Abstract: In recent years, against the backdrop of rapid social changes and intensified social competition, youth groups are increasingly facing new growth predicaments. Internet self-mockery, as a way for youth groups to resist mainstream values and relieve their own emotions, is continuously shaping the popular internet subculture. Through the unique perspective of emotional communication, this study finds that youth groups construct emotional communities seeking identity recognition and carry out self-stigmatization emotional communication through the emotional communication mechanism characterized by "imitation, induction, and coexistence" and through the expression of opposite emotions. Although internet self-mockery has become a new way for youth groups to self-adjust, it still reflects the psychological crisis of negative self-cognition among the youth, which necessitates social attention and reasonable guidance.

Key words: internet self-mockery, youth groups, subculture, emotional communication, self-stigmatization