What do you think of the video of "Xiao Zhang, a wage earner"?

1 How to take the bus, how to take the subway, how to eat McDonald's, how to go to the hospital alone ... Recently, the short video blogger "wage earner Xiao Zhang" made these seemingly familiar common sense of life into a popular science video, which rose by millions in a month and was even dubbed by netizens as "the top stream of social survival".

The video that teaches people how to take the high-speed train, fly and buy coffee is actually on fire. This scene may surprise many people. But the subtext of this "accident" may itself be a false illusion. Because in reality, people who have never been on a plane and have drunk Starbucks may be far more than you think. A few years ago, there was a popular saying: In China, "one billion people have never been on a plane, and 500 million people have never been on a toilet". The accuracy of this data may be open to question, but it should be enough to remind everyone that some groups feel the contrast with the real world.

Today, it seems to be self-evident common sense to take the high-speed train, plane, subway and buy coffee for the mainstream voice crowd on the Internet, and it is the default standard life. But in fact, for many people who have never been out of their hometown, because there is no chance to take the high-speed subway and there is no Starbucks in their hometown, these sparse and ordinary things may pose challenges to them who try for the first time. In other words, although Xiao Zhang's popularity is accidental, the audience size of this part of video content should not be underestimated. In other words, there is a real demand in today's society for the life science content released by Xiao Zhang's video.

The reason why such a popular science of life looks different, even Xiao Zhang's popularity surprised many people, is that today's information dissemination is accustomed to taking "big cities" and "modernization" as the perspective. There is a typical irony-today's short videos are all "one million per capita, three suites per capita, and Porsche per capita". Under such a common "high altitude", videos that teach people to buy coffee, take the high-speed train and fly naturally present a rare real texture. Moreover, many people are willing to pay attention to such videos, perhaps not for learning, but when watching them, they may completely relax themselves and think of themselves who were embarrassed or even at a loss when they first arrived in the "big city". To some extent, this is also a psychological and emotional "massage".

More importantly, compared with some previous videos reflecting rural life, this kind of life science has no filter. It touches on the real problems that many people are facing now, and presents a life that ordinary people can feel, which is valuable. At the same time, it also helps to create a more inclusive and diverse information dissemination environment. When more people can see this less "natural" side hidden under the illusion of "big city" and "modernization", and take this opportunity to observe their discomfort and difficulty in integrating into "big city", perhaps the public feelings between people, especially in the network atmosphere, can be less antagonistic, more understanding, less hostility and more tolerant.

According to the data of the National Development and Reform Commission, about half of China's population still lives in counties, and most of the 500 million rural people live in rural areas within counties. Most of these people may be far away from high-speed trains and planes and don't even know Starbucks exists. Their progress towards "big cities" and "modernization" is actually a part of the modernization of the whole country. But at present, what difficulties these people face and what help they need in the process of realizing "leapfrogging" should at least be seen more in the online public opinion field. Behind this is the gap between information and economic and social development. The former, with the development of the Internet, there are more and more content creators like Xiao Zhang, which is sure to promote the process of bridging the gap, while the latter still has a long way to go.