My friend accidently cut his wrist on broken glass the other day. Well, shame on him, he was drunk. However, the most shameful thing was that our buddy didn't take him to the hospital at once. He took several pictures of the accident scene and my friend's tormented face, and posted them on Wechat, the popular Chinese social media network. After making sure all the photos were online, he finally asked whether my friend was OK and sent him to the hospital. Of course, he remembered to check the online comments all the while.

Here is another thing that happened to me. My friends and I went to a lounge bar. After we sat down on one big comfortable sofa and ordered our drinks, we started a Wechat group discussion with each other. Yes, we didn't talk or joke to each other in person. We would rather Wechat.

If you take a subway or wait for tables at a restaurant, you will see people responding to their Wechat messages or playing Wechat games. It has become an obsession. And we love to poke our noses into our Wechat friends' lives and make comments. They might be a Wechat friend who we have never met in person.

So let me borrow a cliché from Thomas Friedman. In this Wechat 5.0 age, everybody can be an information carrier or absorber.

Say goodbye to the day when we received information from one voice, and the day when our own voices were unheard. Through Wechat, we are starting to understand more about other people's lives. We also try to impose our own ideas on them.

The purpose is simple: to satisfy our curiosity, to demonstrate our existence, and most of all, because we are lonely and bored. And you've got to admit, sometimes it's easier to communicate online than to talk face to face. So, my conclusion is we are kidnapped by Wechat and we are willing to be its hostage. I believe Wechat is getting us closer. If people are not willing to talk in person, then let's talk on Wechat. At least we are talking.

Some cafes are using a marketing gimmick and telling customers there is no Wi-Fi to encourage people to talk to each other. If you encounter this situation, feel free to post a Wechat warning to your friends about the place, and walk away.