The norm of the ‘good’ netizen and the construction of the ‘proper’ wired self: The case of Chinese urban youth

The strong concern in Chinese society about young people and the internet suggests a norm about how to relate to the net, reflecting and transcending the tension found in other societies between the societal expectations of the internet and young people’s actual uses of it. This article explores how the tension between different internet discourses in China is being played out in young people’s negotiation of a ‘proper’ wired self. Adopting a discourse analysis approach, the study shows that the participants drew on three interrelated dual interpretative repertoires. The duality inherent in these repertoires allows the informants to position themselves either as the rational, responsible and mature users or the opposite, and people who use the net differently from themselves as the ‘other’.