The Media Usage And Identity Of The Trendy Player Group

With the rapid development of economies,people's living standards have greatly improved,and their choices of entertainment in daily life come to more and more diversities.Among them,Art Toy have been loved and chased by a great number of people.Based on social media,the virtual community of Art Toy has become a platform for players to communicate and interact.Meanwhile,Art Toy have become a part of player's real life.Combining with some sociological theories,this article selects Art Toy player groups as the object of the research and try to study the construction of identity of player groups from two aspects of self-identity and group-identity.Firstly,this paper sorts out the development situation of Art Toy and analyzes the emergence of player groups.Secondly,observe the interactive activities of players in the virtual communities,find out how they communicate with each other.Combining observation method and in-depth interview method,it is found that Art Toy player groups takes social media as their main gathering place and interact by cross-media and diversified practical activities.While they are using social media during their interactions,they also realize the construction of identity through building self-identity and group-identity.At the individual level,we find that the player group achieves the construction of self-identity in various ways.First of all,players seek recognition and comfort in the virtual community through the evaluation of other players.When the evaluation of others and self-imagination are unified,self-identity is constructed.At the same time,the player connects his own experience with the Art Toy and maintains the sense of security of the body through the possession of goods and the projection of emotions.Furthermore,players determine their status in the Art Toy community through "conspicuous consumption".The community is also the "backstage" for players to put down their masks and pursue their ideal self,which perfectly sacrifices their self-realization.At the group level,with observation,the author using social identity theory to analyzes how the players shape and maintain their group boundaries.It is found thatplayers are active in the Art Toy community in order to meet the basic needs of exchange.During their frequent interactions,players share certain emotions and values.Meanwhile,when facing some negative voices and bad behaviors against the group,they safeguard themselves together to strengthen the group's boundaries,which provide them with a strong sense of identity and help them a lot with the construction of group-identity.It is of great significance to study the Art Toy players group as a part of youth subculture,which would help us analyze the development of youth subculture under nowadays situation.It is hoped that more attention would be paid to this group.