(ECNS) -- Despite the huge popularity of WeChat, China's biggest Internet-based mobile messaging platform, 35.8 percent of those polled want to close its fundamental feature called Moments, according to a survey by China Youth Daily.
Moments looks like a closed social network, allowing users to post text updates, upload up to nine images as well as share videos and article links, just like a Twitter Newsfeed. However, it can be overwhelming if a user agrees to see the updates of all WeChat friends.
The top three most annoying things for Moments users are advertisements (58.1 percent), updates to show off something (44.9 percent), and purchase assistance (38.9 percent). The survey showed that 2.4 percent had already chosen to close it.
The most favored two activities on Moments are forwarding funny posts (21.6 percent) and images (21.2 percent).
In the survey, 40.8 percent said they have more than 100 WeChat friends, 100-200, 35.0 percent, and 200-300, 16.1 percent. About 1.3 percent said they have more than 500 friends on WeChat.
There are 57.1 percent who said the first thing they do in the morning is check for updates on Moments.
Deng Chunyang, a teacher in charge of a first-grade class at the Donggaodi No. 3 Elementary School, said WeChat has become a key communication tool for parents of students.
"The first thing for me everyday is to check Moments and WeChat groups, so I will know what parents are discussing or if they are unsatisfied with their children's school life," said the teacher.
Zhang Xue, who works for a dot-com company, said she felt more at peace with her life after closing the Moments feature more than a month ago, because she feels less pressure to follow or participate in activities.
Kuang Wenbo, a professor of mass communication with the Renmin University of China, said younger users of WeChat may need guidance to help judge unfiltered content on Moments generated by users.
WeChat was developed by Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent and has more than 700 million monthly active users.
