A Brief Intro to 18 years of my experience using different social media platforms…From my childhood to adulthood!
Throughout my 18 years of life, social media applications always play an essential role in my life. QQ, WeChat, Instagram, et cetera. I mean…I may not survive without them! I use them to communicate with my buddies, share my happy moments with people, and…also watch people’s happy moments! These applications are like my closest friends who watched me grow up and accompany me ALL THE WAY from elementary school to the University of Toronto. What is remarkable is that I have completely different experiences using them, giving some classic examples: QQ and WeChat. Follow me and I will tell you how these applications differ from a user’s perspective.
QQ: Fairy Godmother but a Paid One & Fancy Fashion Store
From the moment I ever got my first smartphone in elementary school, I am stuck with QQ for my whole childhood. At that time, QQ was so popular that almost every kid had a QQ account. QQ was like a fancy fashion store rather than a simple communication tool to me, why? I will explain it to you.
Let’s say the QQ show. It is an avatar of you in QQ that you can dress her/him up in whichever way you want, but for most fancy clothes and dresses you have to pay for them.
Also the fancy avatar frame, messaging bubbles, and decorations for QZone, all of these you have to pay for them! QQ basically tells you one thing, Do you want to be a striking, fancy, and attractive princess? Sure, give us your money otherwise stuck with your plain and ugly dresses forever, Cinderella!
The focus of QQ seems not on facilitating communication between individuals but rather on utilizing teenagers’ vanity and comparison psychology to make money. I remember when I was nine years old, my friends always compete over who had the fanciest QQ show. They would spend most of their money decorating their QQ show. (conversation between 2 girls comparing their QQ show…) QQ promotes consumer behavior of purchasing, but it feels entertaining to spend time on this social media platform (endlessly decorating…)
WeChat: a Trustful, Professional White Collar
Compared to QQ, WeChat has a much simpler interface design than QQ. There are no decorations for bubbles or avatar frames on WeChat but only the default ones. If QQ is a fancy fashion store, then WeChat would be a trustful, professional white collar. Why do I say so? Because of efficiency! Its simple interface allows you to easily find anything you want, like the capital letter sorting system in the address book makes you easily find the person you wanna talk to. WeChat also has a payment system, which is frequently used in daily life. In terms of functionality alone, I would say WeChat is the winner. It’s a useful tool to communicate with people and pays for things, but if it is for entertainment, ehh, not the winner. I had the experience, If nobody texts me during the day, I would barely spend much time on WeChat as I do on QQ.
In conclusion, QQ is a social media app more focused on selling various personalized decorations while WeChat is more focused on facilitating communication and payment system.
