Students balance culture, the Net

Scholars in communication pointed out that there is a real world out there and a world of pictures in our minds, the latter often determined by the media's depiction of reality. With the spread and reach of the mass media, we may pose the following questions: Is the world beyond our reach and will, is the virtual world as it is described by the media, and is the world in our minds always in sync with everyone else's? If not, what is the relationship between these three "worlds"?

With the Internet's presence enmeshed in the life of Chinese college students, how do they react to the influence of globalization and Westernization, which might be read through the Internet? Are the post-1980 generation of Chinese youth as "Westernized" as stated by many cultural critics and scholars? How do they perceive their own cultural identity, or identities? Over the years, the author of this column has collected more than 100 personal accounts addressing the aforementioned questions from college students at Xiamen University.

An analysis of the interplay between their use of the Internet and their cultural identities reveals many findings. Most parts of China, rural and urban, were represented in the study. They invariably reported heavy dependency on the Internet for information and entertainment, although those who grew up in major cities usually began to access the Internet in high school, while those from the remotest mountainous regions did not have heavy access to the Internet until they entered graduate school.