The power of imagination: How user agency reshapes Chinese UGC platform Xiaohongshu

We are now living in a platform society, where platforms are widely acknowledged to exert significant control over users. But how can user agency exert power to influence the platform? To explore this question, the study conducts in-depth interviews with 21 Xiaohongshu users and analyzes their imagined affordances of this Chinese UGC platform. It finds that users creatively engage with and repurpose the platform based on their imagination, thereby transforming Xiaohongshu from a “developer-envisioned platform” into four distinct forms of the “platform in actual use.” These user agency-driven practices serve as ways of reshaping the platform’s meanings, functions, and values. By centering user agency, this research may offer platform studies a new perspective on power dynamics, shifting the current focus away from the dominance of platforms.