Illustration: Lu Ting/GT

As I refreshed my social media this past Sunday - Mother's Day - I noticed that among my Western friends, their WeChat feeds featured photos of them and their mothers out for brunch or doing something fun together that day. Among my fellow Chinese, however, most just preferred to send their moms emojis and memes instead.

This seemed quite odd to me considering how filial we Chinese are known to be. Our parents are our best friends and, for daughters like myself, nobody is more close to us than our mothers. So I wondered why so many post-90s generation Chinese prefer to do Mother's Day digitally?

I suppose one of the primary reasons is that many Chinese 20- and 30-somethings live far away from home and their families. Here in Shanghai, for instance, nearly half the population is made up of migrant workers from other provinces. Many workers do not get to see their mothers for months at a time. Social media has become an alternative means of staying in real-time touch, however superficial it may seem.

But among millennials and those who live at home, relying on social media has become a way for the lazy to express filial piety. Compared with taking their mother out or bringing her a gift, writing a post on WeChat is seen as less time-consuming and less costly.

One of my girlfriends who lives away from home told me that just before this Mother's Day she bought herself an expensive dress instead of buying one for her mom online and having it delivered. She also didn't feel like traveling all the way back to her hometown just for Mother's Day, so she simply posted a photo of her and her mom on WeChat with a generic caption, "You are the best mother in the world, and I want to give you the best of everything." The irony of her wording wasn't lost on me.

But even this kind of insincere social media post is becoming infrequent among younger Chinese, who are hyper-sensitive about their appearance and how their WeChat followers perceive them. On Mother's Day, Chinese daughters will share photos on social media of themselves posing with their mom-but only if their mom is attractive. Rarely will a daughter show off her plain-looking mom to the world, as these types of shallow daughters are very concerned with what people will think.

This Sunday, another girlfriend of mine posted a photo of her and her mom supposedly celebrating Mother's Day together in a Michelin-starred restaurant. In the photo, her mom is holding a new Louis Vuitton handbag. The caption "Best gift to the best woman in the world" gave the impression that she had splurged on her mom this Mother's Day. But for those of us in the know, the photo was recycled from a past occasion; the girl didn't do anything with her mom; it was just shameless PR to get likes.

Coincidentally, the next day I read a news report about Hong Kong, which used to be a popular Mother's Day destination for middle-class Chinese to treat their moms to fancy dim sum brunches and shopping sprees at luxury brand stores. This Sunday, however, due to the economic downturn, many restaurants and shops there remained empty.

Migratory patterns as well as a souring economy may be very good reasons for young Chinese to rely on social media as a way to express their love, but what about all those moms who don't use social media? According to online statistics, 97.7 percent of users on WeChat, the most widely used social networking platform in China, are under 50 years old. That leaves an extremely high percentage of moms who will never see their child's digital Mother's Day card.

With that in mind, how hard is it for children of any age to write a hand-made card for their mothers? Remember how fun it was when our school teachers passed around colored construction paper and crayons for us to make Mother's Day cards? Office workers can still do this. Just grab paper from the printer and some white-board markers, write something nice and drop it in the outgoing mail. It will only take a few minutes longer than writing a social media post, but for the woman that loves you most in the world, the meaning will be much more special.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Times.