some issues as the microblog has, we are able to circumvent weakness and foster strengths of it. What should we do? First of all, as information receivers, it is necessary to improve our discriminability to

pick out the authentic information and filter the fault ones. Second, considering the importance of security and privacy, don’t publish personal information excessively to avoid unnecessary troubles. Above all, everyone is responsible for the network harmony. We have to learn from so many lessons and realize the severity of spreading junk information that may mislead the public and assailing someone else through microblog. Maybe raising the consciousness of the public is the most effective way to purify the cyber world before the rule of law is established in China.

The more people use microblog, the smaller our world will be. With the increasingly frequent communication we make with society, our world becomes a big family and everyone is equal to become a family member of it. Each of us need to appreciate it that microblog brings us convenience, efficiency and warmth. As long as we take responsibilities and make full use of the double edged sword properly, microblog must become the most useful tool in modern society and must beautify the whole world.

References:

1. Contemporary Communication 2011.05 微博传播力的本质

2. Contemporary Communication 2011.01微博的文化特性及传播

价值

3. Media Observer 2011.11 Microblog Rumor-False Information Dissemination under Herd Effect

4. English Language Learning 2011.10 Social Media: the People Formerly Known as the Audience.

5.

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