How do people approach ICTS?

ICTs are used more frequently to consolidate existing contacts than build new ones: Despite the potential of ICTs to allow residents of this small town to build new contacts with physically distant others, ICTs are predominantly used to consolidate existing contacts. When speaking about their ICT use, most people spoke about the convenience of the technology compared to other forms of communication, with these media used to replace or supplement existing forms of contact with existing connections. Few residents admitted accepting online friend requests from strangers. However, location based social applications are used by students in the nearby university city to find potential partners to meet with and by married men in the town seeking affairs; this practice is not widely talked about and it is difficult to know how prevalent it might be.

Although few people see these technologies as important for building new social connections with distant others, they have been important in allowing information and practices to trickle down to this rural area. The practice of dancing in parks and other public spaces has been common in Chinese cities for many years as a form of exercise and social connection^[1], particularly for middle aged and elderly women^[2]. However, this practice has only recently trickled down to rural areas. This dance group was started last year by a local woman who had no previous experience of dancing. She watches online videos to construct the (highly scripted) dance moves that group participants learn and shares these videos online. These early evening dance groups have provided new modes of social connection for women in the town who would have previously spent their evenings in the home. ICTs have been important in allowing this dance group to be started and organized, providing new opportunities for and forms of social connection for residents of the town, strengthening pre-existing weak social connections rather than building new ones.