Abstract:
The interplay between virtual and real dimensions within the space of WeChat Moments has engendered a series of phenomena of communicative alienation across content, relationships, and structure, inducing anxiety and pressure among participants. This paper proposes the analytical tool of "relational disembedding", integrating the relationality of real-world structural elements with the process of online disembedding. With actors as intermediaries, this tool attempts to explain the internal logic of the interaction between virtual and real spaces in WeChat Moments, as well as the formation mechanisms of communicative alienation. It also analyzes and verifies these mechanisms based on the manifestations of communicative alienation. Finally, based on an analysis of actual conditions and ideal types, this paper explores the agentic responses and strategies of actors in the context of communicative alienation.