In the span of one year, the number of people in China that see the positive impact of social media has dropped significantly.

A recent study reveals 68 percent of users in 2014 think social media makes their life better, a 12 percent drop from the previous year.

In 2013, QQzone emerged as the top social media channel. According to survey conducted by Kantar, a market research firm, the top three social media channels are WeChat, QQzone and Weibo.

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QQzone allows users to share blogs, keep diaries and send photos. WeChat is a text and voice messaging service. It also allows users to share photos, videos and their location.

The study also found social media users are now widely distributed across a wide range of age groups and locations. Most media users have high level education.

With the continuous advances in the smartphone industry, people have gained easier access to social networking.

The survey revealed that 85 percent of social media users used mobile devices among the top three social media channels. The most read topics based on clicks come from the entertainment section, garnering 48.5 percent of total reads.

Favorite news includes celebrity gossips, entertainment news and funny topics. These topics are the most talked about trends in social media.

While almost half of social media users browsed hot gossips and celebrity rumors, only 4.6 percent read topics from the news and information section, which includes current affairs, economics and business.

Though social media users have been more diverse, the study found they started interacting less.

Almost half of users only browsed media content; 13 percent posted original content, 14 percent reposted and 20 percent clicked "Like" or "Comment".

In the past months, China had been tightening its censorship and the Great Firewall had started getting taller, blocking websites with the potential to spread anti-government content.

According to the survey, a majority (37.8 percent) of social media users limits social interaction and actively protects their privacy.

China users may soon become less and less smitten with social media as the Chinese government recently issued new rules that prevent privacy. China is now demanding people use their real names in their social media accounts.

This survey by Katnar China was conducted in 60 cities with 100,000 respondents from data-mining, text-mining and online survey polls.

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