Comparing the use of space in selfies on Chinese Weibo and Twitter

Abstract

Selfies are a ubiquitous practice worldwide in which social media users create and share cultural artifacts that go beyond mere idealized or narcissistic self-presentations. As a cultural phenomenon, selfies reflect not just personal impressions but also communal values of modern life. This study analyzes the use of place in selfies as a defining visual element of self-representation in the United States and China. In particular, this research examines differences and commonalities in the places used to create meaning in selfies in the two national contexts. Our research shows that the deliberate use of places plays a critical role in the presentation of self within selfies both in the United States and China. While there are significant differences in some aspects of selfie construction, the selection of places for selfies followed similar patterns of public and private spaces in both countries, privileging the domestic and commercial most of all, and providing some support for the dominance of a global online culture over the influence of a specific national culture in presentations of the self.

An Exploratory Study of “Selfitis” and the Development of the Selfitis Behavior Scale

“…Such actions enable selfie-takers to present themselves in a controlled way. In recent years, selfie-taking has become an incredibly popular activity often going viral online when sharing selfies via social media domains (Frosh 2015; Rettberg 2014; Hess 2015; Roberts and Koliska 2017; Moon et al 2016). …”

Space, Place, and the Self: Reimagining Selfies as Thirdspace

“…As such, selfies can be seen as assemblages of subjectivities within a mediated and networked society (Hess, 2015). While selfies are “ephemeral, quickly circulated, discarded, and forgotten” (Hess, 2015, p. 1631), they nevertheless create a discourse, generating comments or likes on social media platforms and “may be seen as more fluid forms of visual communication representing changing yet constructed selves in various socio-spatial contexts” (Roberts & Koliska, 2017, p. 155). Thus, selfies are often part of personal narrative and public debate (Maddox, 2017; Vivienne & Burgess, 2013; Zhao & Zappavigna, 2018).…”

“…Given the polysemic meanings a selfie can create in the interplay of self, objective, conceived, lived, and mediated place, one goal of this article is to explicate dominant meaning-making practices of selfies. Selfies “cannot be decontextualized from the [point in] space they have been” taken in (Roberts & Koliska, 2017, p. 4), as they “attempt to represent the self as embodied in particular spaces” (Hess, 2015, p. 1630). But instead of assuming that these spaces represent stable or taken-for-granted meanings, we suggest that selfies produce new places and, in doing so, function as Thirdspace, encompassing all the polysemic meanings of the place and the self that may have been intended and perceived.…”

Factors Underlie Selfie Addiction: Developing and Validating a Scale

“…Selfie taking has spread increasingly across different age groups and has become ubiquitous with everyday life (Roberts & Koliska, 2017;Moon et al, 2016). Social networking platform users utilize various types of pictures, particularly selfies, to display their personalities, lifestyles, and preferences (Sung et al, 2016).…”