The construction of digital self-identity : with the focus on Chinese social media platform

Abstract

With the development of science and technology, the digital space continues to expand, and people gradually become used to forming personalized digital self-identities. Self-identity is a collection of beliefs about oneself, and the digital environment provides individuals with new opportunities to define themselves in the online environment. Users can use online resources to create and reshape their roles and build connections to construct and explain their unique position. This study takes the digital self-identity as the critical concept and explores its construction process and possible design application focusing on the Chinese social media environment. The research includes three studies to collect attitudes from the user and platform perspectives to answer the research question: How do Chinese users build their digital self-identity in social media? Study 1 used a survey to analyze the status of digital self-identity on seven major Chinese social media. Study 2 conducted a long-term observation with new users of Weibo and Douyin. Study 3 organized a group discussion with social media designers. The results of the studies prove the importance of digital self-identity in constructing user-platform relationships, explain the model and process of constructing digital self-identity, and discuss the design application possibilities and design tools based on digital self-identity. The findings complement theories of self-identity and benefit the exploration of self-identity constructs in the digital environment. The study also contributes to social media's analysis and understanding of users and the formulation of development strategies by proposing design tools, application scenarios, and application strategies.