Reconstructing Acquaintance Networks in the Digital Society: Visibility and Moral Constraint

Abstract Book of the 4th International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities in the 21st Century

Year: 2025

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Reconstructing Acquaintance Networks in the Digital Society: Visibility and Moral Constraint

Shuqi Yang

ABSTRACT:

This paper examines how digital media reshapes traditional acquaintance-based societies in the Wa community of Cangyuan, Yunnan, China. Drawing on Fei Xiaotong’s “differential mode of association” and historical morality-centered legal culture, I show that population mobility weakens traditional social constraints, while social media extends familiar networks and moral supervision into virtual space.
Through the case of a Wa female influencer, I illustrate how online visibility generates symbolic capital and public moral scrutiny, allowing distant community members to monitor and evaluate behavior. Digital platforms mediate online–offline interactions, enabling “scalable sociality” and reconfiguring moral and social order beyond geographic limits.
This study demonstrates that, even amid modernization and digitalization, the logic of traditional acquaintance societies persists, yet is transformed. It contributes to understanding how digital media reconstructs social networks, visibility, and moral norms in contemporary communities.

Keywords: Online Society, Youth Culture, Globalization Impacts, Mass Media