From bodily to digital co-presence: Unpacking the Interaction Ritual Chains of hashtag-driven group formation

This research integrates Interaction Ritual Chain (IRC) theory and Social Identity Theory (SIT) to construct a “Three-Stage Evolutionary Model,” explaining how individuals coalesce into cohesive “ephemeral groups” around Douyin hashtags. Analyzing 80 trending topics through 5594 observations, the study reveals that in the Structural Assembly stage, hashtag popularity creates “digital co-presence,” with dialogic interaction mediating 84.8 % of the effect by “stitching” traffic into a network structure. In the Symbolic Focusing stage, creative templates serve as “cognitive shortcuts” that drive linguistic convergence and opinion concentration, standardizing group consensus. Finally, in the Affective Forging stage, high emotional arousal suppresses rational dialogue while reinforcing in-group identity; furthermore, topic controversiality acts as a vital boundary condition for deep psychological synchronization and "defensive solidarity". By redefining “co-presence” for the algorithmic age, this study provides a systematic dynamical explanation for digital group cohesion.