If we think U.S. teens are digital natives, check out this fascinating research on Chinese youth from JWT. I'm not a China expert at all, but it makes sense to me that given how restrictive the society is, Chinese youth would find more freedom to express themselves and experiment with identity online (anonymously). Here are some of the more interesting stats:

- Five times as many Chinese as American respondents said they have a parallel life online (61 percent vs. 13 percent)

- 80 percent of Chinese respondents agreed that "Digital technology is an essential part of how I live," compared with 68 percent of Americans.

- Chinese youth are twice as likely as young Americans to say they would not feel OK going without Internet access for more than a day (25 percent vs. 12 percent)

- More than twice as many Chinese youth admitted they sometimes feel "addicted" to living online: 42 percent vs. 18 percent of Americans.

- Chinese respondents were four times as likely as Americans to agree that things online often feel more intense than things offline (48 percent vs. 12 percent).

- More than twice as many Chinese respondents agreed that "I have experimented with how I present myself online" (69 percent vs. 28 percent of Americans).

- More than half the Chinese sample (51 percent) said they have adopted a completely different persona in some of their online interactions, compared with only 17 percent of Americans.

- More Chinese than Americans agreed that "Online interactions have broadened my sense of identity" (66 percent vs. 26 percent) and that "Online interactions have made me more self-aware" (60 percent vs. 26 percent).

- More than three-quarters (77 percent) of the Chinese sample agreed that computer/console games are much more fun when played against others online, compared with a third of Americans.

- 82 percent of young Chinese agreed that "Interactivity helps create intimacy, even at a distance," compared with just 36 percent of young Americans.

- 63 percent of Chinese respondents agreed that "It's perfectly possible to have real relationships purely online with no face-to-face contact," vs. only 21 percent of Americans.

- Fewer than a third of Americans (30 percent) said the Internet helps their social life, but more than three-quarters of Chinese respondents (77 percent) agreed that "The Internet helps me make friends."

- Three times as many Chinese as Americans (32 percent vs. 11 percent) were willing to admit that the Internet has broadened their sex life.

- 54 percent (of Chinese youth) said they had made or heated up dates using text messages, compared with only 20 percent of Americans.)

- Chinese respondents were also more likely than Americans to say they have expressed personal opinions or written about themselves online (72 percent vs. 56 percent).

- And they have expressed themselves more strongly online than they generally do in person (52 percent vs. 43 percent of Americans).

- Chinese respondents were almost twice as likely as Americans to agree that it's good to be able to express honest opinions anonymously online (79 percent vs. 42 percent) and to agree that online they are free to do and say things they would not do or say offline (73 percent vs. 32 percent).

Posted by anastasia