Study on the Self-presentation in the Use of the Netizens’ Micro-blog Alternate Accounts from the Perspective of Dramaturgical Theory

Abstract

In recent years, with the expansion of the user scale of micro-blog and the improvement of socialization, micro-blog has evolved into an important socially influential social media platform from a personal life sharing platform. Facing social pressure and the risk of privacy disclosure, the users have begun to seek more private and personalized communication means, thus micro-blog alternate accounts emerged as the time require. This thesis explores the self-presentation behaviors of micro-blog users in both their main and alternative accounts and studies their behavior through snowball sampling and semi-structured interviews. From the perspective of dramaturgical theory, it compares the performance differences between netizens in the “front stage” and the “back stage”. The study found that the emergence of micro-blog alternate accounts is to meet the diverse needs of users in privacy protection, information screening and social interaction. Meanwhile, users also need to follow corresponding principles when using micro-blog alternate accounts.