Audience Reception and Collective Identity in the Streaming Era: A Cross-Platform Analysis of Everything Everywhere All at Once on Douban and Letterboxd
Abstract
Film audiences in the age of participatory media culture are no longer passive consumers but active participants in the creation of meaning and symbols online. This paper explores how young viewers of Douban and Letterboxd are interacting with Everything Everywhere All at Once through online reviews, discussions and meme creation, and what these reception patterns suggest for the design of interactive media. Using qualitative thematic analysis on high-engagement user-generated content, compare cross-platform audience interpretations. Based on the research, the three main features are an existential anxiety and decision paralysis, family problems and intergenerational trauma, and memeification of absurd visual symbols. Although Douban users generally express their experiences in the form of socially grounded stories about structural pressure and exhaustion, Letterboxd users are more likely to adopt a therapeutic and humorous approach. Although they are not the same, both communities have fostered a sense of community through shared emotions and participation. The design translation framework presented in this paper is composed of three parts: Emotional Mapping, Narrative Mapping and Symbolic Interaction, and the reception by the audience serves as a resource for designing interactive experiences.
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