Is the emotional and cultural need satisfied or not? – A qualitative study based on youth users learning dance through Douyin

Social media has revolutionized information dissemination, including in dance education, yet there is a gap in understanding the emotional and cultural needs of youth users engaging with dance content on platforms like Douyin. This study uses use and gratification theory and constructivism to address this gap. Through semi-structured interviews with 12 youth users (aged 18–25, non-dance majors) of Douyin, the study identifies six key emotional and cultural needs: shame and longing, urgency and freedom, loneliness and strength reconstruction, fear and release, low self-esteem and self-improvement, and cultural identity and self-confidence reconstruction. The study innovatively explores how Douyin meets the emotional needs of economically constrained users by reducing learning costs, expanding the application of use and gratification theory. It also highlights how Douyin supports personalized learning, cultural identity, and motivation enhancement, thereby extending the use of constructivist learning theory and offering new theoretical insights into user needs and psychological constructs in digital education.