Constructing Identities Through Multimodal Design on Social

Platforms: A Case Study of WeChat Moments

Dongyan Chen

, Tongsihan Wang

and Shizhen Xu

College of Foreign Language, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou, 550000, China

College of Foreign Language, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, 050024, China

School of Foreign Languages, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, 450001, China

Keywords: Multimodality, Social Platforms, Visual Design, Identity Construction, Digital Identity.

Abstract: In the context of the rapid development of digital media, the application of multimodal discourse is increas-

ingly extensive and life-oriented, and social platforms are also becoming an important space for people to

showcase their self-image, where visual design plays a crucial role in user identity construction. This study

aims to combine dynamic multimodal discourse analysis with the perspective of identity construction to ob-

serve and analyze WeChat Moments, a dynamic social space, to reveal the dynamic process of users’ identity

construction. The research found that users often utilize multimodal discourse to construct a multidimensional

self. For instance, they evoke emotional resonance through images and text, establish a sense of group be-

longing, and gain recognition by performatively displaying their ideal self. This enriches applying applied

linguistics theory to daily life and offers feasible references to the construction of modern citizens’ identities.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

In the realm of human existence, as Max Weber’s

concept implies, “Man is an animal suspended in

webs of significance he has spun” (Weber, M., 2002).

This suggests that individuals are constantly

endowing their actions and the information they

handle with meaning in engaging with the world. This

phenomenon has become even more pronounced

along with the rapid advancement of digital media.

People are no longer content with mere recording or

recollection; instead, the desire to use photographs for

self-expression has grown significantly (Berger, J.,

1972). Especially for college students who have

grown up with technology, maintaining an authentic

and engaging online persona is a continual and time-

consuming process (Stokes & Price, 2017). In terms

of the development of media, Günther Kress captures

precisely the essence by mentioning that digital

screens, with their unique interactivity and

immediacy, have changed the way people

communicate and interact. Traditional print media

have been forced to give way to their digital

counterparts. The evolution of media forms towards

multimodality not only means the superposition of the

visual logic when information is organized but also

heralds the innovation and optimization of

communication effects when resources are

intertwined. The application of multimodal discourse

offers people the opportunity to conduct abundant

visual design, thereby dynamically satisfying various

psychological needs behind self-identity

construction, interest-driven motivation, public

culture, or other factors. From a multimodal vantage

point, the visual designs of different user groups on

social platforms exhibit other functions,

characteristics, and patterns in identity construction.

1.2 Literature Review

O'Halloran pointed out that in different sociocultural

contexts, there are notable disparities in the visual

designs of different user groups (O'Halloran, 2006).

For the adolescent group, Tong Xin et al. analyzed the

construction of their digital identity model through

questionnaires. They concluded that there are four

influencing factors: “friendship-driven”, “new media

literacy”, “online public culture”, and “interest-

driven” (Tong, et al., 2020). For the college student

group, scholars have respectively conducted multi-

dimensional explorations and reflections from

different perspectives (Gan et al., 2022; Stokes &

Price, 2017; Yan & Han, 2024). There are adverse

aspects to the Social Networking Sites (SNS)

Chen, D., Wang, T. and Xu, S.

Constructing Identities Through Multimodal Design on Social Platforms: A Case Study of WeChat Moments.

DOI: 10.5220/0013965500004912

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Innovative Education and Social Development (IESD 2025), pages 94-99

ISBN: 978-989-758-779-5

presentation of the self-online which can be mitigated

through meticulous guidance and judicious

approaches (Stokes & Price, 2017).

Ravelli and Van Leeuwen pointed out that in the

digital media era, there are three main research

directions in multimodal discourse analysis: first, re-

examining the multimodality of digital tools (Ravelli

&Van Leeuwen, 2018). Second, guiding frameworks

for new encoding methods; and third, critically

analyzing power and identity issues in multimodal

discourse, known as Multimodal Critical Discourse

Analysis (MCDA) (Wu & Zhao, 2022). The research

by Machin and Mayr laid the foundation for this field

by analyzing the choice of symbols in multimodal

discourse in advertisements and media publicity to

reveal the underlying values and identity

constructions (Machin & Mayr, 2012). Additionally,

Professor Li also conducted an in-depth exploration

of Kress and Leeuwen's contributions to visual

grammar and functional grammar, analyzing the three

major meanings, representation, interaction, and

composition, in multimodal discourse (Li, 2003).

This especially provided methodological guidelines

for this paper, such as image content analysis and

social semiotics analysis.

1.3 Research Topic

Based on the above significance exploration and

literature review, this section points out the research

gaps and challenges discovered during the study.

First, current multimodal perspective analyses have a

propensity to concentrate on static discourse and

social semiotic models, while research combining

dynamic discourse and identity construction remains

scant. The identities of users on social platforms are

dynamically changing and multi-constructed, making

it challenging for existing studies to fully capture and

explain this complex process. Second, research in this

field tends to zero in on isolated instances of

communication, with relatively few longitudinal

studies tracking identity construction across multiple

positions or over extended periods. Most studies

focus on multimodal discourse at specific moments or

single events, without sufficiently considering the

evolution of user identities across different social

contexts and periods. Furthermore, data analysis of

dynamic multimodal discourse becomes complicated

due to factors such as contextual diversity and

individual user differences, making corpus

processing more challenging. In qualitative analysis,

researchers need to accurately interpret the implicit

meanings of users from different cultural

backgrounds and social strata in dynamic multimodal

discourse, requiring multidisciplinary knowledge

such as intercultural communication and sociology.

In quantitative research, the unstructured and

complex nature of dynamic multimodal data makes it

difficult to establish effective quantitative indicators

to measure the relationships between modes and their

impact on identity construction.

In this regard, this study focuses on the identity

construction of visual design in social platforms

under the multi-modal perspective, taking WeChat

Moment as an example to conduct in-depth

exploration. In China, WeChat Moment provides rich

materials for the study of user identity construction,

owing to its easy operation, strong popularity, and

high authenticity and naturalness. In-depth research

on the identity construction of users in a more private

social platform not only helps to reveal how

individuals show themselves, interact with others,

and build social relations through video design in the

digital age but also provides an empirical basis for

understanding the mechanism of multi-modal action

in a social context. Through the analysis of user

behavior patterns, content presentation, interaction

mode, and other aspects in the circle of friends, this

paper will gain insight into how users use multi-

modal resources to build multidimensional identity

images, as well as the social and psychological

motivations behind such identity construction. The

final research results can provide valuable references

for the design and optimization of social platforms,

users’ self-presentation strategies, and theoretical

development in related fields, and promote the further

application and expansion of multimodal discourse

analysis.

1.4 Research Objectives

This paper aims to apprehend the manifested behavior

patterns of WeChat users in the Moments and analyze

their personalized identity construction. By

integrating the findings of others regarding related

psychological needs, we endeavor to probe into users’

social interaction mechanism and internal motivation

in the social network from a micro perspective. From

a macro level, this research also commits to capturing

the extrinsic manifestations of users’ behavior

patterns and identity construction in a naturalistic

context. Through the whole process, we hope that

certain empirical data and corpus support can be

provided. Ultimately, the relationship between digital

identity and real identity will be combined and

summarized to obtain more universal laws and

explore practical significance.

Constructing Identities Through Multimodal Design on Social Platforms: A Case Study of WeChat Moments

2 RESEARCH DESIGN

2.1 Sample Selection

In the highly information-oriented era where

meanings abound, how do people weave their identity

nets? Based on the view that communication is the

transmission and understanding of meaning, this

article regards the use of media as a bridge for

communication (Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, 2017).

The reason for choosing WeChat Moments as this

bridge is based on the comprehensive consideration

of the following factors.

Firstly, the simplicity of the operation of WeChat

Moments makes it stronger applicability across areas

of interest and age groups in China. WeChat and its

Moments have become essential communication

tools for people of all ages in China, so the selection

of this research object has a broader coverage and

relatively stronger representativeness. Next, the

relative authenticity and naturalness of Moments.

Different from international social platforms like

Facebook and Sina microblog, such a small circle of

participants (the presenter and the viewer) is limited

to people who have added each other as “friends” or

contacts, making users' behaviors and expressions

closer to real-life scenarios. The data generated in this

natural state can more accurately reflect users' states,

giving the research results higher credibility and

practical application value. This also points to the

third point, the high update frequency of Moments.

Due to its relative privacy, those pieces of Moments

content tend to be more spontaneous, natural, and

close to life. The reveal of people’s everyday lives

also can be seen at different time points, which

facilitates longitudinal research and allows for

tracking of the dynamic change process of users’

identity construction. Moreover, from the perspective

of research itself, Chinese researchers can relatively

easily obtain a large amount of original data without

the need for additional equipment support.

2.2 Research Methodology

This study opts to thoroughly examine the objective

data by applying literature research methods,

observational methods, and case study methods to test

the applicability of the theories.

Focusing on visual design in WeChat Moments,

relevant literature and documents were sought

through channels such as China National Knowledge

Infrastructure (CNKI) and the Wanfang Database.

These materials then were analyzed selecting theories

related to the topic to explain the viewpoints, thereby

providing a sufficient theoretical foundation for this

study. After determining the topic, the author

conducted observations on the collected WeChat

Moments and classified the data over the past three

months. The posts were divided into seven types: pure

text, pure image, video, pure link, text plus image,

text plus video, and text plus link. These were then

tabulated to provide reliable data sources for the

research.

Simultaneously, the author imported their

WeChat address book into an Excel spreadsheet via

the “WeChat Extraction Tool” program and utilized

the “Index” and “Randbetween” functions inherent in

Excel to identify the college student users within the

address book. Subsequently, five college students

were randomly selected as specific cases, and their

Moments content over three months was observed

and analyzed to explore the specific ways in which

they construct certain identities.

Additionally, the researchers consulted relevant

interview cases from the database, with the interview

content concentrating on the manners in which users

present themselves and the motivations for

concealing in Moments. Thereby, all the above

facilitated a better understanding of the psychological

processes of users when using Moments.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 Content Analysis

Analyzing the Moments of five college students, we

found that the components are mainly divided into the

following 5 types: content, form, interaction mode,

language style, and update frequency (Table 1). In the

book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life,

Goffman argues that speech and behavior in everyday

life are a kind of performance, a specific performance

in one particular situation (Goffman, 1959).

Similarly, taking the Moments of five college

students randomly into consideration, it can be found

that users will act toward their ideal selves when

making social interactions on this platform. The

concrete ways of identity construction are depicted in

Table 1, which demonstrates how users selectively

share diverse content. Getting beyond such surfaces

as travel experiences, trending news, campus life, and

hobbies, it can be revealed that users shape various

identities such as travelers who enjoy life, thinkers

who care about society, and students who actively

participate in activities. By publicly presenting

IESD 2025 - International Conference on Innovative Education and Social Development

Table 1: Composition of the Moments of five college students in three months.

Users

Elements of the Moments

User A Content Format Interaction Language style Update frequency

Mainly campus life

and tourism

Landscape or selfie

plus text, text plus

emoji, video plus

text

Mainly by

replying

to comments

lively, humorous Two to three

updates per week

User B Mainly on love

ics and hobbies

Selfie plus text with

emo

Directly

someone

lively and relaxed One or two updates

er wee

User C Mainly to share

campus activities.

Send a hyperlink or

event poster with the

appropriate text and

emoji.

Encourage others to

leave comments in

the comment section.

Passionate Irregular updates

User D Mainly sharing

travel experiences

and books.

Scenery plus text,

pure text

Mainly by replying to

comments

Literary and

Artistic

One or two updates

per week

User E Mainly to share

subject knowledge

and news

Send hyperlinks, a

few with text, rarely

use emo

Take the initiative to

express your views in

the comment section

Rigorous Irregular updates

Table 2: Self-presentation content of WeChat users.

Type Text-only

Image-

onl

Small video

Pure

lin

Text -image

Text-video Text -link total

Quantity 223 120 21 136 808 84 116 1508

Proportion 14.79% 7.96% 1.39% 9.02% 53.58% 5.57% 7.69% 100%

Table 3: WeChat users’ discursive practices to construct interactional identity.

Discursive Practice Characteristics

Self Autonomous,

ersonalized, diversified, contextualization

Text Immediate, expressive, emotional

Rhetoric Antithesis or parallelis

, comparison, exaggeration

Cite the practice Interactive feedback, emotional resonance, and seeking responses

Comment Behavio

Praise, have fun, critical evaluation.

Exchan

e of information Timeliness, interactivit

, d

namics

photographs, videos, or hyperlinks (User C and User

E), with humorous, enthusiastic, or encouraging

words, users display their personalities and ideal

qualities intentionally or unconsciously. Furthermore,

the degree of social activeness and interpersonal

network-building skills also are exhibited via several

interactive ways, like comment sections. The control

of the frequency of posting also reflects their strategy

of striking a balance between their ideal self and their

real self which is constructed in cyberspace, to create

a credible self-image on social media to gain respect

and recognition in social networks.

According to Table 2, the survey users are more

inclined to use the conjunction of text-image

(53.58%), text-only (14.79%), and pure link (9.02%)

to construct their self-identity. This shows that

multimodal discourse can help users maintain their

self-image from multiple dimensions such as story

description, opinion statement, and emotional appeal.

It can be seen that under the interaction of multiple

visual resources, users can construct a three-

dimensional and multi-faceted identity for

themselves, and its dynamic nature can also promote

interaction between individuals.

According to Tables 2 and 3, this study analyzed

content and form to ascertain that the synchronic

logic of images can assist users in eliciting the

audience’s emotional resonance and interactive

participation. At the empirical level, images that tell

a story are called Narrative Representation because

they represent the world in the form of actions and

events (Kress. & Leeuwen, 2020). The characteristics

of its different discourse practices can be seen in

Table 3, and on digital platforms such as Moments,

narrative presentation exhibits greater autonomy,

dynamism, and interactivity due to its multimodal

form. The red-dotted head portrait in the interface,

when any added friend posts a new piece of Moment,

and the number of messages in the comment section,

are both updates in real-time, giving users an

Constructing Identities Through Multimodal Design on Social Platforms: A Case Study of WeChat Moments

omniscient perspective on the real-time status of their

friends. At the level of interpersonal meaning, users

can promptly respond to others’ information through

instant transmission of information, and interact with

the changes of identity in different scenarios to

construct a clearer identity and group category.

3.2 Case Analysis

Based on the combing and analysis of the above

relevant literature and data results, the following will

carry out specific analysis ideas from an empirical

perspective, and we choose the WeChat Moment of a

Chinese female graduate as an example. This is the

text content:

“I felt like I have lived an ideal life, and after a

busy week, I ate hot pot with my pretty sis [tearful

emoji]! There are cute pets, and every day after

coming to Beijing is very felicitous [tearful emoji].

From time to time, I am shocked and often secretly

rejoiced that such a beautiful, gentle, and intelligent

girl is willing to like me so much [tearful emoji]!”

The accompanied picture content (a total of 9

photos) comprises 3 female photos, 4 photos of hot

pot and gifts, and 2 screenshots of chat history. The

analysis is as follows: Firstly, interpersonal meaning

can be achieved by constructing a sense of

participation, power relations, and a particular modal

tone. While the user’s text expresses her appreciation

and esteem for a female friend, two of the pictures

then show their chatting history and their group

photo. This combination especially gives this female

friend a strong sense of participation and interactive

experience, and the two modalities also confirm each

other's authenticity. In addition, the user exhibited the

first-person food photos through the live feed, which

presented the theme of “eating hot pot together” (also

“ideal life” and “very felicitous”) to the audience.

From another perspective, according to the

experiential function of language, which refers to the

expression of language to people's various

experiences in the real world (including the inner

world), it can be found in the empirical sense that the

user not only uses images of various scenes (diet and

working performance) to conduct the narration but

also uses words to express her reflection of life:

“busyness and concentration are hallucinogens with

curative effects” (from the user’s next WeChat

Moment content) (Hu et al., 2005).

Judging from the data, users tend to use

multimodal forms such as the combination of images

and texts to construct identities, and different

presentation methods correspond to different

pragmatic identity expressions, so it is no wonder that

Mirtsov lamented that images are not just a part of

life, but life itself (Tan, 2015). From the case study,

the behavior of users in the WeChat Moments can be

found consistent with Goffman's self-presentation

theory (Goffman, 1959). To a certain extent, it is

performed in the orientation of the ideal self to obtain

the recognition of others and self.

4 CONCLUSIONS

From a multimodal perspective, this study concludes

that the identity construction of users in WeChat

Moments is multidimensional and dynamic. It

analyzed how users use visual design to construct a

multidimensional self and ideal self, clarifying the

underlying behavioral motivations and influences.

However, compared to the initial research objectives,

this study has not entirely reached the ideal state. The

following outlines several limitations for future

researchers to continue improving upon.

Initially, one limitation lies in the sample

selection. This study only selected five university

students as specific case study subjects, of which the

small quantity made it limited to young people. Thus,

it cannot fully represent users of different ages and

social backgrounds, nor reflect the overall identity

construction of social platform users.

Additionally, in terms of research depth, although

this study mentions that sociocultural and

interpersonal contextual factors influence identity

construction, how these complex factors (like cultural

and psychological factors) specifically affect the

identity-construction process remains superficial and

insufficient. If a broader theoretical study could be

expanded, the conclusions of this study would be

clearer and more accurate.

Furthermore, the implementation of research

methods is also partially restricted by technical levels

and periods. The effect of observational methods may

be influenced by the inevitable subjective

comprehension of the researchers, as different

researchers might have different interpretations and

judgment standards of WeChat Moments content,

which will affect data objectivity and accuracy. A

three-month observation period may not

comprehensively encompass the long-term changes

and stability of user identity construction.

Given all these above, this study sees a rich

potential for combining multimodal fields with

identity theory. Therefore, we encourage and expect

the academic community to conduct broader and

deeper discussions on this topic. Related scholars

may consider expanding the sample range, including

IESD 2025 - International Conference on Innovative Education and Social Development

users of different ages, professions, regions, and

cultural backgrounds, to jointly build a widely

representative sample library. Furthermore, an

interdisciplinary research method is recommended to

be employed. Integrating sociological, cultural

anthropological, and psychological research

outcomes, helps to deeply analyze the mechanisms of

identity construction. Certainly, more precise

analysis of related corpora requires more advanced

data analysis technologies, to better handle the

complexity of multimodal data and deeply reveal the

intrinsic relationship between digital identity

construction and multimodal visual design. In

summary, we hope this study can inspire the

academic community to generate novel insights and

embark on new explorations on the limitless potential

of digital media and functional linguistics in everyday

life.

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTION

All the authors contributed equally and their names

were listed in alphabetical order.

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Constructing Identities Through Multimodal Design on Social Platforms: A Case Study of WeChat Moments