From "Passerby A" to "New Internet Celebrity": The Road of "Counterattack" of Small Town Youth Networks

On September 29, at the Xinnongren Maker Center in Qingliangfeng Town, Lin'an District, Hangzhou, the party branch was carrying out live training activities. In recent years, Lin'an District of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, has discovered, excavated, and cultivated outstanding young people, screened and examined to form a reserve pool of "good seedlings", and absorbed a group of young people who have returned to their hometowns to start a business, young people who have invested in the local area, village affairs workers, backbones of social organizations, etc. to actively move closer to the party and group organizations, encourage them to become the "leading geese" in the revitalization of the countryside, and drive the villagers to increase their income and become rich. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Yu

The "Economic Reference News" reporter found in many places that with the rapid development of Internet platforms such as Kuaishou, B station, and Pinduoduo, many small-town youth in cities below the third tier have taken advantage of the "east wind" of mobile Internet development, using network platforms to actively display themselves or seek business opportunities, and gradually "emerge" in specific fields such as short videos.

Gradually becoming a "protagonist" from the edge of the network

"There may be a gap between real life and 'city people', but on the Internet, I can also be the 'protagonist'." Zheng Weixin, a network "big V" who once lived in a poor mountain village in Bijie City, Guizhou Province, said of himself is a true portrayal of many small-town youth. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, many young people in small towns have been "watched" on the Internet and have gradually "emerged" in specific online fields such as short videos.

Internet platform data show that in the past two years, small-town youth who have been on the edge of the Internet public opinion field for a long time have been very active, and many people have transformed from unknown "passers-by" into sought after "new Internet celebrities".

According to the data of the short video platform Kuaishou, in 2020, young people living in small towns living below the third-tier cities played the main force of Kuaishou anchors, releasing more than 2.8 billion short videos and receiving more than 80 billion likes. Pinduoduo data shows that in 2020, more than 100,000 young people in small towns returned to their hometowns to start businesses, and the number of new youth stores selling fresh fruits in Pinduoduo increased by 148%.

Small-town youth "understand the Internet, use the Internet" has become an important intergenerational feature that distinguishes them from their parents. For example, the "UP Master" Huanong Brothers of Station B has more than 6 million fans, mainly releasing videos related to making rural food and showing rural lifestyles, conveying positive, optimistic and humorous value content.

"It is not easy for children in the mountains to change their destiny, in addition to serious reading, taking the initiative to embrace the Internet has also created more opportunities for life to shine." A researcher at the Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences said that in the Internet era, the "counterattack" of small-town youth reflects the new trend of group development. They hitched a ride on the "Internet" express train, knew how to hold the "microphone" in their hands to spread themselves, and improved their sense of social identity.

"Small-town youth are more authentic and more concerned about life. Compared with other age groups, they are also more patriotic, more affectionate and empathetic. He Huafeng, president of the Kuaishou Research Institute, said that on the day of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Kuaishou produced 920,000 related short videos, most of which were content in which small-town youth expressed their love for the party and the heart of the party in their hometown.

With the development of society and the widespread spread of the Internet, young people in small towns are also keen on new things and keep up with the trend of fashion. Compared with its predecessors, it is obsessed with and interested in trendy and pan-entertainment content. Kuaishou platform data show that more than 65% of small-town youth said that "brushing mobile phones" is their most commonly used entertainment method, and the top six short video types that small-town youth like are games, music, photography, singing, movies, and paragraphs, which are not significantly different from urban youth.

The reporter of the Economic Information Daily found in the grassroots interview that the new and large-screen smart phones are the "standard" of many small-town youth. Zhang Zhen, a young man in Hubei Enshi, said that although his salary is not high, he cannot treat himself badly in life and buy what he likes. Lian Si, a young scholar and professor at the University of International Business and Economics, said that young people in small towns seek spiritual satisfaction online, and pan-entertainment content occupies most of their leisure time.

Multiple realities remain difficult to be solved

"Sending short videos on the Internet is on the one hand to record their own lives, on the other hand, they also hope to get more attention." Many young people in the small town interviewed said.

Subject to their own ability and knowledge level and the level of development of the region, small-town youth generally do not have high incomes and a single income structure. Respondents said that the purpose of coming from rural areas to first- and second-tier cities is to earn more money and improve their lives, but urban consumption is high and it is still difficult to save money.

Employment, entrepreneurship and career development issues also plague small-town youth. They generally reported that there are fewer job opportunities in small towns, which are dominated by labor-intensive industries, and that after the epidemic, employment opportunities in large cities have also decreased. According to a report released by data research institute Max, the proportion of small-town youth who choose to work in first-tier cities in the past five years has shown a downward trend.

Liu Jiajia, who works for a design company in Sichuan, said that she studied urban planning, and could not find a professional counterpart in her hometown, and it was difficult to promote. To stay in his hometown, he can only become a civil servant or a teacher, but he is "not willing to do so, and feel that his learning is in vain."

"I'm still young and want to learn more knowledge and skills, but there are too few opportunities to learn when I leave school." Jiklari, a Yi boy from Liangshan, Sichuan, who works at a shoe factory in Guangdong, said.

Du Zhengqiang, an anchor of Kuaishou in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, who has nearly 1.6 million fans through the performance of "Northern Shaanxi Storytelling", is anxious about the impact of the epidemic on the tourism industry: "Due to the impact of the epidemic, tourism operations are intermittent, and young people can only 'hang' in the townships. ”

Activate hr "rich mines"

The experts and scholars interviewed believe that the small town youth group is huge and is a "rich mine" of human resources. It is recommended to pay attention to the impact of the epidemic on the lives and mentality of young people in small towns, and activate the power of youth to help social development and rural revitalization.

First of all, the organization and mobilization of young people in small towns should be strengthened according to the situation. Staff of the relevant departments of the Guizhou Youth League Provincial Committee, which has long been concerned about the development of small-town youth, said that small-town youth have always been in a state of mobility, the trend is difficult to grasp, and the demands are not easy to be listened to. After the epidemic, the number of young people in small towns returning to their hometowns for employment and starting a business has increased significantly, which is an important opportunity to guide and help them.

Lian Si and others suggested that the organization and service work of small-town youth should be strengthened by taking advantage of the situation, actively giving play to the role of mass organizations at all levels, paying more attention to small-town youth, and strengthening ideological construction, career selection suggestions, and value guidance in a targeted manner, so as to be able to "help the young people in distress and help those who are difficult to help."

Second, build more learning platforms for young people in small towns. At The Guizhou Qianxi Secondary Vocational School, students who have undergone vocational education and training have performed well in terms of hands-on ability. The relevant person in charge of the school said that vocational school students are typical small-town youths, who have received vocational education and often have "a skill". For young people in small towns who returned home after the epidemic, through the "reengineering and upgrading" of vocational education, they can make their life goals clearer.

Experts suggest that local governments or enterprises and institutions should take the lead in holding some high-quality lectures and career planning activities on Internet platforms such as Kuaishou, which is popular among small-town youth, to provide job search references for small-town youth, so that they can enrich themselves after work, and also enrich their spiritual world accordingly.

Third, strengthen policy and financial support to optimize the entrepreneurial employment environment for young people in small towns. Small-town youth are a new force in rural revitalization. Gu Yu, president of the Bilibili Institute of Public Policy, suggested that we should continue to increase the policy inclination for regional development, introduce or establish large enterprises according to local conditions, and vigorously develop the tertiary industry, continue to broaden employment channels, and provide more employment opportunities and working conditions for young people in small towns.

In addition, optimize the entrepreneurial environment and increase the support and support for young people in small towns to start their own businesses. The small-town youth group is huge and acts as a new force for the construction and development of small and medium-sized towns. Policy assistance is given to young people who are willing to return from big cities to start businesses in third- and fourth-tier small towns, including threshold access for entrepreneurship, financial support, housing rental, etc. (Reporter Luo Fei Yan Zhihong)

Source: Economic Reference Newspaper