Being a group leader is an unspeakable hardship in this era, but we still have to say thank you to the tens of millions of group leaders in China. They are the most handsome citizens in China today. As American politician Wilson said: Understanding is absolutely the soil that nurtures all the fruits of friendship.

The media once listed the top ten most dangerous professions in Chinese society, including civil servants, police, firefighters, lawyers and journalists. If we were to select the top ten most dangerous volunteers, I'm afraid the group owner would be on the list this time.

The embryonic bed of the Internet has a strong ability to reproduce thoughts and emotions. Through the method of one giving birth to two, two giving birth to three, and three giving birth to the masses, the group leader gathers all kinds of people from the friend circles scattered all over the world into a virtual Liangshanpo Gathering Hall - heroes do not ask where they come from, people from all walks of life, all of them are moved by the touch of the screen, and in the blink of an eye they are filled with family, country and world affairs.

The advent of the Internet age has given the Chinese people their first real experience of “the same cold and heat around the world”. The integration and sharing of information has built a virtual citizen self-governing community in Chinese society in the vast online communities. It is this free and unrestrained public platform that connects offline China and the online world.

The group is indeed an incredibly magical Rubik’s Cube of the times.

When a group leader opens a group, it is like a peacock spreading its feathers. There will always be many people who come to watch or show their support.

From this moment on, the group leaders lead us to truly step into the four-dimensional space. Even if the body and soul are invisible, we can still prove “I think, therefore I am”.

Just as a class needs a monitor, a tribe needs a chief, a forum needs a moderator, and a group of dragons cannot be without a leader.

We often say “birds of a feather flock together”, and this saying can be extended to group management and governance. It can be said that the taste of the group leader determines the taste of the group, the group leader’s thoughts determine the value of the group, and the cooler the group leader is, the cooler the group is.

Of course, the more gossipy the group owner is, the more nagging and funny the group will be. This is the online possession of gossip about other people’s private affairs, the shell of ordinary people, and the virtual barrage of fireworks in the world.

But there are a hundred people of all kinds, in an era filled with anxiety and uneasiness, it is definitely not easier for a group leader to manage a group of "shadow people" hidden in the four-dimensional space than for a boss to manage a company or an official to manage a certain department.

Groups are the best observation window for human society. Looking out the window, each group has its own world.

Things in the underworld are unpredictable; the underworld is so vast that nothing can escape one’s control. In the past, “the heroes of the world come from our generation”, but now it is “the trolls of the world come from our group”. The trolls’ mouths are the troublemakers.

Even those groups that seem to be peaceful and calm, as long as a lurker pops up occasionally and has something to say, a war of words will break out in the quiet group in an instant. The lurkers will instantly turn into spectators, and those who are watching, cheering, trying to reconcile, judging and those who think little of the trouble will appear one after another. With their clever words and sharp tongues, the previous harmonious pattern of "the highest virtue is like the mouth, which benefits all things without contending" is completely gone.

What’s more, the group itself is a free thought forum. There is never a time for “maintaining common ground while seeking differences” in the clash of opinions on philosophy, politics and current affairs, as well as sharp comments on public hot issues. The whole group is passionate, biting and fighting left and right, and the confrontation is so fierce that it can be described as filled with smoke and swords.

If the group leader does not have the ability to manage the group at this time, the whole group will be like boiling porridge, rolling around...

Gathering and dispersing, prosperity and decline of groups, all happen in a single thought!

As the saying goes, governing a big country is like cooking a small fish. As the virtual "chief executive" in the grassroots interpersonal relationships in China, the group leader's management of the group is like cooking porridge. The high and low fires must be appropriate at the right time, and the thickness of the taste must be controlled in time.

So the group leader is sometimes like a parent, sometimes like an older brother or sister, sometimes has to be a dignified teacher, sometimes has to switch to an amiable people's mediator, and sometimes has to pretend to be a modest gentleman. If a call is needed, the group leader will naturally become the leader of the masses...

The group leader is the natural actor of this era. His performance varies according to the person and the situation, and his acting skills come naturally.

Of course, not every group leader has eloquent speech and a good temper. Sometimes, a hot-blooded group leader cannot bear the whole group’s efforts to suppress the rebellion, and kicks people without blinking an eye. There are also some timid and cautious group leaders who are particularly sensitive to current political comments and are afraid of getting into trouble. Because of their high vigilance, they end up becoming the Chaoyang masses in the group.

To be honest, these concerns of the group leaders are not self-pity or groundless.

As Chinese society is in a transition period, the rise of the Internet has triggered an increasingly vigorous voice on social media. In fact, it has brought the mass movement of “big-name debates, big newspapers, and big debates” during the Cultural Revolution back into real society through the Internet. The only difference is that the form and values ​​presented this time are completely opposite to the origin and environmental inducements of the Cultural Revolution. The symbiosis of enlightenment and awakening poses an irreversible challenge to the traditional rigid social structure.

Therefore, at this moment, how to grasp the scale of public values, group leaders are not entirely clear about their social responsibilities and role positioning in China’s transition period, and their understandings vary.

According to the relevant legal interpretation: since the group owner has established the group, he should fulfill the corresponding management responsibilities, at least read the information posted in the group, and cannot ignore it, so as to timely identify, prompt, discover and stop the relevant bad information. If the group owner causes serious harmful consequences intentionally or negligently, the group owner will be held accountable for the corresponding administrative or criminal responsibility.

This is the risk that Chinese group leaders are most afraid of at the moment. The water is deep, the wind is strong, the road is long and arduous, and group leaders are searching up and down...

The author has deep experience of this. As a current affairs columnist, although the author seldom forwards other people’s sensitive posts in the group, there are indeed many original articles of his own that involve criticism of society and challenges to the public domain, which naturally caused great anxiety among the classmates.

One day, I was delighted to find that the gentle female group leader who had studied hard for many years in my classmates’ group had quietly abdicated her throne to me. I suddenly became one of the great group leaders in China.

To describe it with a popular Internet phrase: great joy, but still impressive!

Although being a group leader is an unspeakable hardship in this era, we still have to say thank you to the tens of millions of group leaders in China. They are the most handsome citizens in China today. As the American politician Wilson said: Understanding is absolutely the soil that nurtures all the fruits of friendship.

We are in an ever-changing and challenging era, where reforms are changing the way we live and exist. As a tireless trendsetter on Chinese social media, group owners have worked hard to find gold after clearing away all the sand.

The author firmly believes that in time, a group of social governance elites will emerge from the vast Chinese social networks. At that time, they will be the most considerate of public opinion, the most down-to-earth, the most humane, the most concerned about citizens’ rights, and the most aware of the extraordinary significance of freedom of thought and speech to the national spirit.

What a beautiful vision and hope!

Text/Zhang Guoqing