Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

The prosperity of Taiwan’s line sticker market has elicited an emerging communictive practice termed sticker agonistics, in which line group users enjoy communicating reciprocally with stickers rather than with word texts. How do these sticker lovers reach their chemistry? Using Lyotard’s language games and Huizinga’s perspectives on Homo Ludens as theoretical framework, this study explored the timing, the typology, and the implications of sticker agonistics. Five groups and a total number of thirteen users were interviewed and asked to provide sticker conversation samples for analysis. The findings showed that LINE users played agonistic games at spare time. Each group has developed their own tacit knowledge and formulated special ritual practices. Even if the sticker agonistics was at first for conversation, it turned out game plays, in which users enjoyed the pleasure of instantaneity and surfing. Sticker agonistic users are all Homo Ludens.