Co-presence, dysco-presence, and disco-presence: Navigating WeChat in Chinese acquaintance networks

Abstract

This study contributes to the line of digital dis/connection by stretching it into the concept of mediated co-presence and dealing with complex Chinese acquaintance networks on WeChat, thereby creatively proposing three modes of digital interactivity—co-presence, dysco-presence, and disco-presence. Therein, dysco-presence and disco-presence refer to resistance awareness and resistance actions toward co-presence, respectively. Based on a 2-year ethnographic study of Chinese youth, we further reveal the complex combination of mediated dis/dys/co-presence and acquaintance networks on WeChat. Ambient co-presence enables WeChat users to extend their social interactivity with acquaintance networks in a superficial dimension, while guanxi maintenance determines that they cannot completely quit WeChat-mediated co-presence, resulting in an ambivalent dysco-presence. Yet disco-presence comprises the ambiguous strategies of human and technological aggregation that offer possibilities for reorganizing resistance, temporality, and sociality.