Self-presentation In Wechat Moment Based On Patterns Of Culture Studies

WeChat has become an important tool for communication betweenyoung people, especially after the Moment is added to, which makesWeChat more that a SMS tool but a social network platform. WeChatMoment supports picture posting as its main UGC compared to other SNS.Young users connect with others and make self-presentation by postingpictures. Thus, a unique youth subculture is constructed by these visualsymbols.This article takes Goffman’s self-presentation theory, visual symbol,youth subculture and James W Carey’s ritual view of communication astheory foundation, combined with Hall’s Encoding and Decoding theory,takes content analysis of more than4000pictures collected from Shanghai,Beijing, Nantong and Overseas. Besides that, we also use depth interviewto find out why users upload pictures, what kind of impression they wantto make, and what is the feedback of their self-presentation.Study shows that users shoot themselves, friends and family to recordmemorable moments. The motivation of these behavior dues toself-gratification and social desire. The audience of the pictures are closefriends in real life, they have common experience and social background,that’s why they’re more likely to resonate. The theme of the photos can besummarized as characters, objects, and important scenes. The criterion ofphoto selecting are aesthetic needs and need for self-presentation. Thestudy also shows that self-presentation behavior varies in different area andgender.WeChat Moment users make self-presentation via visual symbolsmeans social frontstage performance in essence. They hope this kind ofperformance to reflect the personal backstage image and through the switch of frontstage and backstage to complete the self-image of their idealself. Both Narcissism and Share activity are the reflection of the mastery ofexpression and disclosure of personality in the decentralization context.Self-portraits show not only confident and beautiful, but also mean bodyhas become a kind of capital of consumption. In mass consumption society,“sharing” in essence is digestion and commercialization of elite cultureawareness and vulgarization. WeChat Moment shows entertainmentqualities due to the utilization of young users. They reflect and criticizewhat they create in some ways.