The Strong Connection of Weak Ties: A Study on Social Patterns and Relationship Construction in the Dazi Culture of Xiaohongshu

Abstract

Against the backdrop of an ever-accelerating pace of social life and the continuous penetration of digital scenarios, contemporary youth generally face issues such as fragmented time, solidified social circles, and a decreasing willingness for real-life social interaction. Traditional strong relationship socializing centered around relatives, friends, and colleagues, due to its strong constraints, high emotional costs, and considerable pressure in maintaining relationships, is difficult to meet the current needs of young people for lightweight, functional, and high-boundary social interaction. In this context, the Dazi culture, which is based on shared interests, scene binding, and common goals, has rapidly emerged as an important way for young people to alleviate loneliness, enhance efficiency, and relieve social pressure. Xiaohongshu, a highly concentrated platform for life sharing among young users, has become a core field for the release of Dazi information, interest matching, and the transformation of online and offline social interaction, thanks to its young community ecosystem, intelligent algorithm recommendations, and aggregation of local topics. Currently, academic research on Dazi culture mainly focuses on macro-level aspects such as social motives, psychological needs, and behavioral characteristics, with few dedicated studies on the Xiaohongshu platform [1], and there is a lack of systematic analysis of the formation, evolution process, and platform mechanism of weak Dazi relationships. This paper takes Dazi socializing on Xiaohongshu as the research object, exploring its social characteristics, the path of weak relationship construction, and the platform empowerment mechanism. It adopts methods such as literature research, content analysis, and in-depth interviews, and combines platform text data and user interview materials for analysis. The research shows that Dazi socializing on Xiaohongshu has distinct features of being scene-based, functional, low-burden, and high-boundary, and the Dazi relationship follows the evolution logic of “high-frequency shallow interaction and low-frequency deep connection”. This study enriches the application of weak tie theory in youth socialization and provides references for understanding youth online behavior and building a healthy online community atmosphere.