A Study On The Phenomenon Of Wechat Emoticons Based On Carnival Theory

On August 31,2022,the China Internet Network Information Center released the50 th Statistical Report on the Development of the Internet in China.According to the report,by June 2022,the number of Internet users in China had reached 1.171 billion,the Internet penetration rate reached 75.8 percent,and the number of instant messaging users reached 1.027 billion,accounting for 97.7 percent of the total Internet users.At the same time,the number of users of Chinese online social platforms has also increased.According to the data released by Tencent,as of the third quarter of 2022,the monthly active users of We Chat and We Chat(the overseas version of wechat)reached 1.309 billion,making wechat not only the first product in China’s Internet history with more than 1 billion monthly active users,but also the most frequently used mobile social platform among Chinese users.Memes are a way for people to use pictures to express their emotions and attitudes.As a new type of media,the emojis are rich in intuitiveness and fun,carrying the emotional information of the sender,making up for the lack of online text and language expression and even replacing it to a certain extent,realizing the "extension of human" and becoming an indispensable part of people’s online social communication.Social media platforms have also become the main venues for people to exchange memes.With the growing number of wechat users,emoticons have achieved a carnival on the wechat platform and become a popular Internet phenomenon.This paper mainly adopts the method of in-depth interview,questionnaire survey and network ethnography.With carnival theory as the entry point,it analyzes the four characteristics of equality,universality,ritual and subversion of wechat emoji carnival phenomenon,and then interprets the causes of wechat emoji carnival,analyzes the reasonability and existing problems of wechat emoji,and proposes corresponding countermeasures.In order to supplement and innovate the previous research results.This paper is divided into five parts in structure.The introduction mainly introduces the research background and purpose,and expounds the main problems of this paper.The first chapter mainly introduces the development of emoticons and the classification and characteristics of wechat emoticons.In Chapter two,from the perspective of carnival theory,through in-depth interview,questionnaire and network ethnography research methods,the four characteristics of equality,universality,rituality and subversion of wechat emoticons transmission phenomenon are analyzed.The third chapter mainly analyzes the reasons for the carnival of wechat emoticons from three aspects: technology support,interest drive and user demand.The fourth chapter analyzes the problems existing in the carnival of wechat emoticons from the perspectives of infringement,homogenization,vulgarity,violence and degradation of realistic expression,and explores the solutions.The research shows that the carnival phenomenon of wechat emoticons is equal,universal,ritualistic and subversive.Technological progress has brought platform application innovation,and capital input has injected more "fuel" into the emoji industry.With the boost of platform and capital,users can wantonly express their emotions and feelings in the carnival square through the function of "pressure reducing valve" of wechat emoji,making the phenomenon of wechat emoji spread increasingly carnival.At the same time,with the gradually large and mixed user groups,the emojis also have problems of infringement,homogeneity,vulgarity,violence and the degradation of real communication caused by network carnival.Therefore,improve the relevant mechanism,protect copyright,reject homogenization,strengthen innovation;It is urgent to improve the supervision of network environment,strengthen the control of platforms,strengthen the media literacy of users,and standardize the emoji market.At the same time,regulating the emoji market requires the joint efforts of wechat emoji users,wechat platform and relevant government departments to guide the carnival of wechat emoji to develop in a benign direction.