The Impact of Social Media on Chinese Youth Identity and LGBTQ+ Social PerceptionFeng Yuan

With the rapid advancement of information technology, social media has become a crucial platform for shaping youth identity in China, particularly in terms of gender and sexual identity. This literature review explores how emerging social media platforms, especially some newly development platforms such as TikTok, Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu, influence Chinese youth's understanding of their identities and shape the social perception and visibility of the LGBTQ+ community. These platforms not only provide LGBTQ+ individuals with a space for self-expression and community building but also significantly impact youth perceptions of diverse gender and sexual identities through recommendation algorithms, information flow mechanisms, and regulatory policies. This study aims to systematically examine the influence of social media on youth identity formation and LGBTQ+ social perception while analyzing how platforms balance increased LGBTQ+ community visibility with censorship, commercialization, and societal values. And this review consider that future research should focus on optimizing social media algorithms to ensure fair promotion of LGBTQ+ content while preventing the reinforcement of identity stereotypes and the entertainment-driven trivialization of LGBTQ+ topics.