Social Media Use and Cultural Transition: A Study on Chinese Students’ Use of Instagram to Negotiate Shifting Identities

People in the developed world are more connected than ever, using social media on smartphones. In previous studies, scholars discussed the use of social media in the Internet era. Still, few focused on the use habits of social media and identity change of international students in the cross-cultural context. Therefore, this study provides a critical perspective on the social media practices of Chinese students studying in the UK and how they construct their online identities. This study draws on discourses in Cultural and New Media Studies and the Instagram platform's specific technical features and layout to better understand shifts in Chinese students' identities. An examination of students’ digital lives on Instagram to issues of self-esteem links to debates on social media use and socalled ‘addictive’ behaviours. By conducting semi-structured interviews with Instagram users and adopting a social semiotic analytical approach to examining profiles and posts, this study aims to illuminate specific symbolic practices and how social media is used to differentiate selves in digital contexts where participants are experiencing cultural transition. From the perspective of research methods, this article adopts a semi-structured interview method. The author recruited volunteers through voluntary registration and selected the ten most suitable interviewees for this study to conduct semistructured interviews based on respondents' social media usage habits and identity construction trends. Through interviews and text analysis, the author found that there are several phenomena in the use of social media by international students: 1. The habits of international students using social media change when exposed to a new cultural environment. They use social media to share their overseas life, express longing for their hometown, and create a "false" identity to attract attention. 2. In the social media environment, there are two types of situations among international students operating their Instagram platform. Some students deliberately hope to attract the attention of their followers and adopt many methods, such as posting at specific times. At the same time, a small number of students can resist the temptation brought by social media and maintain a typical attitude towards followers' pursuit. 3. Some international students deliberately package their Instagram accounts to attract attention and post some high-end life scenes, but these photos have some falsehoods. On this basis, the author analysed the social media practices of international students and how identity is constructed on the Instagram platform by combining semiotic theory to analyse their behavioural patterns. I hope researching this article can provide a reference for further study and analysis of the behaviour patterns of international students on social media in the future.