Communication is an important way of interpersonal interaction. Behind verbal and written expression lie thinking and cognition. With the development of online media, people can "express themselves directly" relying on catchphrases and emojis, but this shallow and direct output method has caused some complex and profound expressions to be gradually forgotten. When leaving the online environment and needing to engage in standardized expression, some young people are left with only dry words and halting speech. Recently, a survey by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily showed that more than half of the young respondents felt that their language and writing expression abilities had declined in recent years, and 47.1% of the young respondents felt that their vocabulary was deficient and their expression monotonous. Why has the phenomenon of "word poverty" emerged among young people? How can one enrich one's language and make "blocked" expression flow smoothly? Reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network interviewed a number of young people and experts in related fields to jointly discuss this issue.

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　　"Come and say a few words to everyone." At a family gathering during the Spring Festival, Li Sichao, born in the 2000s, became the focus of his family's attention. His family is relatively large, and every Chinese New Year they gather together for a lively atmosphere. When called upon to speak, Li Sichao felt his mind go a bit "blank"; although he had a lot he wanted to say, he hemmed and hawed for a long time without managing to produce a complete sentence.

　　Li Sichao's situation is not an isolated case. During this year's Spring Festival, posts on social platforms such as "What words are there to express blessings" and "How to say New Year greetings in a way that seems novel" attracted a great deal of attention. Not knowing what to say when visiting relatives and friends, having to copy and paste New Year greeting messages... many young people feel they have become "word-poor."

　　"The decline in some young people's language and writing expression abilities reflects the real problem of 'textual aphasia' in the internet era," said Zheng Huanzhao, associate professor of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Jinan University. He believes that while internet technology makes life more convenient, it also has a profound impact on people's ways of thinking, values, and modes of expression, and the "word poverty" problem among young people should be taken seriously.

　　Recently, a survey of 1,333 young people released by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily in conjunction with wenjuan.com showed that 53.3% of the young respondents felt that their language and writing expression abilities had declined in recent years. More than half of the young respondents believed that insufficient reading and reliance on internet language and emojis were the main reasons for "word poverty."

　　Nearly half of the young respondents felt their vocabulary was deficient and their expression monotonous

　　Li Sichao is a graduate student at a university in Nanjing, and during his time at school he frequently has to give presentations. Each time he presents, what gives him the most trouble is the teacher's question-and-answer session: "Sometimes the words are right on the tip of my tongue, but I don't know how to say them, and I stumble, which makes me seem lacking in confidence."

　　Zhang Ran, born in the 1990s in Beijing, was deeply impressed by her first presentation after starting work. Although she had prepared carefully, at one point while speaking she "went blank," having thoughts but finding it difficult to express them completely: "There were many fragmented words in my head, but I couldn't connect them into complete sentences, and I 'got stuck' several times." This made Zhang Ran realize that writing and speaking are completely different matters, and that speaking fluently is not easy.

　　"I've encountered the situation of forgetting how to write characters when I pick up a pen; characters I originally knew how to write suddenly I couldn't remember how to write, and I could only turn to the internet for help." Liu Yuan, born in the 1990s and working in Hangzhou, feels that not only has her language expression ability declined, but her writing ability has as well. At work, occasionally she has to submit written documents, which makes her feel quite strained, and she often needs to spend a lot of effort to complete them.

　　The survey showed that 53.3% of the young respondents felt their language and writing expression abilities had declined in recent years. 47.1% of the young respondents felt their vocabulary was deficient and their expression monotonous, 43.2% said they wrote with a pen less often, and 41.5% had encountered situations where words failed to convey meaning and they found it difficult to accurately express their thoughts.

　　Wang Yufei, born in the 2000s in Hefei, feels that internet catchphrases have already become an important online social language. "When chatting with friends, everyone likes to use emojis and internet catchphrases; if someone sends a long block of text, it actually seems strange." She feels that fragmented expression can liven up the atmosphere, and internet slang functions to some extent like a kind of "secret code"; being able to catch the "meme" means "I get you," and it can quickly bring people closer. "But if you talk like that offline, it will inevitably make people feel awkward."

　　The survey showed that 37.9% of the young respondents had experienced forgetting how to write characters when picking up a pen, and 35.0% found writing difficult. Other responses included: relatively confused expressive logic (34.9%), frequent use of internet slang (31.1%), excessive reliance on emojis (22.8%), and becoming increasingly lazy about expressing themselves (14.1%).

　　"Fundamentally speaking, poverty of language is caused by poverty of spirit"

　　"Nowadays mobile phones have become part of life, and everyone is increasingly accustomed to communicating online, mostly by typing and sending emojis; even phone calls are rare, and opportunities for spoken communication are decreasing." Liu Yuan feels that the internet has changed the original ways of speaking and writing, and input methods have also simplified the way text is output. For example, with a line of poetry, in the past one had to recite it completely, but now one only needs to type the first letters of the first few characters and the whole line appears. "While internet technology brings convenience to people, it also makes people lazy about remembering and thinking."

　　Wang Yufei basically communicates with friends online, "Various emojis often appear in the group chat, and you can even understand what others mean just by emojis." But Wang Yufei feels that over-reliance on online communication makes offline communication difficult; in offline situations she doesn't much like to talk, for fear that if she says something wrong it can't be "recalled."

　　As for the causes of the "word poverty" phenomenon, the survey showed that insufficient reading and weakened expression ability ranked first, with a selection rate of 54.0%, followed by excessive reliance on internet language and emojis and a lack of creativity (53.0%), and fragmented browsing of information making it difficult to form systematic thinking (52.1%), all with selection rates exceeding half.

　　Zhang Ran has found that since starting work her social circle has become smaller and smaller, and the number of times she meets friends offline has decreased: "Everyone is usually quite busy, and it's hard to find a time to meet."

　　When it comes to the "word poverty" problem, Zhang Ran feels that it's not that she can't express herself, but that she increasingly doesn't want to: "Now there are fewer and fewer people I can have in-depth conversations with, and gradually my desire to share has declined; when something happens, at most I chat a few words with friends on WeChat, and I don't really discuss deeper topics."

　　Other causes of "word poverty" included: less offline face-to-face communication (47.6%), the prevalence of "short, plain, and fast" expression (34.4%), fast-paced life making it difficult for people to calm down and think (33.1%), and a decline in the desire to communicate with others and not wanting to express oneself (17.6%).

　　Zheng Huanzhao believes that some young people feel lonely and socially anxious in real life, which makes them more inclined to choose virtual socializing. Online, internet "memes" and other internet language symbols have become a common social language for young people, which is one of the ways they gain cultural identity and express themselves. But this way of expression has impacted standardized, logical, and written forms of expression, further affecting the way of thinking behind language expression, and to some extent has also affected the depth and breadth of young people's spiritual world. "Fundamentally speaking, poverty of language is caused by poverty of spirit."

　　"Language is humanity's spiritual home. It is not only an important part of a nation's cultural genes, but also the foundation of a nation's cultural cohesion." Zheng Huanzhao believes that the problem of textual aphasia—"wanting to speak but being word-poor"—will impact traditional culture, lead to the simplification and coarsening of individuals' ways of thinking, and also have a negative impact on collective national culture; moreover, the generational cultural divide brought about by the stratification of internet language symbol circles will, to some extent, weaken the cohesion of collective culture.

　　How to regain "expressive ability"

　　After that rather unsmooth work presentation, Zhang Ran began to consciously train her expressive ability. Before each presentation, she practices several times until she can get through it completely smoothly. "I usually read some work-related books to accumulate professional knowledge, so that when I express myself I'll be more professional and more confident."

　　Li Sichao feels that written language and spoken expression are very different, and that while strengthening reading one should also communicate more; making others understand is an important ability.

　　"In the internet era, maintaining independent thinking is very important." Liu Yuan believes that much information nowadays is forgotten right after reading it, mainly because there is no in-depth exploration and thinking, and this is often an important step in digesting and absorbing information. In daily life, Liu Yuan pays relatively more attention to news about society and people's livelihood; when encountering hot events, she actively gathers information, understands the causes and consequences of the events, strengthens her critical thinking, and expresses herself rationally.

　　"Participating more in offline socializing helps to some extent in improving expressive ability." Wang Yufei feels that in face-to-face communication, on the one hand one must listen to the other person's words and sense their emotions, and on the other hand one must draw on one's own experiences and knowledge to organize language and respond to the other person; this kind of interaction and communication is something that typing and sending emojis online cannot provide.

　　The survey showed that to address "word poverty," 58.4% of the young respondents believed it is necessary to strengthen reading and improve personal cultural literacy, 57.5% suggested focusing on training independent thinking and logical thinking abilities, and 55.7% believed it is necessary to break the habit of acquiring information in a fragmented, fast-food manner. Other responses included: participating more in offline face-to-face communication to practice expression skills (46.9%), focusing on national expression education to enhance expressive ability (39.5%), and viewing and using internet catchphrases dialectically (20.3%).

　　"Helping young people out of the 'word poverty' predicament needs to start with improving the internet language environment." Zheng Huanzhao believes that, on the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the creation of high-quality online content, especially the accuracy, richness, and aesthetic quality of language and writing, and to create new high-quality online humanities classics; on the other hand, it is necessary to guide various internet media to standardize language and writing expression and to assume the responsibility of cultural and aesthetic guidance, for example by creating high-quality Chinese-language learning social software and programs. In addition, schools and families should increase their emphasis on young people reciting humanities classics and strengthen training in language expression and thinking for the younger generation.

　　"Solving the 'word poverty' problem of the younger generation also requires changing their internet lifestyle habits." Zheng Huanzhao suggested that relevant departments should help young people reduce their dependence on virtual environments and encourage young people to participate more in offline activities to gain more concrete life experiences.

　　Among the respondents to this survey, 14.1% were born in the 2000s, 21.0% in the 1995 generation, 40.7% in the 1990s, 14.9% in the 1985 generation, and 9.3% in the 1980s. By education level, 1.3% had junior high school or below, 8.8% had high school/vocational high school, 25.7% had junior college/higher vocational education, 61.7% had a bachelor's degree, and 2.5% were master's or doctoral students.