People with a coherent sense of self tend to have better mental health. Yet many present different versions of themselves to meet the expectations of different audiences across social media platforms — a practice we call "platform swinging".

This is especially common among young adults, who are still exploring who they are.

To better understand this phenomenon, we interviewed 42 university students from Hong Kong and Guangdong about their use of platforms such as WeChat, Xiaohongshu (RedNote), and Weibo, paying close attention to their language and symbolic expressions.

Our findings suggest that "platform swinging" is far from random. Instead, it reflects how young adults actively manage their identities and relationships.

Most participants described three broad, flexible "selves", each associated with a different type of online role.

First, there is a socially acceptable self, typically presented on platforms like WeChat, where users interact with strong offline ties — family, classmates, and colleagues. Here, self-presentation is cautious, with language and tone closely aligned with offline identity and social norms.

For example, one participant casually sent her brother a playful meme along with the slang phrase "Guaranteed, lil' bro", but immediately switched to a formal "Received with thanks" when responding to a colleague. Another participant described code-switching depending on the audience: she mixed English into her Chinese when chatting with classmates online but used strictly monolingual Chinese with her parents.

Second, there is a polished self, often performed on Xiaohongshu (RedNote), where users aim to impress. Here, they carefully curate both images and language to combine academic credibility with aesthetic appeal. One participant, for example, posted neatly fanned-out vocabulary lists captioned "Master TEM-8 words in 10 sheets". She reinforced her authority by referencing the "Ebbinghaus forgetting curve". By visualizing and quantifying the daunting task of preparing for the TEM-8 exam, she framed it as manageable and positioned herself as a knowledgeable and capable guide.

Lastly, there is the authentic self, which often emerges on platforms such as Weibo. The relative anonymity of these spaces allows users to vent, experiment, and express themselves more freely, outside the constraints of social norms.

For example, one participant carefully concealed her identity on Weibo so she could release intense emotions, often using multiple exclamation marks to amplify her feelings. To avoid being identified, she adopted deliberate anti-surveillance strategies. On one occasion, she openly criticized her university but referred to it using coded abbreviations — a calculated move to evade the school's monitoring systems.

Each of these selves is real in its own moment, and each serves a distinct purpose. Together, they enable individuals to navigate life across multiple audiences.

However, constantly meeting different expectations and maintaining these roles can be exhausting. More concerningly, individuals may begin to lose sight of what is performance and what reflects their core identity.

One student, for example, maintained a serious academic persona on Xiaohongshu to present herself as a reliable tutor. Yet this version of herself felt distant from who she truly was. She kept this discrepancy hidden from her friends, finding the tension difficult to manage. The issue, then, is not the existence of multiple selves, but the challenge of holding them together as a coherent whole.

Another student offered a different perspective. She anchored her online persona in her core sense of self while remaining comfortable adapting across contexts and platforms. At times she spoke cautiously; in other occasions, she expressed herself freely. Rather than seeing these variations as contradictions, she embraced them as integral parts of who she is.

In a polymedia world that constantly pulls us in different directions, perhaps the goal is not to maintain a single, rigid identity, but to cultivate a self that can remain authentic across its many forms.

Written by Michelle Mingyue Gu, professor, department of English language education, and Mingming Chiu, director, Assessment Research Center, both at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK); Pok Jing Jane Ho, doctoral researcher, department of education, University of Oxford; and Jiapei Gu, post-doctoral fellow, Assessment Research Center, EdUHK.