The accelerated development of the Internet and big data has brought people a rapidly changing digital life. At the same time, short video addiction, game addiction and other phenomena are also becoming "digital annoyances" in people's lives. From today on, this edition will launch a series of comments to discuss with readers how to deal with the challenges brought by the digital era and jointly create a healthy and upward digital life.

——Editor

How to better stimulate the positive social value of short videos and prevent short videos from indulging is worthy of joint discussion and efforts of the whole society

Cultivate a more healthy and positive outlook on life, focus on learning and work, and embrace a positive, more culturally advanced digital era with more confidence

In recent years, the popularity of short videos has become one of the trends of Internet development and a new important growth point of Internet cultural industry. According to the statistical bulletin recently released by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, in 2020, Chinese netizens will swipe videos for about 100 minutes a day, and the annual paid users of Internet videos will reach 690 million.

On the one hand, the rise of online videos, especially short videos, has met the diverse needs of netizens by presenting vivid fragments and diversified themes; On the other hand, short videos also have social functions, enabling users to interact with each other through shooting, watching, liking, commenting and other behaviors. Because of this, with the popularization of 5G technology and further improvement of network speed, short video has become a content product that Internet users increasingly rely on, and also an important entertainment method for many teenagers. A report by the China Internet Audio Visual Program Service Association last October showed that the average daily use time of short videos in China has exceeded that of instant messaging. At the same time, a survey of 1974 interviewed parents also showed that 92.1% of the interviewed parents believed that teenagers were addicted to short videos. How to better stimulate the positive social value of short videos and prevent short videos from indulging is worthy of joint discussion and efforts of the whole society.

We need to see that there are internal reasons for short video addiction. The content and types of short videos are very rich, including the recording and capturing of life, the display of similar original short plays, and the popularization of various knowledge, which satisfies the curiosity of many people. At the same time, the length of the video is very consistent with the law of attention. It often has a smooth user experience, and the content can be switched with a finger stroke. In addition, the short video platform can also push the corresponding content according to the user preference according to the algorithm. For those users who lack the concept of time management and self-discipline, especially teenagers, it has a certain negative impact. For example, a lot of time is wasted, and work, study and even rest time is occupied; The concentration is disturbed, and it is difficult to continue to focus on things with long continuity; Watching a lot of meaningless content makes life itself empty; Lack of interpersonal skills and social reality, etc.

In view of the negative impact of short video addiction, various circles of society have made efforts in recent years. The head of the National Copyright Administration recently said that this year it will promote the short video platform, we media and public account operators to fully fulfill their main responsibilities. At present, some short video platforms have launched the youth mode to manage the viewing behavior of short videos in a relatively feasible way, so as to perform more of their social responsibilities and strive to eliminate the negative impact of addiction. The regulatory authorities also need to carry out more effective management, so as to prevent short video addiction from having rules to follow, so that the platform, creators and publishers can follow, so as to make the development of short video industry more standardized and orderly. In addition, short video content producers also need to strengthen their sense of social responsibility, take responsibility for their own creation, and strive to avoid vulgar and worthless short videos.

To prevent short video addiction, adults need to set an example. In daily life, parents should assume the responsibility of the first responsible person. Schools, families and the overall social environment need to cooperate with each other to help young people establish a healthy and positive view of entertainment and leisure, and use more and better social activities to let young people out of short video addiction. At the same time, we should encourage young people to develop a stronger sense of autonomy and self-consciousness, form normal and diverse hobbies and positive and reasonable exchanges, cultivate a more healthy and positive outlook on life, focus on learning and work, and more confidently embrace the positive, higher cultural content of the digital era.

(The author is a professor in the Chinese Department of Peking University)

People's Daily (June 4, 2021, 5th Edition)

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