Authenticity and Performance: An Analysis of the Influence of Strong and Weak Relationships on Users' Self-Presentation in Social Media
Abstract
The rise of online social media has led to a shift in people’s social interactions from offline to online platforms. Online social interaction has become an integral part of societal interactions. Platforms like WeChat Moments and Tik Tok offer distinctive social channels, providing a platform with a more diverse audience. As a result, individuals can present their performances to audiences with different levels of relationship strength. This paper aims to explore the differences in self-presentation motivations and strategies when facing audiences with different levels of relationship strength on WeChat Moments and Tik Tok. This paper analyzes the impact of relationship strength on self-presentation, exploring the influence of strong and weak relationships on college students’ self-presentation in social media. Based on the survey and interview results, the paper compares the differences and connections in self-presentation of college students on WeChat Moments and Tik Tok. The findings indicate that the images users present on social media are closely related to their relationship with the audience. Users adjust their self-presentation strategies based on the composition ratio of strong and weak relationships in the social platform. Furthermore, users perform different degrees of impression management, presenting different levels of authenticity. Users also assign different levels of importance to different audiences and adopt different image correction strategies based on the level of importance. Moreover, in response to the findings of the study, the paper highlights the problems that exist in social media interaction and makes targeted recommendations for the development of online social interaction.
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