Maintenance as Vulnerability:Gamified Social Maintenance Mechanisms and Rupture-Induced Alienation — A Case Study of Douyin’s Spark Maintenance Feature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63313/SSH.9113Keywords:
Spark Maintenance, Gamification, Loss Aversion, Emotional Labor, Digital Intimate RelationshipsAbstract
In the digital age, social media has reshaped human communication and interaction. The theoretical abstraction of "communication as play" has become increasingly concrete, with daily chats transformed into gamified interaction rituals by digital platforms. The "Spark Maintenance" feature on Douyin is a prime example of this trend.This study focuses on the phenomenon of "Spark Maintenance" , exploring how gamification mechanisms drive user engagement. By analyzing the critical event of "spark interruption," it reversely reveals the logic of maintenance and the inherent fragility of digital intimate relationships. The research indicates that "Spark Maintenance" construct a "calculable emotional contract": gamification mechanisms transform emotional labor into quantifiable data accumulation. Meanwhile, spark interruption serves as a key node in digital intimate relationships, exposing a misalignment in maintenance motivation—when the pressure to maintain symbols surpasses the emotional connection itself, technology-mediated friendships become easy to sustain due to low barriers yet tend toward fragility due to reliance on symbols. This study provides a new perspective for understanding contemporary youth's digital interaction behaviors and offers reflective insights for social media functional design and users' rational participation.
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