Instagram has become a dominant platform of social media for individuals to visually fashion a desired aesthetic as a construction of identity. Instagram is a visually performing platform where individuals who utilise the platform can develop a face for a community. I propose to define community within this study to refer to the Instagram accounts a user followers and those Instagram accounts following their Instagram page and retrieving their content. This proposal aligns with the attributes of social media and the participation invoked by network structures, along with theoretical conceptions of community within virtual contexts. The internet fosters participation by users across all platforms by breaking down and eliminating traditional communication barriers such as time and space. Definitions of online communities all revolve around the indistinguishable point that the internet has revolutionised the way people communicate with others and how we maintain and develop relationships with people online. Pearson (2009) exclaims that online, users can claim whoever they wish to be, while Wellman and Guila (1997) examine virtual communities to assert the notion that social network analysts have needed to educate traditional, place-oriented, community sociologists that community can stretch well beyond the neighbourhood. Within Katz (2004) review of theoretical concepts of communities and considerations of how new communication technologies affect traditional notions of community, the author segregates an idea of the social network community. The social network “is sustained by personal communication technologies and cyberspace and deviates widely in its social implications from the traditional community” (Katz, 2004, p. 331). To explore definitions of community within an online, social context among the platform of Instagram can illuminate how individual’s construct a particular identity that generates a specific community whereby people visually communicate.
Adopting these definitions of community realises the fact that traditional community ties have shifted from geographically focused to beginning to think about individual’s personal communities and individual social networks. Emanating from Katz’ definition of a social network as reviewed above, this paper shall attempt to examine some of the social implications that have developed from people specifically forming deliberate communities to connect with on Instagram. Communities within the application of Instagram are formed through the following and receiving of a following by other users ensuing a visually oriented community, which fosters content creation to revolve around aesthetic themes. It is a deliberate and honestly enlightening action into how an everyday person shapes their identity in the way that purposely following accounts on Instagram is a self-conscious decision that tailors a defined community based around a certain type and ‘style’ of content an Instagram user would like to see each day. Adami and Jewiit (2016) examine visual social media tracing themes that become pertinent to visual communication and social media: emerging genres and practices; identity construction; everyday public/private vernacular practices; and transmedia circulation, appropriation and control. I will draw on some these themes to theorize Instagram as a visual platform, specifically identity construction to begin a discussion on how centralized persons with a major Instagram following can foster sub-culture specific communities that can be identified through individuals personal Instagram’s ‘aesthetic’ to develop an identity online.
Instagram is a mobile oriented application which ultimately means it is a network that can be accessed, updated and kept up to date within any space and at any point in time as communication has become instantaneous. In Australia, 81% of young adults aged 18-29 have an Instagram account with usage continuing to grow, rising from an average 23 to nearly 38 times per week with an average of nearly 27 minutes spent using the platform (Sensis 2017). Young adults and teenagers are the key demographics associated with this study as this age group permeates care in self-presentation and identity management on Instagram while treating it as a fundamental daily activity. Drawing on Mascheroni, Vincent, and Jimenez (2015) study of teenage girl’s construction of identity online, the authors state mobile communication as serving an important role in the process of self-presentation providing full time access to peer culture. Peer to peer culture on Instagram is a key aspect of deliberating what drives these users to share, post and consume on Instagram as a full time, ongoing project of self-identity that is accessed and updated multiple times a day, interrupting daily life to examine and potentially maintain a specific image to ones following. Understanding the patterns of identity construction within Instagram’s platform structures and as a process embedded in peer cultures across all mediums of social media is to understand that identity plays a key role in virtual communities (Donath, 1999). It is important to examine how individuals tailor an image of themselves within the presence of others online. Goffman’s (1959) theory of self- presentation provides much of the foundations for some late identity studies within the context of virtual communities. Goffman’s (1959) study (as cited by Mascheroni, Vincent, and Jimenez, 2015) demonstrates that in the presence of others, individuals engage in a constant, particular self-presentation aimed at controlling how co-present actors will denote impressions of themselves. “Self-presentation is about social rituals of “impression management” and involves learning how to deal with other’ responses and maintain expressive control by putting on a “face” (Mascheroni, Vincent, and Jimenez, 2015). This theory provides solid foundations to further identity management within contemporary communication among virtual communities as it has become a 24 hour, 7 days a week task to monitor social identity as the pace of the virtual world is rapid and constant.
As stated previously, using Adami and Jewiit’s (2016) themes to explore visual communication from Instagram users to construct a “face” for their networked communities within this platform. “The emergence of new genres and practices among social media platforms make available the creation and sharing of multimodel artefacts to an unprecedented number of people” (Adami and Jewitt, 2016). Among Instagram this quote becomes relevant through visual commentary by users: Calkin (2015, p.2) explores Instagram as a primary space for self-actualisation with Instagram providing us with a structured platform to reconstruct our histories and lived experiences through a photographic profile and with commentary. With deliberate and thoughtful processes while synonymously examining content co-present Instagram users share on their profiles, users post pictures with rhetorical captions if desired to align with the specific sub-culture of their community within Instagram. This behaviour is accurately contextualised in Adami and Jewitt’s (2016) second theme of visual communication that regards identity construction, suggesting: “As we express identities through the clothes we wear or the furniture of our rooms, so too we express our identities through visuals shared online.” Visually identifiable sub-cultures are difficult to specify and contextualise within this theorized discussion as there is no defined list of sub-cultures that are visually distinguishable across teenagers and young adults, however it is extensive. Sub-cultured communities that can be tailored visually through photographs online usually characterise themes that present visual cohesion and are ‘aesthetically-pleasing’ such as fashion and culture; art and design. However, this is a very limiting justification as it does not internalize individual’s identities and communities to the specific aesthetic they are striving for while utilizing Instagram. The notion of fluidity is important when thinking about the aesthetics of Instagram and accepting the lack of definition we are able to ascribe sub-cultures of communities within Instagram to. Fluidity reflects the nature of the internet as it is so ambiguous, as are individuals when using social media. It is illuminating to note that one day someone will follow an array of, for example, architecture Instagram pages: these accounts sharing multimodal content of interiors and houses, all agreeably aesthetically pleasing, with all accounts reflecting a specific theme of visual content that this individual wishes to consume each day, to unfollowing all of them the next day and following a range of supermodel’s public Instagram accounts instead. To complicate the discussion further the opposite could just as easily occur, with said user following these supermodels within the same space and time as they followed the series of architecture pages, suggesting they are interested in both visual communities within Instagram. As inadequate and vague this example is it completely viable within an online context. The internet is ambiguous and allows individuals to be fluid and fluctuate between content that they consume and create with the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct these identities.
Characterising behaviour on Instagram to contextualise self-presentation exposes the fact that private individuals communicate daily through the public publishing of visuals (Adami and Jewitt, 2016). The everyday practices of self-actualisation have shifted to be monitored across both online and offline modes of communication. This shift is everyday vernacular practices is a primary theme in visual communication, with individuals having to accommodate for their literal physical appearance as well as their identity and physical ‘aesthetic’ within their social networks. Our identities are politically chosen (Weeks, 1985, as cited by Calkin, 2015, p.2). What political objective does this ever constant monitoring of how people perceive our Instagram’s fulfil? Denoting simple actions, such as how many ‘likes’ an individual has on their photo from their community, determines the following and therefore the influence a user has to a certain number of other Instagram users. This initiates discussion about Instagram communities and the influencers of style to people’s perceived identities within this platform because Instagram is image laden media. The individuals with a major following on Instagram, exorbitantly more than the average user, have been colloquially termed within the Instagram community as ‘influencers,’ however the term has become recognised as of late to the private sector. Influencers shape lifestyle trends and act as an idealised ‘person-centred environments’ for specific Instagram communities.
In harmonizing studies that exclaim the roads mapped via the internet exponentials the relaxation of communal constraints, studying identity construction on Instagram explores new effects of the tailored self online. These influencers are popular to a specific community as they provide image laden content across their Instagram profile that ultimately shapes a certain type of lifestyle and aesthetic. The term influencer comes from the aesthetic shaped over time on their profile that people idealise and review as aesthetic. The content tends to reflect a specific sub-culture that can be visually prescribed. Donath’s (1999) early theories of identity within virtual communities stating “care of one’s own identity, one’s reputation, is fundamental to the formation of community” can be theorized within the modern context of Instagram. She recognises that individuals become attuned to the nuances of signature styles, which is exemplary within the platform of Instagram as people follow those people and accounts where their personal style resonates with their own. This theory of identity creates a two-way spectrum that proves summative to an extent of the way sub-culture communities on Instagram tailor and influence individual’s self-presentation and shape their online identity. The interesting fact about ‘influencers’ is they gain their following naturally due to the ‘success’ of the aesthetic of their Instagram account. They have fostered a community around a specific nuanced signature style of visual content that a large cohort of people has followed and taken to be beneficial content in the shaping of their own identity on Instagram. Donath’s (1999) theories were written a decade before Instagram was founded and nearly two decades before the idea of ‘influencers’ was even termed as it is a recent trend that has been denoted to some personalities online. Donath’s, as well as an extensive number of scholarly theories regarding identity construction within virtual communities has proved efficient and exemplary to the medium of social networked communities on Instagram.
This study serves as a brief touch on the surface of a trend within Instagram that is extremely deep and equally diverse. Focusing on Adami and Jewitt’s (2016) visual communication themes among identity theory served as viable foundations to extend Goffman (1959) theory of self-presentation to actualise into the context of how Instagram’s network structure encourages users to visually present one’s own identity and reputation to appeal to their constructed community. The structure of this study neglected discussions of communication within the platform and among users and followers, however, for the purpose of diverting the study to define ‘influencers’ as fostering communities through the visual and construction of a ‘face,’ it could be disregarded. Using Instagram and as the platform to examine virtual identities and inserting the vague notion of what is “aesthetically pleasing” within virtual communities is a relatively new chapter of studying social networks as it focuses on what a visual community could mean in the vast sphere of virtual communities but is a relevant topic to further as they have not been deemed influencers for no reason.
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