First, let’s discuss the reply to Thoughts on Media (Part One) from the backend
Blogs, forums, and Tieba (Post Bar) from the previous era are destined to fade away because they cannot provide quality creators with enough traffic and benefits——Dugu Hui
Brother Hui’s point is very realistic and a major reason. He has always encouraged me to do a public WeChat account, but I didn’t because I felt WeChat’s ecosystem was too closed, and I didn’t like it. But now I’ve come to terms with it, or rather compromised. When facing the big trend, going with it leads to prosperity, opposing it leads to ruin; it has always been so.
By the way, to continue from the ending of Thoughts on Media (Part One), I no longer think forums/blogs need to exist because the exchange of information has not essentially changed. It’s still the author publishing content, with readers commenting and authors replying for interaction. Whether it’s videos or audio, WeChat public accounts or Douyin (TikTok), the essence hasn’t changed.
But why do I always feel awkward? I must admit I have some arrogance, but I think there is an important reason: the main information conveyed by different media is also different.
Taking my real-life example — in terms of text, I mainly use public WeChat accounts, Zhihu, and several forums. Public WeChat accounts are often where I see friends sharing content; if it’s interesting, I read it or glance over updates from accounts I follow. It’s mostly for leisure, with short articles quickly skimmed through in minutes; longer articles are usually lighter reading like Sanlian (a magazine), or profiles; I rarely look at highly specialized content — the longer it is, the less I read, because I open WeChat for leisure. Zhihu is similar most of the time — looking at trending topics to catch up on recent developments, but sometimes when I need knowledge, I will specifically look it up on Zhihu, which often provides answers. As for forums, I hardly browse them casually; I open forums only when I have problems — for example, recently when building Zhongyi Shitu (Traditional Chinese Medicine Disciple), I used a difficult framework with almost no timely tutorials domestically, and overseas write-ups were superficial. At such times, I bring a bunch of error messages to the official forum, asking questions one by one and solving them one by one.
(Guess how many nights I stayed up to get the website done?)
Do you see the difference? Public WeChat accounts and Zhihu are primarily for leisure, while forums are mainly for getting things done. Is it that public WeChat accounts and Zhihu cannot be used for getting things done? Not at all. Public WeChat accounts have now gathered a lot of resources; in daily life, almost anything you want to know is on there, and it has already become quite a good search engine. Many long articles are also full of content, and Zhihu even more so, with more professional answers. Forums are not just for work; there are also many forums for entertainment, such as Reddit.
Different media naturally have their unique personalities: public WeChat accounts are diverse and mixed, Zhihu is relatively serious, Bilibili is younger, Douyin is down-to-earth, forums are very professional, and so on. Using media with different personalities is like making different kinds of friends. “Whoever stays near vermilion gets stained red, whoever stays near ink gets stained black.” Being close to information that can improve you leads to progress; being close to media that makes you slacken leads to relaxation. Of course, we have the freedom to choose; we can choose to watch short videos all day for suffering, or choose to read a long article for an hour to refine ourselves. Just don’t regret your choice afterward.
Mèng, Hēng. Bèi wǒ qiú tóngméng, tóngméng qiú wǒ. Chū shì gào, zàisān dú, dú zé bù gào, lì zhēn.
(Interpretation from the I Ching: Innocence, Prosperity. I seek the naive, the naive seek me. Initially giving warnings, repeated disrespect will cease communication, favorable for perseverance.)
As the naive, only I seek media for learning; media must not seek me for learning.