Analysis of the Language of Self-Presentation in Social Networking Sites

Zhou J. Analysis of the Language of Self-Presentation in Social Networking Sites : master’s thesis : 035 Philology / supervised Vira Orlova. Kyiv, 2023. 89 p.

With the popularity of social networking sites, people are presenting their self-image on social networking sites more and more frequently. As an important form of expression, self-presentation language plays an important role in social networking sites. Therefore, the study of self-presentation language in social networking sites is important for understanding the linguistic and sociological mechanisms of people's social behavior.
The aim of this study is to analyze the characteristics of self-presentation language in social networking sites and to investigate whether people are in a state of 'Flow' and 'performance' in social networking. By collecting data on people's self-presentation and conducting interviews and research, we explore the performance of self-presentation language in terms of emotional expression, linguistic form and thematic content to reveal the psychological process and social needs of people's self-presentation on social networking sites. This paper uses textual analysis and statistical methods to collect, collate and analyze the language of self-presentation on social networking sites.
As a popular social media, Facebook has a large number of young people sharing on the portal, including their daily life or work needs, while BBS, as a long-standing social media, will have Facebook has a lot of young people on it, so I use "performance" theory to analyze the language, while BBS has more text BBS has more textual display, so I will use the "Flow" theory for analysis.
Firstly, by observing and analyzing samples of self-presentation language on social networking sites, in terms of the selection of social networking sites, the author will take samples from two social networking media, Facebook and BBS, and intercept the more typical examples of sharing, so as to conduct analysis and obtain the characteristics of self-presentation language on social networking sites.
Secondly, the emotional expressions, linguistic forms and thematic contents of self-presentation language in social networking sites were analyzed and compared. It was found that the self-presentation language in social networking sites has obvious characteristics, including high information density, strong positive emotional expressions, diverse and rich language forms, and various types of thematic content. At the same time, there are also differences between self-presentation language on social networking sites and real-life language expressions, and these differences depend on the presence or absence of 'Flow' and 'performance', so this paper will also be studied and analyzed in the completion of the thesis.
People often use the language on social networking sites to shape their self-image and gain social acceptance. This paper has some scientific significance in revealing the psychological and social mechanisms and social needs of self-presentation language on social networking sites. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of self-presentation language on social networking sites, revealing its characteristics and manifestations. In the future, we can explore the language of self-presentation on social networking sites in a more comprehensive and in-depth manner from a broader sociological and psychological perspective.
At the same time, the findings and conclusions of this study can also provide some enlightenment and reference for people's self-presentation or use on social networking sites.