“Heterofrequency” Family And “Resonant” Kinship:A Study On The Use Of WeChat Family Groups Under Pattern Of Difference Sequence

The rapid development of social media is changing the relationship between people.The family is the most important social unit,and the kinship relationship is the most important social relationship in human society.As the We Chat platform is deeply embedded in the family domain,it is bound to bring changes to the original offline kinship relationships,and with the proliferation of We Chat family groups in China,many researchers point out that We Chat family groups are,to some extent,a "reenactment" of the traditional extended family.Based on this,this study used in-depth interviews and participant observation to observe a family group of 19 people and interviewed families in three different regions about their understanding of We Chat family groups to examine whether the traditional extended family is being reconstructed in the new media era,especially in a new social media platform such as We Chat.It was found that through the sharing of daily life,family ritual activities,and the exchange of family communal affairs,We Chat groups create an online family space for full-time co-existence among family members and,to some extent,enhance family cohesion with the help of activities such as red envelopes and holiday celebrations.To a certain extent,it has created a formal family for people.However,the formal extended family built in this new media platform has become increasingly weak in actual daily life.Although the differential order pattern in the family field has become more emotional and the ethical nature of "order" has started to weaken,it is still a powerful explanation for the family activities of Chinese people nowadays.As the fixed boundaries of We Chat groups make the "order" of full-time co-existence and the"difference" of family members’ own core starting contradictory,family members have to turn to the existing media technology to "play" family members in the stage of We Chat family groups."This online family is only a formal one.This online family is only formal,not a traditional family in essence.The contradiction of technology makes the extended family constructed by the online We Chat family group not give the family members a sense of "four generations in one",but makes this form of extended family gradually reduced to a "family public affairs announcer",and the emotional communication among the group members is weak.The family group has become a "family of love and affection" in name only.