Seeking Labels and Rejecting Labels: The Identity Paradox and Platform Mediation in the MBTI and SBTI Youth Subcultures

The MBTI personality test continues to heat up on the Chinese Internet, resulting in the SBTI meme phenomenon that deconstructs the MBTI classification system. On the one hand, there is the identity construction of “seeking labels”, and on the other hand, there is the deconstruction resistance of “rejecting labels”. The two tendencies appear at the same time in the same cultural field and transform each other. This paradox provides a unique observation perspective for understanding the youth subculture in the digital age. This article sorts out 17 core literatures from 2020 to 2026 and analyzes them along the three clues of “the dynamics of identity construction - memetic resistance - platform mediating mechanism”. The analysis shows that in terms of explaining the motivation of “seeking labels”, some studies have formed a multi-layered consensus from individual psychological compensation to structural dilemma response, but there are still differences on the effectiveness of resistance to “rejecting labels”. Some studies regard it as “ritual resistance”, and other studies judge it as “false resistance”. This article tries to use the “practical paradox” to summarize the transformation logic between “seeking labels” and “rejecting labels”. At the same time, it puts forward that “paradoxical co-optation” is an explanatory concept for understanding the mediating mechanism of the platform, in order to provide a discussable analytical framework for subsequent research.