Disconnection And Continuation:Self Presentation Of Post-90s Youth In Rural Government WeChat Groups

With the innovation of self-media communication technology,self-media platforms represented by WeChat and Weibo are deeply embedded in people’s daily lives.This transformation has led to the emergence of new features of reality and theory.On the one hand,rural government WeChat groups have reconnected dispersed villagers.The demand for interaction and sharing drives strong driving forces,pushing people into virtual spaces and returning human society to triberization.On the other hand,the field studied by Goffman has undergone substantial changes.The stage of individual self-presentation is gradually shifting from real daily life to semi-open and semi-closed WeChat groups.The village WeChat group serves as the middle ground between reality and virtual,and the post-90s youth exhibit different behavioral representations of reality and virtual.Given that qualitative research can delve deeper into the issues to be addressed in this article,data was collected through in-depth interviews and participatory observations.Three rural government WeChat groups in northern Anhui were selected,and one village WeChat group in L village was used as the main research field.Based on sample characteristics,intensity sampling was used to select 20 post-90s young people living in L village,including those who joined or did not join the rural government WeChat group.It should be pointed out that the observation of WeChat groups for post-90s youth is not only limited to rural government WeChat groups but also includes other types of village WeChat groups for post-90s youth.Such as girlfriends,work groups,classmates,etc.Research has found that young people born in the 1990s enter the rural government WeChat group by revealing their true selves.After obtaining village government information,they actively dive into the group to observe the information and selectively present the content,playing a role as viewers.The reasons for choosing different presentation methods are influenced by the introverted personality traits and precise self-needs of individuals,the great intergenerational differences of the WeChat community,the impossibility of audience isolation,and the collectivism and traditional customs in social norms.The role of the viewer is a continuation of Owen Goffman’s view of "performer",Bernie Hogan’s view of "curator",and Dong Chenyu’s view of "editor" in previous research contexts.The emergence of rural government WeChat groups provides a stage for the post-90s youth to reconnect with villages and promote the establishment of rural communities.