While many members of Taiwan’s older generations still grapple with the intricacies of using email, those born after 1980—the country’s so-called “strawberry generation”—have already moved on. “Email is for school, work and parents—if they have accounts,” says Liu Zheng-zhang (劉正章), a 26-year-old doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in Taipei. “Among my friends, it’s text messaging and Facebook now.”
One of the biggest factors separating members of Liu’s generation from their elders is the ability to master information technology. Many strawberries have been using the Internet and mobile phones since early adolescence, as both technologies began to take off in Taiwan during the latter half of the 1990s. As a result, many members of the younger generation are able to exploit information technology’s potential far better than their elders. Their ability with all things digital is such that they have even developed their own shorthand form of communication—a cyber “language” called Martian that approximates the sound of Chinese words with English letters, symbols and abbreviations. The language is commonly used by youths while texting and for instant messaging and is called Martian because it is largely alien to older earthlings.
A 2011 survey by the Cabinet-level Research, Development and Evaluation Commission shows that Taiwan’s 20-somethings spend an average of 3.7 hours online every day. That figure includes the amount of time spent online at school, work and at home and is not only higher than the average daily amount of time spent online by those in their 30s, but also higher than the amount for teens. Eighty-nine percent of those in their 20s reported reading online news daily, 75 percent searched for and compared prices of products, 58 percent searched for medical or health-related information, 70 percent used electronic maps and 91 percent looked for job opportunities. Those figures were greater than those for all other age groups, and the 20-somethings also led in Internet shopping and using online audio and video services.
Being cyber savvy also helps strawberries in the real world, as computer skills are a requirement at school and for most jobs. Some 20-somethings capitalize on their digital skills when developing their own businesses. According to a survey conducted in 2011 by 104boss.com, a business consulting website run by Taipei-based 104 Corp., about 16 percent of those aged between 20 and 29 had attempted to set up their own business, and 80 percent of those who had done so started earning a profit from their enterprise within one year. The survey found that some of the young online entrepreneurs sold products that targeted specific customers, while others offered services such as design or photography. Kao Yi-fang (高義芳), an associate professor in the Department of Business Administration at Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei City, notes that the Internet helps 20-something business owners connect with customers because search engines and blog reviews are efficient and comparatively inexpensive marketing approaches for small companies that do not have a large amount of capital for advertising.
In the 3.7 hours they spend online every day, Taiwan’s 20-somethings use electronic maps, chat, look for information and shop, among other things. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)
Digital Influence
Of course, the digital influence on Taiwan’s youth extends far beyond school and work. Huang Hou-ming (黃厚銘), an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at National Chengchi University in Taipei, has investigated the Internet’s unique effects on building relationships. The telephone, the communications mainstay of Taiwan’s older generations, is a medium mostly used for two-way conversation between individuals, he points out, while traditional media services such as radio, television and print provide primarily one-way communication. “The Internet is a mixture of the two,” he says. “It can serve as a means for private communication. It can also feed all kinds of information to users and then allow them to respond.” Young users, who are experienced with social media and are typically less restrained about expressing their opinions than their elders, are certainly not passing up the opportunity to comment on the information they view online.
Huang explains that the Internet helps individuals develop relationships because it has both a connecting and a separating function. As an example, he cites the 1998 movie You’ve Got Mail, in which the anonymity of email allows two people who conflict in real life to establish a romantic relationship online. “In the cyber world, people separate themselves from their real-life identities,” Huang says. “It allows them to drop the burdens or restraints that come with their true identity and extend their social circle to people they’d never talk to in real life.”
The separating function can have a downside, however, as most online communication is text-based and therefore cannot convey the meaning imparted by facial expressions, body language and vocal inflection. As a result, it is easy for misunderstandings to happen online, and such arguments often escalate rapidly, as physical separation and anonymity ensure that those involved suffer few consequences for their behavior.
Tackling Trolls
Liu Zheng-zhang, for example, has gotten used to the presence of “trolls”—those who post messages on online forums with the goal of provoking others—on several message boards he is a member of. “They make false accusations and argue for the sake of arguing,” he says. “Then whatever was under discussion just turns into name calling. The anonymity of the Internet is a double-edged sword because it also protects trolls.”
Members of the 20–29 age group also lead all other users in Taiwan in the amount of time they spend on social networking websites. According to an analysis released by the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute under the Institute for Information Industry in September 2011, 63 percent of Taiwan’s Internet users frequent social networking sites, with members of the 20–29 age group leading all other categories in both number of users and time spent.
The facial expressions, body language and vocal inflection found in face-to-face communication are absent in text-based online and mobile communication, making it easier for misunderstandings to occur. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)
Liu has long relied on the Internet to expand his network of friends, progressing from Taiwan’s still-popular PTT Bulletin Board System, which was founded in 1995, to Wretch, a community website that provides free photo album and blog hosting services. His latest digital move was joining Facebook, which started gaining popularity locally in mid-2009 and became Taiwan’s largest social networking site in mid-2010. Liu initially became a Facebook member so he could play Happy Farm, an extremely popular online game in which users compete against each other to set up farms, grow crops and raise livestock. Soon after joining Facebook, Liu found he had been “friended” by more than 200 other members.
Liu says it is clear, however, that relationships borne of online social networking are fundamentally different from those in real life. “[Social networking] certainly promotes the existence of weak ties, as I now ‘meet’ with ‘friends’ who were originally friends’ friends and primary school classmates I haven’t seen for years,” he says. “For me, the difference between online and offline is that when I’m online, I know a lot of people but not very well, and when I’m offline, I know a few people very well.”
Online Isolation
In fact, some researchers have warned that while social networks like Facebook give young people the impression that they communicate well and have many friends, the amount of time they spend using computers actually makes them more isolated than ever. When 29-year-old Li Jin-chen (李謹臣) lost his job two years ago, for example, the cyber world became a convenient place to hide. For 18 months, he spent most of his time either sleeping or interacting with others online. “Chatting, playing games or simply surfing the net all helped release the stress, or kept me too busy to think about it,” he says. “The best thing was that there was no embarrassment about my situation since I was hiding behind my screen name and no one knew who I was in the real world.” Li spent so much time online that his mother became convinced he had an Internet addiction. He finally broke out of his self-imposed isolation when he landed another job—by sending resumes electronically, of course.
In Taiwan, those born after 1980 are said to have been brought up in good economic conditions, protected by their parents and assisted by an education system in which a declining birth rate and the opening of new institutions have made it easy to get into a university. The strawberry generation’s exposure to digital communications, however, could be its most defining feature. When personality traits are discussed, the strawberries are often praised for their abilities to innovate and quickly absorb new concepts. It is little surprise that such characteristics have emerged in an age when technology provides more forms of communication and delivers more information faster than ever before.
Write to Jim Hwang at jim@mail.gio.gov.tw