Satisfaction of contextual needs: a study of users’ multi-account trade-off needs and self-presentation in WeChat

Abstract

Social media has dramatically changed people’s lives, and also more and more people are using multiple accounts to socialize. Based on self-presentation and platform sway theory, this study uses online ethnography and semi-structured interviews to explore the reasons for the emergence of multiple account trade-off demands in WeChat. This paper argues that in terms of image building, people will have different performance motives when using different WeChat accounts. There is an offline social network online swing in the maintenance of social relationships, while in terms of functional expansion, they tend to have instrumental rational profit-seeking needs. Thus, users develop new forms of media contact based on new communication forms with multi-account trade-offs, reflecting their autonomy and creativity.