Occupy Media Highland, Lead the Consciousness Development of College Students

Received 20 November 2014； accepted 7 January 2015

Published online 26 February 2015

Abstract

The development of self-consciousness is the most important issue faced by psychological health education of college students， and is also the important contradiction to be solved by ideological and political education. Since we-media has the features of randomness， uniqueness and interaction which happen to meet college students’ demands of active minds， intense curiosity， and strong desires for self-expression， it is able to be widespread among college students. However at the same time， we-media characterized by liberalization， personalization and equalization has also brought obstacles and confusions to college students’ consciousness development， presenting new challenges with features of the times to ideological and political education. This article takes college students’ consciousness development as the logical origin， clarifies the impact of we-media on their consciousness development， help ideological and political educators work in line with college students’ psychological development， help ideological and political educators achieve “humanistic care and psychological consultation” in the environment of we-media， and help improve the effectiveness and timeliness of ideological and political education. As the logical end， the author proposes that college organizations and ideological and political educators should face the development of college student we-media with an opener mind and equal attitude， ideological and political teachers and counselors should analyze the real-time dynamic ideas of college students in more convenient channels， counselors and psychological health teachers should lead college students’ consciousness development to a healthy direction with personalized we-media construction， should grasp main channels to develop good moralities of student we-media environment， and firmly hold the position to shape the we-media leader image of student organizations and student cadres.

Key words： We-media； Self-consciousness； Ideological and political education

Wu， X. （2015）. Occupy Media Highland， Lead the Consciousness Development of College Students. Canadian Social Science， 11（2）， -0. Available from： http：///index.php/css/article/view/6330

DOI： http：///10.3968/6330

INTRODUCTION

Mental health development represents the mainstream of adolescent psychological development， whose purpose is to complete the task of self-consciousness development. In China， although the age boundary of adolescence is controversial， most people tend to believe it’s from the age of 12， 13 to 27， 28 （Zhang， 1994）， and regard college students as the main representative of the youth group. Most college students are enrolled at the age of about 18， and experience the mid-term of their youth development during four years of study at colleges. All the problems of their social development and psychological development arise around the ego， and take the solvation of ego as the objective of healthy and mature development.

Development of self-consciousness is the most important issue faced by the psychological development of college students， and is also the important contradiction to be solved by ideological and political education. Since we-media has the features of randomness， uniqueness and interaction which happen to meet college students’ demands of active minds， intense curiosity， and strong desires for self-expression， it is able to be widespread among college students. However at the same time， we-media characterized by liberalization， personalization and equalization has also brought obstacles and confusions to college students’ consciousness development， presenting new challenges with the features of the times to ideological and political education. Therefore， identifying the characteristics of consciousness development of college students and clarifying the impacts of we-media on their consciousness development will help ideological and political educators work in line with college students’ psychological development， help ideological and political educators achieve “humanistic care and psychological consultation” in the environment of we-media， and improve the effectiveness and timeliness of ideological and political education.

1. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS DEVELOPMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Self-consciousness refers to that how people recognize， feel， evaluate， adjust and control their own conditions and ambient environments. Self-recognition， self-experience and self-control is the embodiment of self-consciousness at the three levels of cognition， emotion and behavior. Therefore， we will also analyze the characteristics of self-consciousness development of college students from the above three levels.

1.1 The Development of Self-Recognition

From the perspective of thinking development， college students have the ability of abstract thinking. They have strong social imageries， have the ability to combine multi-dimensional imageries and interpersonal relationships， and meet the premise of physiological development （Piaget） of self-socialization and rational self-recognition. From the perspective of psychological social development， they are regarded as marginal people （Erickson） （Feng， 2004） who are neither children nor adults. This uncertainty of role makes them hesitate， doubt， and waver toward the natures， beliefs and life attitudes of their own. They are eager to unify the ideology such as attitude， value， belief， ideal and career orientation through the new recognition， experience and control of ego. Therefore， the self-recognition development of college students has various forms of contradictions between their physiological maturity of thoughts and deficiency of social experience.

Firstly， the contradiction between independence and dependence. College students no longer blindly follow， echo adults or behave as per adults’ guidance， but ask to deal with a variety of their own problems independently， in an expectation to get rid of adults’ supervision and constraint to understand and evaluate the external things with their own views. The independence of college students’ self-consciousness reflects their individual value system and personal characteristics. However， the psychological dependence to their parents inherited from their childhood still exists， but due to the distance to their parents， the dependence shifts to counselors and teachers whom they have close realistic and psychological relationship with. This dependence not only reflects the characteristics of the times， but also reflects their urgent need of teachers’ guidance and education on world outlook， and outlook on life and values.

Secondly， the contradiction between outwardness and inwardness. College students are full of curiosity and exploration toward the surrounding environment， external events and interpersonal relationships. They don’t walk in the old steps and restrain thinking， but require to expand knowledge， topics with friends and the need for communication. When they firstly enter college， they begin to live and study in a different place without acquaintances and friends， so in order to get rid of loneliness， expanding interpersonal relationships becomes the primary task. While in the contradictory process of getting familiar with communicative topics， developing common interests， coordination and communication， college students gradually recognize that being outward is the prerequisite to obtain more social resources and enrich socialization. Meanwhile， inwardness also gets improved along with the growth of college students. Inwardness reflects college students’ needs to pursue self-improvement and development， and good models and positive self-reflection are the direction guided by ideological and political educators.

Thirdly， the contradiction between broadness and depth. College students are expanding the broadness of self-recognition. It can be found in the analyzed factors of Questionnaire of College Students’ Self-Concept that college students’ self-recognition involves quite extensive areas， out of which communication， kindness， faith， appearance， academics， ideal， family and maturity are some important aspects （Zheng & Huang， 1998）. However， college students have obvious directivity on the depth of self-recognition. According to the study of Wang et al. （1995）， college students’ focus on appearance and attention on study and life significantly decrease， while the concern on character， demeanor， socio-economic status， ability， talent， sex and gender significantly increases. The study of Ma （2009） also finds that， under the conditions of information technology， the channels by which college students acquire knowledge are increasingly networked and modernized， but their understandings to the nature of self-knowledge are rather ambiguous， and the management， understanding and application of knowledge are still simple accumulations. With the strengthening of broadness of self-recognition， college students expand their visions to all levels of self-development， but the expansion of broadness also occupies and consumes their time and energy， which restrain the development of depth of study and life. This contradiction spurs college students to seek a method which can efficiently expand broadness as well as effectively enhance the depth of self-recognition.

1.2 The Development of Self-Experience

Self-experience is the emotional form of self-consciousness， which occurs and develops on the base of self-recognition. College students’ self-experience changes as the change of their self-confidence which is built based on people’s expectation and prospect toward them， and as the change of their self-esteem which is built based on people’s evaluation. Their self-confidence is rich and profound， but self-esteem is strong and unstable.

Firstly， college students’ self-confidence is rich and profound. They have exuberant metabolism， full energy， flexible thinking， strong memory as well as a psychological basis for profound self-confidence. When they leave their parents and experience the difficult period of “psychological weaning”， their self-confidence will be more realistic， objective and rich. When they receive a task， they will consider the objective and subjective prerequisites， consider the feasibility and values of the goal and think comprehensively and rationally before showing confidence.

Secondly， college students’ self-esteem is strong and unstable. With the in-depth development of self-recognition， self-esteem of college students becomes more intense， which makes them extremely sensitive to the deeds and attitudes of others. A lot of things which involve “me” or are related with me will cause an uproar in their hearts and lead to a strong emotional experience. The emotion sometimes comes extraordinarily rapidly， showing more instability. As per Self-Esteem Scale and the measurement of Symptom Checklist SCL-90 of Zhang （2005） and Liang （2009）， college students have a strong self-esteem， especially those who’re from rural areas， poor families and with good admission scores whose self-esteem is obviously higher than those from cities and with low academic scores. In addition， more intense the self-esteem is， more willing the student is to participate in brutal competitions in competitive environment， and more vulnerable to the pressures brought about by competitions and setbacks.

1.3 Development of Self-Control

College students’ desire of self-control is strong， but their self-control ability is still evolving. They are eager to get rid of the situation that learning activities were controlled by others in childhood， and to consciously make independent judgments and decisions on learning； they begin to form self-monitoring ability on learning but apply it immaturely， after repeated practices， they constantly improve it from a conscious control ability to an automatic control ability； the content of control is also improved from one-dimensional to multi-dimensional， and from on a particular aspect of learning activities to the entire learning process and participation in social practices. The development of college students’ self-control ability experiences three stages： from getting rid of being controlled by others to a voluntary self-control， from the formation of self-control consciousness to the improvement of automatic self-control， from one-dimensional self-control to multi-dimensional self-control， and improves on the aspects of conscious purpose， initiative and sociality. The development of self-control is conductive to the comprehensive development of college students， conductive to the formation of interactions among bodies of ideological and political education， and conductive to college students’ adaption into the ideological and political educational environment.

2. WE-MEDIA’S IMPACT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS’ SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

“Media” is the tool for information exchange and dissemination； “we” has two meanings of oneself and naturally， and “we-media” should take the first meaning of “oneself”. Hence we can see that we-media is the tool for a people oneself to communicate and disseminate information. The publisher of information is the individual “oneself”， and the recipient may be an individual， organization， or the public， and the recipient as an individual can also change his role to be the disseminator of information. Therefore， different from traditional media’ mode of spreading from one point to a whole area， we-media is an independent， interconnected and fissile spreading method led by the general public， whose carriers include blogs， podcasts， micro-blogs， wikis， diggers， forums， mobile phone messages and other instant messaging tools. It is because of the multiple fission of information in the disseminative process and the blur roles between recipients and publishers， every citizen has the right to publish and disseminate information. This is in line with college students’ demand for seeking self-identity， self-presentation， flourish of self-consciousness and social communications. Therefore， college students have become the group who contacts and uses we-media the earliest and the most directly. As per The 31st China Internet Development Statistics Report published by CNNIC in January 2013， among China’s internet users， those aged 20-29 take the highest proportion of 30.4% of the total； the percentage of student internet users is also the highest， reaching 25.1%； micro-blog users continue to increase to be 309 million， representing an increase of 58.73 million compared to the end of 2011； micro-blog users become increasingly in mobile. Mobile phone micro-blog users have reached 202 million by the end of 2012， and as high as 65.6% of micro-blog users use mobile terminals to access to micro-blogs. Meanwhile， college students are also the most active we-media users. “They have an average of 18.6 hours online time per week， 76.3 percent of college students have a blog， 60.7% of them use social networking sites， and 50.4% use BBS”. （Chinese Academy of Social Sciences， para.3， 2011） College students are so keen to we-media not only because of we-media’s own characteristics， but also because of college students’ psychological development of self-consciousness. This also raises new challenges to the development of college students’ self-consciousness.

2.1 Liberalization and Randomness Cause Subjective Deviation of Self-Recognition

The information released by we-media has the characteristics of randomness， and a lot of junk information consumes the force of the development of self-recognition. Since the information released by we-media is determined by individual thought and action， each “grassroots” including college students can use the internet to express their point of view and spread information which they want to show to the public. The released information may involve politics， economy， culture， life， study， friends making and all other random and casual information， news， understanding and ideas. When college students open a micro-blog or wechat， a huge amount of information will present before their eyes. If there are a hundred concerned objects， there will be about five new information emerges in a second. However， internalizing a lot of information to be the subjective recognition of an individual needs to consume energy and power， and linking so much information in a short time with their existing ideas and knowledge， and critically internalizing， absorbing to be their own thoughts and understanding， to college students who have contradictions in self-recognition， is an exhausting and impossible task. Thus， a lot of junk information from we-media consumes the time and energy to the development of college students’ self-consciousness， but does not form a strong promotional

force.

That the information publishers from we-media have complete freedom and openness and all kinds of ideas emerge more frequently weakens the probability that college students grasp the mainstream thoughts which could have been internalized to be their self-recognition. In the real environment with the booming development of the global economy and the increasing influx of Western social thoughts， the subtle educational power of we-media has also been infiltrated and intertwined with westernization， differentiation and other ideological and political cultures. Some information is difficult to distinguish between truth and falseness， and when some information and their inclusive ideological and political ideas and values have been repost and strengthened by certain witless and purposeful people， it causes more confusion to the self-recognition of college students. Therefore， various types of liberalized information sources become the origin of thoughts flooding and become the channel to interfere with college students’ acceptance of social mainstream

self-recognition.

2.2 Personalization and Uniqueness Meets the Psychological Needs of Self-Experience

Personalization reflects the disseminative way of point to point of we-media. There are many we-media as there are many media publishers， different perspectives and different kinds of personalized language out there. For college students who pursue uniformity and personality， a complete personalized self-display is the recognition of their personality development and their needs of emotional experience of being accepted in full arranges. College students demonstrate language， images， ideas， values and so on their blogs and micro-blogs and receive full attentions and recognitions from other cyber “friends”， they can hereby experience the great psychological satisfaction of being recognized， appreciated and respected. However， the personalized display and communication of we-media are built on the virtual network platforms which demonstrate self-image， ideas and values virtually that lead to huge contrasts to the true self in social life. The gap and contradiction between the “virtual me” and “real me” exacerbate the contradiction between the “ideal me” and “real me” existing in the development of self-recognition， presenting a new challenge to the development of college students’ self-consciousness.

We-media which displays the uniqueness of oneself is an interactive platform to enhance college students’ confidence. College students’ confidence is rich and profound， and there are many college students as there are many fervent hearts eager to display their talents and abilities. In reality， people who can manage to board spotlight stages， become community leaders and make every word carry weight in discussions are the minorities， but talent and ability demonstration can enable them to enrich their life experience， get more social evaluative resources and meet their needs of the development of self-confidence. Therefore， we-media has naturally built a unique interactive stage to show themselves and an interactive platform allowing them to display their talents， promote their self-uniqueness and fully satisfy their desires to perform， show eloquence and conduct social interactions. The exhibitive desire which has been met in virtual world gradually helps college students accumulate a thriving and proud confidence， and makes them experience the emotion of being “brilliant” and “unique”. However， how to shift the self-confidence built in virtual world into real world？ How to copy the subjective well-being obtained in virtual world into real life？ Continue we-media’s positive role of the establishment of self-confidence becomes the challenge to ideological and political work.

2.3 Equalization and Interaction Enhances the Efficiency of Self-Control

Under the disseminative form of we-media， communicators and recipients have equal status and are subject to strong interactions. Each of them has the collective identity of communicator and recipient which disintegrates the discourse right mastered by elites and traditional media， and enables college students to have a broader discourse right than ever. In real life， college students are at the passive recipient position of being guided， educated and imparted， and their self-control is more influenced and restrained by governments， schools and teachers which are to discourse initiatives. However in the we-media environment， the completely open discourse right and power to release information to the public in the world suddenly converge onto college students， which greatly meet their psychological needs of seeking an active self-control. Meanwhile， college students’ expression of discourse right receives evaluations from other members of society. No matter the evaluations are positive or negative， the feedbacks make them really feel the repercussions and effects caused by the result of self-control behavior in the virtual world， and play a role of further strengthening and consolidating their self-control psychologically.

In we-media environment， the traditional hierarchy of superior and subordinate and communicative way between teachers and students has also undergone a change. As the possessor of knowledge， teachers’ monopoly status has undergone a huge impact， who is no longer a superior authority to implement ideological indoctrination， but is at the equal position of information dissemination with college students. The communicative methods have also changed from persuasion， impartment and instillation under authoritative pressures to be selective， guidance， goodwill questioning and subtle influence. College students appreciate the education of mutual equality， mutual respect， more human kindness and more affinity during communications. Thus， it weakens the authoritative pressures in self-control， strengthens the emotional expressions in self-control， and ensures positive educational factors such as caring and expectation to be fully implemented onto each student. Students’ confusions and anxieties accumulated in study and life can be released and eased pertinently， which enhances students’ control on emotions and behaviors.

3. OCCUPY THE HEIGHT OF WE-MEDIA TO LEAD THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS’ SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

The characteristics of liberalization， personalization and equalization of we-media have prompted college students to enthusiastically and passionately participate in it， which on the one hand meets college students’ psychological needs of self-recognition， self-experience and self-control in the developmental process of self-consciousness， on the other hand its positive and negative effects on the ideological and psychological development of college students should also be put to good use by ideological and political educators， so as to further improve and strengthen the positive factors and dilute and avoid the negative factors. We should take an open mind to face the challenges from we-media， rationally grasp the law of college students’ ideological and psychological development， take the initiative to lead and promote a healthy development of college students’ self-consciousness， strengthen the building of height and play the role of main channel to cultivate a healthy we-media image and morality of college students.

3.1 Organizational， Ideological and Political Workers of Colleges and Universities Should Take an Opener and More Equal Attitude Toward the Development of College Student We-Media

In 2005， Ministry of Health， Ministry of Education and CYL Central Committee jointly issued the Opinions on Further Strengthening and Improving the Psychological Health Education of College Students， which clarifies the general requirements of combining psychological health education and ideological and political education： “take Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of ‘Three Represents’ as the guidance， follow the law of ideological and political education and psychological development of college students， carry out psychological health education， properly implement psychological counseling work， improve psychological adjustment abilities， develop a good psychological quality and promote the coordinated development of ideological and moral qualities， scientific and cultural qualities and physical and mental qualities.” Pay attention to and abide by the law of college students’ psychological development， attach importance to the improvement of psychological adjustment abilities， cultivate college students’ good psychological qualities， on this basis， do a good ideological and political educational work with an inclusive， open and equal attitude towards the periodical ambivalences in college students’ psychological development. All these require the organizational， ideological and political workers of colleges and universities to be psychologically prepared to challenge the we-media age. The 17th and 18th National Congress of the CPC both emphasize the ideological and political work should “focus on humanistic care and psychological counseling”， and the blind “blocking， limitation and rule” in an attempt to control the timing and content of Internet activities are unable to meet the psychological needs of college students’ self-consciousness development. Care and counseling are the prerequisite to positively and efficiently implement ideological and political work. These require organizational， ideological and political workers of colleges and universities to take a proactive and open attitude to set up college student we-media platforms， not only helping them learn computer and internet knowledge and technology for the construction of we-media platform， but also helping them learn science， culture and art related with we-media construction. At the same time， actively recommend and commend the communicators and college student we-media of positive and healthy contents， promotion of the achievements of socialist construction and demonstration of a self-reliance spirit of college students. Let we-media become the carrier of ideological and political education， and become the modern position of ideological and political education.

3.2 Ideological and Political Theoretical Course Teachers and Counselors Should Create a More Convenient Channel to Grasp College Students’ Live Ideological Trend

We-media enables college students to speak with schools and teachers on an equal position， so that they can “talk with” teachers， schools as well as governments in an open and equal environment. This helps schools and teachers to understand and grasp college students’ ideological focus. When ideological and political theoretical course teachers and counselors master the technologies of browsing the information of college student we-media， they can use a computer or mobile terminal at anywhere and anytime to receive information displayed by students. College students are courageous to expose their inner world to we-media， and after receiving fragmented evaluations they are also willing to demonstrate the processes that comments are in conflict with their own opinions. By using the methods of adding concerns and adding friends， etc.， ideological theoretical course teachers and counselors can understand and grasp college students’ ideological focus， their path of thinking and method of problem-solving. This helps ideological and political workers pertinently implement education and guidance， effectively resolve students’ confusions， systematically monitor the developmental direction and law of students’ ideology and behaviors， and create a good subject-object relationship to achieve the goal of ideological and political education.

3.3 Counselors and Psychological Health Teachers Should Build Personalized We-Medias to Lead the Healthy Direction of College Students’ Self-Consciousness Development

Counselors and psychological health teachers are the main force to guide the healthy development of college students’ psychology. In 2004， the Opinions on Further Strengthening and Improving College Students’ Ideological and Political Education issued by the State Council proposed to

establish and improve specialized agencies of psychological health education and consultation， allocate a sufficient number of full-time and part-time psychological health teachers， actively carry out psychological health education and psychological counseling and guide students to grow healthily.

In 2011， Ministry of Education issued The Basic Construction Standard of Ordinary Colleges and Universities Students’ Psychological Health Education （Trial）， which clearly stated that counselors， teachers and postgraduate supervisors are an important force in psychological health educational work of college students. As the life mentor and close friend of college students， counselors are not only the backbones to carry out ideological and political education， but also the important force to promote students’ psychological health for their growth and success， who shoulder the educational task of guiding students to develop their self-consciousness with independence， self-improvement and proactiveness. Under the guidance of psychological health teachers who have professional knowledge and skills， counselors can make joint efforts with them to build online and offline interactive platforms which can lead a healthy development of college students’ self-consciousness. On the one hand we must build a firm institutional mechanism for college students’ psychological health education， integrate psychological health education into the school personnel cultivation system， build three levels of college， school and class of psychological health educational network， through case teaching， experiential activities， behavior training and other forms to improve students’ psychological health， help them adapt to the contradictory stage of self-consciousness development in real social life. On the other hand， we need to create a psychologically healthy atmosphere in we-media， establish micro-blogs and wechat which are full of counselors and psychological health teachers’ personal styles， shorten the distance with students， popularize the characteristics and laws of self-consciousness development， provide network evaluation for self-consciousness developmental disorders， lead students to adjust the contradictions in self-recognition， self-experience and self-control based on their feedbacks， face the problems of self-consciousness development with a positive and healthy attitude， and lead students to pay attention to others and society while paying attention to themselves.

3.4 Use Main Channel to Cultivate Students’ Moral Qualities in the We-Media Environment

Network moral education is an important part of moral education， which is the application of socially accepted moral principles and ethics in the online space. “Guide students to enhance their spiritual realms， consciously abide by the basic ethics and national laws and regulations of being patriotic and law-abiding， courtesy and honesty， united and friendly， diligent and self-improving and dedicative” is the important task of the main channel of the ideological and political education （Xu， Zheng， & Liu， 2005）. College student cyber moral education is the further sublimation of the requirement to human moral qualities under the environment of scientific and technological development， which is consistent with the objective of ideological and political education. On the one hand， ideological and political theoretical courses should promptly guide students to correctly look upon the impacts of scientific and technological development and we-media development on human progress， especially their positive effects on the improvement of individual self-consciousness so that the development of college students’ ideology and morality can keep up with the development of modern science and technology. On the other hand， guide students to consciously abide by the network laws and regulations. We should not only be familiar with People’s Republic of China Information System Security Protection Regulations， Computer System Security Norms， Internet Security Regulations and a series of other laws and regulations， but also organize and lead students to participate into social practices of promoting cyber legal construction and moral education， carry out the cultivation of cyber moral qualities by actual efforts， and use the rulers of morality and law to strengthen correct self-consciousness and build noble cyber images and characters.

3.5 Take the Main Position to Create the We-Media Leader Images of Student Organizations and Student Cadres

Leaders of we-media are at the center of speech and information dissemination， whose online statements have strong impacts and appeals. We should attach great importance to “select college student backbones to participate in educational management of network， display the enthusiasm and initiative of college students and enhance educational results.” We need to build a we-media platform for student cadres， student CPC members and student backbones who have high ideological and political qualities and excellent psychological qualities in real life， let students influence students， and let students lead students. The same identity of student makes their mutual trust and recognition become stronger. Through becoming fans with each other and concerning each other among peer groups， students can link a communicative and disseminative network of we-media led by student backbones. One the one hand， counselors should help student cadres shape a we-media image that has loyalty to the country and party， firm ideals and faith， noble morality， outgoing personality and smart thinking. Let student cadres lead ordinary students to establish an objective and rational standard of self-recognition， to experience positive and healthy emotions， and to conduct rational and efficient self-control. On the other hand， counselors should be concerned about the students who have vibrant activity and positively enthusiastic speeches on blogs， micro-blogs， QQ group and Fetion group， use the educational approach of “combining dredge and blocking ， focusing on communication”， use lively cyber language to actively communicate with participatory students， subtly impart the developmental law of self-consciousness and law of social morality so as to occupy the main position of psychological health education and ideological and political education of we-media.

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