Domesticating AI: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Grassroots Discourses on Chinese Social Media

Zhinuo Sun

doi:10.6918/IJOSSER.202605_9(5).0008

Authors

Zhinuo Sun

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6918/IJOSSER.202605_9(5).0008

Keywords:

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Sociotechnical Imaginaries, Domestication Theory, Grassroots Discourse.

Abstract

Integrating Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and framing analysis, this study investigates the sociotechnical imaginaries of AI through grassroots discourse on RedNote by shifting the analytical focus from institutional narratives toward the vernacular processes of technological domestication. The research identifies six discursive frames including Tool, Affective, Anthropomorphism, Resistance, Threat, and Futurity, revealing that AI is increasingly reimagined as both a productivity assistant and an emotional surrogate through a process of affective integration. As users perform strategic identity labor and boundary work to navigate tensions surrounding algorithmic encroachment and human agency, the findings uncover a fundamental ambivalence where AI is embraced as a catalyst for modernization while being contested as an ontological threat to human uniqueness. Ultimately, the study underscores social media as a vital discursive arena where the future of AI is continuously negotiated and co-constructed by everyday users.

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