First, the means of personal image building
The word image has existed since ancient times. It first refers to the appearance and form of people and things, and it can also be people's sensory image and thoughts and feelings. The image discussed here refers to the characteristics presented by individuals through certain means in the media. In the development of human history, people have never emphasized the value and charm of images as they do today. Different individuals and organizations have a deeper understanding of image. From personal image, corporate image, city image to national image, different image-building plays different roles.
Daniel Boorstin, an American communication scholar, once put forward such a statement. He pointed out that the concept of image is planned and premeditated. If the image subject wants to impress others, it will inevitably subjectively choose the parts with outstanding personality and distinctive characteristics to simplify or focus on performance. Image is a subjective understanding of a specific object, and the understanding of a specific object may be very different from that of a specific object and cannot be completely equal.
A large part of personal media images in life are consciously shaped according to personal self-cognition, that is, "I hope others know who I am". This expectation of others' cognition controls the behavior of image-building subject in some ways. At the same time, due to the differences of everyone's values and life experiences, the images produced in the media are also different, and the views on objective things or people are also different because of this cognitive difference. The construction and presentation of image is only a subjective behavior, and the interpretation of information recipients is difficult to predict and measure accurately afterwards.
The construction of personal image is inseparable from the theory of symbol interaction. Meade, the founder of the interaction theory of symbol, believes that symbol is a tool, which aims at the formation of spirit, self and society. Everyone's cognition and understanding of self is produced in the interaction of social relations. Meade divides ego into two levels: subject and object. The subject is reflected from the activity behavior through the individual itself around the activity object, which is also a manifestation of the true self, while the object is the individual's evaluation of himself or others and the embodiment of social evaluation and expectation. ?
At present, many media require users to have a unique ID (or user name), and they can also set personal information such as avatar and signature, which has become an important standard to distinguish different users, objectively causing different people to have different personal attributes and characteristics. No matter ID, head portrait or other personalized features, they are all symbols in the construction of self-image.
Avatar is a personal symbol representation in virtual cyberspace and the first business card of media users in the process of interacting with others. In all self-media platforms, no matter what kind of social activities, avatar is the first point of personal image building, and it has become an important basis for interpersonal communication on the Internet. By analyzing what photos WeChat users choose as avatars in virtual network social interaction, we can analyze the self-image that users want to show in social media from a certain aspect. Personal head portrait is the best representative of imaging.
People generally regard the head portrait as a symbol with visual attributes, and the head portrait is an imitation and copy of the characteristics of the things it represents. In groups that use real avatars, there is also a willingness to create their own impressions for each other. And this will is often positive and positive.
As far as the WeChat avatar is concerned, it shows the comprehensive connotation of a user's main idea and the creator himself. The setting of avatar has a strong symbolic significance, which not only makes people have rich associations, but also evokes people's thoughts and feelings. The setting of visual symbols such as head portrait is the medium for human beings to know and understand the world. Through it, people's organizational life can be coordinated.
The real person in life is not consistent with the image presented by the avatar, which is also a common problem of social media. In a strange social field, many times photos will bring great doubts, and some people even think that the image presented in the avatar (mainly referring to the appearance and the imagination caused by the appearance) is very different from the real person. Therefore, we need to understand that the visual symbol "avatar" is not only the meaning and the thing itself, but also a cultural code.
Second, the need for self-presentation and self-introduction.
Sociologist Parker believes that the original meaning of the word "person" is a mask, and everyone always plays a role in daily life. In this role, people know others and themselves. Gofman's self-presentation theory points out that individuals influence the definition of the situation that others are forming by "acting" in front of a specific observer, thus controlling the impression that others form on themselves and the way they treat themselves.
It is generally believed that the core of self-presentation lies in the control and management of self-impression. It refers to an individual's intention to establish, maintain or modify his image in the eyes of others by conveying some information to others through actions. Self-presentation in social networks is different from traditional self-presentation, and the situation and social relations it faces are more complicated. The virtuality and fluidity of the network enrich the content and expand the means of self-presentation. People can endow diversified symbols such as pictures and expressions with special meanings, so that the self-presented image is richer and more three-dimensional. Generally speaking, self-presentation in social networks is an information dissemination behavior in which people transmit information to others in various ways and use online content production to maintain relationships.
Gofman's self-presentation theory points out that personal expression should include two parts: his direct expression and his "casual" expression. The former is mainly personal language expression, including all kinds of words and symbols and their substitutes, while the latter includes a wide range of actions, and the latter is more meaningful to others than the former. Others use individual expressions and actions that they think are uncontrollable to test the authenticity of what is conveyed by controllable aspects.
Text contents such as user logs, screen names and personalized signatures displayed in social networking sites belong to the former and are directly expressed in words, while social networking site users' avatars belong to the latter, which is a hidden self-presentation and an important part of self-presentation relative to text contents.
Further research shows that the user's avatar is an important element of self-presentation, and the content that can best reflect the characteristics of self-presentation in social networks is the user's avatar, which is often located in a prominent position on the personal homepage, is the basic element used to judge the user's identity in the user's personal data, and is one of the self-presentation means that users rely on very much. It is an important evidence of text information, which can not only visualize personal image, but also convey important contents such as personality and quality. Users often choose their own avatars carefully, and the actions, manners and expressions in the avatars will become the key factors to convey users' information.
In Kramer's research, the avatar is divided into six aspects: avatar style, face visibility, avatar color, scene, facial expression and whether to look at the camera or not, so as to investigate the influencing factors of social network self-presentation. The study of social network users' avatars is of great significance to the study of users' self-presentation.
Third, meet the psychological needs of social participation.
Meade once pointed out in Mind, Self and Society that people's adaptation to the outside world is realized through symbolic communication process, and symbols are the media that people must use when communicating with others and interacting with society. From this point of view, the process of communication can be explained as follows: the communicator transmits a symbol representing a certain meaning, and the receiver understands and reacts to this symbol. In this process, people exchange meaning, interact and influence each other. This symbolic interaction is not only the mechanism of the formation and development of the relationship between people, but also the link between people and society.
In real life, due to the limitation of time, energy and social circle, it is impossible for people to participate in all social interactions. However, the full-time, global and interactive features of the Internet make it possible for people to expand their social scope and enhance their sense of social participation, and Weibo's head is a symbolic link in cyberspace. In early 2020, "wearing a mask on the head" became a fashion in Weibo. This symbol construction expresses everyone's concern and participation in public health events, and also strengthens their identity as social citizens.
James W. Carey, a famous communication scholar, put forward a "ritual view of communication" in his book Communication as Culture, pointing out that communication is a social maintenance way to enjoy faith. As an important carrier in communication, symbols also play the role of connecting people into groups and holding ceremonies together. For example, in the event of a major disaster or the unfortunate death of a favorite celebrity, some users will also change their avatars. After Kobe's death on June 27, 2020, many people changed their heads to black and white or photos of Kobe to express their grief. As a part of quasi-social interaction, changing the avatar can make up for the regret that people can't participate in it. In major social events, people get a sense of satisfaction, belonging and identity through the ceremony of changing their heads.
Fourth, it is conducive to value recognition and re-dissemination.
In addition to the above functions, there are specific values behind the avatar. This value concept is one of the meanings of the avatar symbol, which helps to generate emotional buzz among the audience, and also helps to improve the user's viscosity for the big V and audience in social media such as Weibo. Take the funny V "Laughing Bacteria" as an example. His head is a cartoon yellow Shiba Inu. This Shiba Inu is one of the symbols of online sand sculpture culture, which is interpreted as cute and silly. In addition to these references, the image also conveys the uneasy, self-deprecating and optimistic attitude towards life behind the sand sculpture culture. Therefore, the communicator not only hopes that the audience can understand the superficial meaning of symbols, but also hopes that the audience can be persuaded by the values conveyed by symbols.
Lazarsfeld, a communication scholar, put forward the concept of "opinion leader" in People's Choice, which refers to a person who actively transmits information to others and has influence in interpersonal networks. The flow of information from the public to the individual after being filtered by opinion leaders is called secondary communication. The study of this kind of AC flow was later extended by Rogers to the theory of "innovation diffusion". As an early adopter of innovation communication, opinion leaders play a vital role in the communication of a new thing or new idea. Weibo Big V has a large number of fans, strong influence and appeal, and can be regarded as the opinion leader of Weibo Platform. Their behavior is easily imitated and shared by fans. Therefore, when the deep meaning of their avatar symbols is recognized, it will easily lead to the second spread of the audience.
The meaning of avatar is further transmitted in this concept sharing, which may even promote social trends and influence social culture. The final stage of meaning construction is that new symbols are brought into the social and cultural system, changing the original cultural class and structure, and becoming the premise of the next symbol construction.
Source of this article 1? Wechat unsealing: /wxjf/ 1979.html
Material 2 of this article:/wxjf/wxjf/1982.html.
Material 3:/wxjf/wxjf/1985.html.