The Great Firewall Of China. I used to think that was a clever and funny way of describing the internet censorship in China. But since coming to Beijing in August 2012, I
have spent a considerable amount of time trying to enjoy the kind of internet freedom which
is taken for granted back in the U.K.
This includes time taken to research a
trustworthy method of connecting to foreign websites, attempting to purchase software when many of the websites
selling it are blocked, and the time spent trying to use the software while the
connection often fails.
When I first arrived in China, I found free
software for my computer. This allowed me an intermittent connection to blocked and restricted websites such as Facebook. But the connection speed was far too unreliable to
stream videos on Youtube.
After talking to colleagues, I decided to
purchase a Virtual Private Network which can add security to the internet
connection and also re-routes the internet connection through a foreign server,
allowing access to banned websites and offering me a faster speed to watch
videos. However, even a VPN cannot ensure a good connection. Earlier this
year, my paid subscription to a VPN provider stopped working and could not grant me access to
restricted webpages. This was highly frustrating as I keep in touch with many
friends and family through Facebook and this blog.
As my subscription for the VPN came up for
renewal, I decided that I would not pay for a service I could not depend on;
instead I would rely solely on free VPN software I had downloaded to my phone. Although this would not always work efficiently, it did usually allow me enough
time to communicate with friends and family. This is one of the reasons I have
not updated my blog in such a long time. Using my phone to make blog posts
can be rather laborious, particularly when the aforementioned free VPN software
fails.
Recently, I heard from friends that
VPNs are working more consistently again. This of course can change if there is
a sudden government crackdown on internet activity. But for now, I have made
the decision to renew my VPN subscription, which offers me a less stressful
internet experience. With that being said, last Sunday I chose to
deactivate my Facebook account, and here is why:
I have read online articles
explaining the theory that using mobile phones or digital devices before
sleeping, can affect our sleeping patterns and quality of sleep. While feeling
stressed with events at work, I thought that I could experiment with cutting
down on my phone usage before bedtime. When I thought more carefully about this,
I realised I did generally use my phone just before I slept, to check Facebook
and other apps.
I also read similar articles which detailed
that social media can affect our moods. Viewing Facebook is like seeing the
“best bits” of people’s lives and it can result in making unfair comparisons
with one's own life. While I did not feel like I was making such negative
judgements about myself, I did realise that I could drastically cut down on the time I
spent trying to connect to Facebook and browsing on social media. Living
abroad can definitely give me the feeling of being “out of the loop” but I definitely thought that I could benefit from cutting out the temptation of using Facebook for a while. Instead of
looking for gossip fodder, I could read more books, study Chinese or sleep that
little bit earlier.
So how did the week go? On the first day of
deactivating my account, my thumbs did automatically click on the Facebook app
to check if it was someone’s birthday, or if there was some interesting news or
rant that had been posted. But it was surprising how quickly I stopped wanting
to check. I usually use Facebook Messenger to speak with my friends and
family so I did notice that absence. However I was observing that I slept much earlier in the evening than before. Moreover, whether or not it was my
mind playing tricks on me, I’m not quite sure, but it appeared that I was
having a deeper sleep each night.
During the week, I did of course use other
forms of social media such as the Chinese juggernaut Wechat (see my previous post on the joys of Wechat here), so I hadn’t completely cut out communication
with others. But now that I will be reactivating my
Facebook account, I will try to be more aware of how I am spending my free
time. Internet freedom may not be something I can relish while living in China, but I can
choose to accept it (be that reluctantly). What if my VPN doesn’t connect? I don’t have to get
annoyed and keep trying until the early hours of the morning. I can rest and
see if it works the next day. After all, most things are better after a good
night’s sleep, right?
