Enriching the distressing reality: Social media use by chinese migrant workers

Based on a field study in Guangdong Province, this paper describes the social media use of Chinese migrant workers in the manufacturing sector. It was found that social media plays a significant role in the lives of young workers who have left their rural hometowns in early adulthood and struggle to survive in the urban centers. They buy expensive IT devices to gain a social reputation, as social media provides opportunities for self-expression; strengthens their self-consciousness; and to a certain extent, influences their world view. For most of the workers in our study, social media has become a very important part of leisure time and entertainment. Moreover, the life in virtual worlds provides them a psychological compensation mechanism to temporarily avoid the pressure of their daily lives.