How many social faces do you have?

"I like to listen in Zhihu, and I like to discuss in Douban."

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Nowadays, more and more social platforms are pouring into life. Quickly becoming a user of a social platform is a common thing. The social platform has transferred the personal offline network to the online media, and at the same time, the online network can be newly opened and expanded, and the importance cannot be underestimated. Some netizens described: "Without these social platforms, my life will be difficult to operate normally." ”

Open the mobile app and count how many social platforms you are using? Most people have far more than one answer.

A variety of social platforms have built countless "rooms" for online communication. We shuttle between "rooms" and write ourselves on the web with content posted. "Platform shuttler" has become a new identity for many people. Although the source of the presentation is the user himself, no matter what kind of social platform he or she is on, the self that is portrayed and displayed is not always the same.

Generally speaking, WeChat is the basic collection of most people's current social relationships, and it is also easier to have "imaginary surveillance", where faces are carefully modified, such as "facing the sea, spring blossoms" is a typical face template for social risk regulation. "Everyone knows who you are, and I don't know how many viewers are watching and commenting on a piece of content, so no matter what content I post in the circle of friends, I will be more careful than on other platforms, otherwise it may unconsciously affect a relationship or personal development." 」 Under this influence, the social faces in some users' WeChat tend to be positive, which is actually a self-displaying move to seek stability.

In contrast, the characteristics of Weibo are different, Weibo users are in a relatively open and large network, and have a certain degree of anonymity, which provides a space for those faces who "look less praised". "The faces that appear here are the ones I don't usually let others see easily, anyway, no one cares what I like, or what I hate, who I scolded today, who to confess to tomorrow, just be happy." 」 Or crazy and wanton, or complaining, Weibo provides the possibility of "white painting" for the outline of social faces, and also creates some more original self-image.

As for qq space, before the popularization of WeChat, it occupied many markets on domestic social platforms, condensing most of the users' past interpersonal relationships, so it was more like a young projector, salvaging and cherishing those green faces. Some people say, "Clicking into the QQ space is 'Ye Qing Hui', the message board that has been 'stepped on' thousands of times, the pictures of the upload album, the 'talk' and comments posted, these contents I did not delete at all, I saw them and saw my former self." "Some people are still updating their qq space," some things happen here, like a casual chat with a friend from the past, and looking at it ten years later is a new memory. ”

Of course, the user's social face is not limited to these platforms, but also "I like to listen in Zhihu, and I like to discuss in Douban". When short video socialization swept in, platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou also brought blessings to the change of people's social faces. At the same time, some emerging or niche social platforms, such as lofter, soul, etc., are also attracting the addition of "platform shuttlers" and the derivation of social faces.

Man is three-dimensional, and the correctness of this proposition is beyond doubt. Each person is like a multi-prism, with different sides, which are connected and do not overlap each other, and together they form a complete self. "Platform shuttlers" are no exception, with the influence of social platform features, the light and shadow transmitted to the prism are decomposed into one image after another, and these images are the social faces presented by users, which quietly grow in the social platforms of the sub-genus.

Social faces interpret the multi-faceted nature of people while catering to the needs and preferences of users. The social platform of personalized customization and differentiated communication dissolves the self from three-dimensional to two-dimensional, and then allows the most matched face of the self to be embedded with it. A set of exclusive users and the platform's almost mortise structure not only lays the foundation for the generation of platform user portraits, but also provides a set of "nourishing masks" for the social faces of thousands of users.

However, while we are busy shaping ourselves on different social platforms, we may also be being shaped by those social platforms. In offline life, our faces can be presented by our own subjective choices, but in social networks, many times it can only be platform-dependent, fragmented, or even passive. One "platform shuttler" said, "Sometimes I don't want to be what I'm on those social platforms, but I can't help it, as if if I want to use the platform effectively, it requires me to do it, and I really can't give them up, I have to compromise." It can be seen that the social face of the individual will also be born from the survival law framed by the platform, which becomes the result of the evolution of the law. The social faces that are constantly unlocked may also make the three-dimensional people in reality split between the various social platform segments, resulting in doubt and confusion.

There is a famous scene in the movie "Modern Times", where the worker Charlie is desperately screwing the screw on the assembly line, and he can't stop for a moment, at this time he is like a professional screw machine, integrated with the entire industrial production line and alienated his own existence, and finally went crazy. When some people are rapidly shuttling between social platforms, trying to decompose themselves, and have to produce social faces that match them, are they also delivering themselves to the technical system, unconsciously losing their subjectivity?

Platform shuttle is inevitable, social faces emerge in an endless stream, but as the main body of people, we prefer that the world in the development of modernization, entertainment does not have to die, the true self pure existence. At this point, perhaps understanding and thinking about this phenomenon is the first step we can take.

Zhao Keyi Source: China Youth Daily ( 2021-04-20 09 edition)

Source: China Youth Daily