Aidan Jackson-Taylor
Curtin University
Abstract
This paper explores the concept of online identity deception and the impact of this behaviour in the environment of social media, especially Instagram. Identity deception is explored in the context of early Usenet Newsgroups, Online Role-Playing Games as well as social media. The motivations for Instagram use are discussed and the implications of these motivations are assessed, demonstrating that behaviour of identity deception within social media can have negative impacts for the viewing community.
The concept of online identity is complex and inherently somewhat fictitious. The phenomenon of identity deception runs rampant in online communities with users flocking to take on new or at least more intriguing identities. Users are often motivated by narcissistic feelings, referring to a high opinion of one’s self and belief that others are deeply invested in what you have to show. This leads them to curate their highly sensationalized portfolio to of content, meaning an enhanced perspective will be displayed of the user’s life. This behaviour is often seen as negative due to the implications of the word deception. However, identity deception can often be used as a form of escapism, particularly online. The ability to control how they are seen online is hugely alluring to all types of people although, this deception does have the ability to significantly impact others negatively when it comes to presenting a sensationalized or enhanced image of everyday life. This warped presentation of one’s life and self-image is particularly relevant to the users of Instagram. The unrealistic nature of Instagram posts has created a culture of identity deception, whereby users sensationalize their reality creating feelings of inadequacy most often related to self-image in the broader community of millennial Instagram users.
Since its inception the internet has encouraged a certain level of deception regarding how a person presents their identity. From message boards and dating sites to social media and online games, a user can exercise a level of control over what other people see that is simply not possible in the real world. The heavily curated representation of one’s self that is possible online does not necessarily have to be based in reality at all (Donath, 1999; Turkle, 1997).
An interesting early example of identity representation within the digital world, explored by Donath (1999) is Usenet newsgroups, which effectively functioned as digital bulletin boards. Despite this early technology’s simplicity, ways to represent one’s identity quickly began to establish themselves. The primary examples were a user’s email and “signature” (used as a sign off at the end of a post), the email addresses often attempting to be funny and entertain other users. Although this example does not necessarily demonstrate an attempt to sensationalize a user’s identity, it does show how easy and natural it became to create a new identity on the web.
Another early community that quickly developed as the internet began to establish itself was the online gaming community. These users make use of multiplayer games to interact as avatars often customized by the user. These groups saw a huge advancement in the world of online community allowing interactions much more closely related to the real world, within a three dimensional simulation, with a level of personalization never before seen (Turkle, 1997). Role playing games began as smaller group activities undertaken in person on a table top. The most well-known example being Dungeons and Dragons, where players design a character to play as, choosing their look, abilities as well as other traits. This concept was brought to the online world, with games such as World of Warcraft allowing players to create an avatar and build their own community, socializing and creating personal connections (Turkle, 1997). These games effectively require a certain level of identity deception. Through the creation of the avatar, the player is expected to play out the game as though they really were this character. The example of online role-playing games is perhaps the most extreme case of identity deception online, due simply to the level of interactivity and customization possible. The negative impacts of this deception tend to be minimal and in fact the effects are usually overall positive, allowing players an escape from their often unfulfilling lives (Turkle, 1997). This is a stark contrast to the identity deception seen in Usenet groups, the obvious distinction being that the deception in role playing game’s is expected and encouraged. Despite this difference both of these examples were key points for the development of the concept of online community we see today.
The largest and most obvious platform for developing online communities in the modern day is social media. A clearly distinct and massive evolution from the early Usenet groups discussed earlier. Social media use has become a staple of the modern world and an essential part of daily life for the majority of the first world with a 64 percent increase in its use being seen between 2005 and 2013 (Tsikerdekis and Zeadally, 2014).
One of the clear stand out social media platforms to emerge is Instagram. Making use of images as its primary content has seen great success and a huge community develop with Instagram’s user base growing by 150 million active users in the first 3 years since its launch (Statista, 2018). Although the use of images are a staple amongst most social media platforms, the requirement to use an image as the main content of a post was not seen in the traditional social networking space until Instagram was launched (Hu, Manikonda and Kambhampati, 2014). This image based presentation of social media identity led to a sense of intimacy not quite achieved by the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Instagram heavily encouraged the posting of selfies, which were shared far less regularly on other platforms (Deeb-Swihart, Polack, Gilbert and Essa, 2017). These more intimate images such as selfies, pictures with friends and at social events now make up a majority of content posted to Instagram. All of which would have most likely remained private or shared with close friends and family only before the advent of Instagram. The opportunity to view and feel a part of these events has encouraged a sense of connectedness to a user even if they are a complete stranger (Hu, Manikonda and Kambhampati, 2014). Research conducted by Pittman and Reich (2016), found that viewing social media posts containing images of the poster and/or the people around them actually helped to reduce feelings of loneliness when compared to text based posts proving just how impactful Instagram’s social networking model is.
The use of images on Instagram has created an interesting form of identity deception within the Instagram community. Unlike the role playing game example discussed earlier, the deception undertaken by Instagram users is not one of impersonation, but rather sensationalism finding users displaying an altered perspective of their reality. The opportunity for a so called everyday person to reach a potentially massive audience has proven to be hugely alluring to Instagram’s users whom curate an enhanced presentation of themselves. Erdoğmuş, Arslan, Hepdoğan and Özbay (2018), discuss the potential link between self-esteem and sensationalising of oneself, finding that there does seem to be a link between lower self-esteem and more inauthentic posts. Their study finding that users with lower self-esteem would attempt to curate perfected representation of their identity. This behaviour is understandable due to the nature of social media and the constant feed of content from others’ lives, which can warp a user’s sense of self making them feel as though this highlight feed is what everyday life should be like. The Instagram app itself offers multitudes of options to edit and “perfect” an image intended to be posted. The more recent addition of filters that transform user’s faces in aesthetically pleasing manner along with various other more standard editing tools such as contrast adjustment and filters all help to effectively encourage a certain level of deception and sensationalism of the user’s real world and self-image.
Although Instagram does seem to encourage this behaviour of portraying an inauthentic self-image to a certain degree, the motivations for doing so should not be ignored. Studies into the primary motivations of Instagram use can be categorised broadly into four categories; “surveillance” (keeping up with what other users are doing), “documentation” (posting activities and major events), “coolness” (posts designed to impress others) and “creativity” (posts focusing on the users creative skills). All four of these category types can be linked to a somewhat disingenuous and even narcissistic motive (Lee, Lee, Moon and Sung, 2015; Sheldon and Bryant, 2016). The motivation to present a user’s creativity is seemingly the most positive motive of the four. However it is often associated with creative editing, again displaying an altered state of reality. These edits are often more obvious, and usually are not intended to deceive the viewer but rather entertain and create a sense of intrigue (Sheldon and Bryant, 2016).
The motive of “surveillance” as one of the primary motivations when using Instagram is a good indication of just how much social comparison goes on when using the platform. Often you can easily find masses of information about a user by scrolling through their profile and naturally some comparisons will be made. There is also a narcissistic element to the surveillance motivation as found by Sheldon and Bryant (2016). Narcissistic users make use of the shallow level of engagement by keeping up with other users and liking and commenting on their posts often in the hope it will lead to other users seeing their activity and think of them more positively as a consequence. This narcissistic motivation along with the inherent social comparison are also major factors in the “coolness” motive since users who were motivated to post to make themselves look more “cool” are inherently narcissistic in their motivations. The ability to heavily edit and alter the images are a huge selling point for those who want to seem “cool”. The constant social comparison also compounds this need to look better in the eyes of other users, and the feeling of a lesser self-image makes users feel the need to compensate (Lee, Lee, Moon and Sung, 2015; Sheldon and Bryant, 2016; Lup, Trub and Rosenthal, 2015).
The “documentation” motive does also have a somewhat narcissistic element, in that these posts are often made under the belief that other users will be very excited to see them. Another major element to this motive seems to be a user’s frequency of social activity e.g. travel or events, this documentation of social events is seen often in millennial users in college or university. This shows a somewhat more positive side of Instagram use. However, the affect this can have on others cannot be underestimated with an often sensationalized version of events making it to Instagram. This sensationalized image in combination with the inherent social comparison of social media can have a hugely negative affect on other user’s self-image thus potentially leading them to a desire to compensate and look “cool” by posting unrealistic and heavily edited images (Sheldon and Bryant, 2016). This is a vicious cycle that leads to a more and more unrealistic image of reality being shown through the medium of Instagram.
The sensationalist image created from the desire to look “cool” on Instagram can effect users in largely detrimental ways. Surveillance of users on Instagram has been shown to create feelings of envy, this behaviour of comparison to one’s own life can greatly contribute to feelings of depression (Yang, 2016). This is particularly true for those who largely follow strangers and are unable to see how the reality of those strangers’ everyday lives does not match the fantasy being presented. Lup, Trub and Rosenthal (2015), found that the more strangers a user followed there was a direct observable link with feelings of depression when viewing their posts. This phenomenon is believed to be caused by reinforcing already existent negative feelings through negative social comparison. This is particularly worrying for younger users who find it harder to distinguish or filter out this sensationalized content.
The conclusion can be made that people have a natural tendency to want to skew the perception of their reality when presenting it online. Whether it be as a form of escapism, to purposely deceive others for their own gain or to simply ease their insecurities and attempt to boost the ego. The ramifications of this however can be seen as quite damaging to the wider audience, particularly in social media, where the younger generations are getting involved at a very impressionable age and growing up thinking this is what their life can and will be like. It can also be seen that the general user base, of Instagram specifically, use the platform largely for self-serving purposes and these motivations often lead to disappointment and feelings of depression. It can be seen that the concept of identity deception does not have to have a negative implication and in some cases can actually provide some benefit to those needing an escape from their everyday life. However in the context of social media and Instagram predominantly, this phenomenon is quite worrying for those glued to their screen.
References
Deeb-Swihart, J., Polack, C., Gilbert, E., & Essa, I. (2017). Selfie-presentation in everyday life: A large-scale characterization of selfie contexts on instagram. In Eleventh International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media.
Donath, J. (1999). Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. In P. Kollock, & M. A. Smith (Eds.), Communities in Cyberspace (pp. 29-59). New York: Routledge.
Erdoğmuş, Y., Arslan, D., Hepdoğan, D., & Özbay, Y. (2018). Does Self-Esteem Predict the Authenticity of Self-Presentation on Instagram?. EDITORIAL BOARD, 11. Retrieved from https://kuupj.ku.edu.tr/downloads/KUUPJ_6.pdf#page=15.
Hu, Y., Manikonda, L., & Kambhampati, S. (2014, June). What We Instagram: A First Analysis of Instagram Photo Content and User Types. Retrieved from https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM14/paper/viewFile/8118/8087.
Lee, E., Lee, J., Moon, J. and Sung, Y. (2015). Pictures Speak Louder than Words: Motivations for Using Instagram. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(9), pp.552-556.
Lup, K., Trub, L. and Rosenthal, L. (2015). Instagram #Instasad?: Exploring Associations Among Instagram Use, Depressive Symptoms, Negative Social Comparison, and Strangers Followed. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(5), pp.247-252.
Pittman, M. and Reich, B. (2016). Social media and loneliness: Why an Instagram picture may be worth more than a thousand Twitter words. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, pp.155-167.
Sheldon, P. and Bryant, K. (2016). Instagram: Motives for its use and relationship to narcissism and contextual age. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, pp.89-97.
Statista | Instagram: active users 2018. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/
Tsikerdekis, M. and Zeadally, S. (2014). Online deception in social media. Communications of the ACM, 57(9), pp.72-80.
Turkle, S. (1997). Constructions and Reconstructions of Self in Virtual Reality. In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Culture of the Internet. Hilldale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Yang, C. (2016). Instagram Use, Loneliness, and Social Comparison Orientation: Interact and Browse on Social Media, But Don’t Compare. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 19(12), pp.703-708.
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Hi Aidan!
Just copying over my comment on your paper from my paper’s page…
I like how you mention “the heavily-curated representation” of one’s identity that’s made possible through the online space – that’s a great way to put it. As I tried to highlight through my paper, the online space allows for a much wider scope of identity performance to take place. In the online space, people are not limited by their body language, lack of confidence, or physical environment, and this allows for a certain degree of safety, comfort and confidence to express themselves in any way they wish. As you argue, this means the identity that many portray through the online space is often heavily and meticulously constructed and curated.
I enjoyed reading your arguments about identity deception. It’s interesting that as you note in your examples, in some online spaces such as online role-playing games (a space I’m not all that familiar with, so it was interesting to read about), identity deception is actually encouraged to a certain degree. I like how you also highlight that Instagram similarly allows for a certain degree of identity deception to take place through tools such as filters and other editing tools.
Given that so much of our daily lives these days increasingly revolves around the online space and social media, I wonder how people will define, construct and manage their physical world identities moving forward? Are we reaching a point where people will be completely out of touch with their physical world identities (or even consciously avoid them), and what implications will this have on different facets of their lives (self-development, education, relationships, careers, etc)?
Thanks Lana, as I said on your paper I’m really glad to have someone else talking about the ways in which we change our identity online. It’s a fascinating phenomenon!
Some interesting food for thought Lana. I don’t think we are at that stage yet where we are out of touch with our physical world identities, however worryingly for the next generations, I really am not sure where the world of social media is going to take them. A Meryl points out below, the influence on her daughter’s anxiety that could be very directly linked to Snapchat and Instagram is really scary, however I recall back when I was young even without social we still had body image issues and teenage anxiety and depression. Has the likes of Insta etc. made it a lot worse or are we talking about it more now?
Could we reach a point as you suggest Lana, where how we front up on our social channels will affect how we perform in our off-line world. Will our actions and posts be overanalysed by those we encounter to the point where we might face criticism for not behaving inline with our online identities?
That’s an interesting question Stephanie. Something that can be roughly compared is already underway in China with citizens being rated using an app and although it seems these ratings are intended to be based on real world actions, it doesn’t seem too far a stretch to extend that to online life.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6183893/Real-life-Black-Mirror-Chinas-moves-introduce-scorecards-ranks-behaviour-citizens.html
Wow, that is like your credit rating on steroids. Reading that takes me into a world of Total Recall!
Surely this cannot be the actual future for us, although the rating system is something we have in life already in businesses like Uber.
We have had years of people being on credit black lists when they shouldn’t be and unable to buy a house or get a loan but this goes to whole new level of a world with a very serious divide between the have and the have-nots.
Mind you, I feel that AI might lead us down that way in some aspects as well.
Given this is in the Daily Mail I also have to reserve my right to be a little skeptical! All this talk of fake news makes me wonder……
As a millennial and a user of Instagram, Instagram is defined as a platform that displays identity in a way users gain followers, where their followers such as teenagers are proud of who they are following, especially with followers over 100mill.
This is the reason why I agree with your point about Instagram encourages an unrealistic image driven by Instagram users, rather than encouraging users who are trying to grow their small business or simply posting photographs for their friends and family to see.
Your paper was a very interesting paper to read and it has opened my mind on who I am following and the reason why I am following these called ‘influentials’.
It is interesting that we are so drawn to these so called influencers, especially considering how clear it can be that what they are putting out there isn’t entirely real. It is definitely important to be conscious of who you follow, why you follow them and the possible affects that making comparisons to these people can have.
As a fellow millennial and avid Instagram user I can definitely see how my use of the platform influences how I feel about myself and what I expect from life. Part of me feels that this is just a part of modern life as social networks are so important nowadays.
It’s so interesting to hear both your perspectives as millennials, being a Gen X’er but also a lover of Insta I do have a different perspective and also use it in a different way.
I don’t tend to get so caught up in judging myself against others, but then again I am older and probably past that time in my life, I do however like to follow fashion etc. (not that old) and keep up with the latest trends.
One thing I do enjoy are the groups are things that I am interested in and as I look for a more positive angle on Instagram and the role it can play this is where I find it is not such a destructive platform. The issue is more in how you use it and who you are following.
I follow a few different camping groups from across the world and the information exchange is fantastic. This is a real positive for me as we plan trips and holidays or get ideas. This is just one area of interest but there would be many more.
I was also hoping to see backlash to the perfect body is beautiful brigade and it appears this has taken off as well, #bopo #bopowarrier @bodyimagemovement etc. are aiming to capture and support those considered not perfect. And really who is!!
In all of this it is not just social media that is enhancing the issue, these problems have been around for a long time and helping people to see through all these false identities is what I think is key. I also don’t agree that Instagram is just for ‘self-serving purposes’ as I mentioned above there are so many other accounts to follow that are not people lying about their lives or trying to influence. Where I do agree is that it might be a generational issue and that is of real concern to me and how we can try and find a way to provide balance for those who are easily influenced by what they see and do not have confidence to see past the false identities.
Their are undoubtedly many positives to social media and Instagram in particular. I honestly believe Instagram has created the best model for social media as a personal diary of sorts. When I say Instagram is used for self serving purposes, I would qualify that it depends on the content being posted. I would argue that when posting an image of oneself the motivations for doing so can be boiled down to narcissistic feelings. As you mentioned however there are many other avenues of Instagram content, though again I feel aspects of this content are usually sensationalized which isn’t necessarily a negative but remains deceptive e.g. someone may go camping for the weekend where it rains non-stop save an hour of good weather where they take a bunch of photos and post as if this represented their trip.
take a look at @theempoweredwomanproject who are fighting against the negative portrayal of body image, and have had quite a lot of success in having influencers held to account for their irresponsible promotion of dangerous weight loss supplements.
I 100% agree – it is part of our modern day-to-day lifestyle. My mum always questions my time being on my phone and at most times I am going through my Instagram followers and seeking what’s new and what is not.
Hi Aiden,
This paper is a hot topic in my house/life at the moment, as a mother of three daughters 22, 19 and 17. One of which is suffering anxiety and depression and I believe her Instagram and Snapchat use compounds the situation. Here is a link to a very interesting conversation regarding the current cultural use of the internet and social media and our use of it being akin to addiction. This results in the very symptoms being experienced by my daughter and many other young people.
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/david-gillespie-2019/10986686.
I am old enough to remember the launch of Instagram and thinking, cool, what a great platform to share holiday photos and great views instantly. How innocent! I can see the similarities between the old analogue vision board and a curated Instagram account, with perhaps the motivation being aspiration and not always deception. It has evolved into a powerful business tool, social and cultural manipulator. With “the opportunity for a so called everyday person to reach a potentially massive audience has proven to be hugely alluring to Instagram’s users whom curate an enhanced presentation of themselves”.
Thanks again, your paper has incited a very lengthy conversation in our house with many differing opinions being tabled.
I’ve also had my struggles with depression and anxiety, and although I haven’t been a huge social media user during those periods I can definitely see how the constant bombardment of content would become overwhelming and counter productive.
Aspiration is a great word to use, these influencers that have come from Instagram sell an image that is hard not to admire and create feelings of upward comparison. It’s a hard line to tread as the alternative of not using social media, though possible, can make modern life tricky and perhaps the feeling of missing out and feeling disconnected would be even more detrimental.
I wrote an essay recently for a different unit that discussed the rise of instagram on the social media scene, and I read many of the same studies as you’ve used for your research, all of which were really insightful. I particularly found the data from Hu et. al. (2014) outlining how we use the platform to be insightful. As this study was conducted back in 2014 and before social media influencers really took off, I’d be really interested to see what the breakdown looked like today.
Returning to the question of identity though, 60% of young people are accessing instagram multiple times a day (Perrin & Anderson, 2019) which points towards the importance the platform has in the lives of today’s youth. If this is where they are receiving the messages that are shaping their self identity, and if those messages are continually constructed in a false manner, it does present a number of concerns for the safety of young people.
References
Hu, Y., Manikonda, L., & Kambhampati, S. 2014. ‘What we instagram: a first analysis of instagram photo content and user types’, in Proceedings of AAAI In- ternational Conference on Web and Social Media. Retrieved from https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM14/paper/download/8118/8087
Perrin, A. and Anderson, M. 2019. ‘Share of US adults using social media, incluing Facebook, is mostly unchanged since 2018,’ PEW Research Centre. Retreived from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/10/share-of-u-s-adults-using-social-media-including-facebook-is-mostly-unchanged-since-2018/
Hey Tracey, I totally agree. It is clear that having that deep an involvement in a platform will have some affect on shaping how someone aims to look/think/act. Where we may have previously looked to our friends and family for this inspiration do we now look up to these social media personalities instead? It’s a strange concept as in the past you would interact with a person as a whole, witnessing their flaws and strengths however on social media we only see what is wanted to be shown.
unfortunately there’s not enough regulation as to whether these people are worth looking up to in the first place. In a recent example, influencer Jemma Lucy promoted weight loss products while pregnant, and is now being investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK for breaching the rules that ban irresponsible and dishonest advertising on Instagram. unfortunately, by the time the ASA or whichever relevant board is responsible based on the location of the poster, the damage is often already done.
As someone who has definitely been surrounded by the epitome of Instagram and influencers, it’s quite interesting and slightly jarring to see the impact that this social platform has on peoples identities. With many more influencers attempting to make an effort to show the more ‘real’ sides of their lives, is beginning to make a slight difference in how people see themselves, which I’m curious to see if this will have a growing positive impact or not.
Also reading through the motivations is quite interesting, just by reading through them it begins to click on some of those motives linking to why I use the application.
This was truly an interesting read and one that definitely made me truly think about why I use the platform and who I follow.
Thanks Tafadzwa, It’s good to see users of the platform opening up a lot more and I’m sure this can only have a positive impact for their followers. It will be interesting also to see how this could impact the poster who is opening up, surely their is a line that must be drawn as to what personal information is shared. This balance is something I feel hasn’t quite been figured out and I’m sure is different for each person.
Hi Aidan
Your comment of “heavily curated representation of one’s self online’ is certainly correct when using dating sites, which I recently joined earlier this year and quickly discarded. I was amazed at the number of males over 75 years who answer the question: “Do you want to have children?” and nearly 80% replied YES. This made me wonder if they were being truthful about themselves. I have read where Instagram has pushed My Space out of contention on the Internet and confess I have never used either social media platform and am surprised to read of identity deception within the Instagram community.
“Studies into the primary motivations of Instagram use can be categorised broadly into four categories; “surveillance” (keeping up with what other users are doing), “documentation” (posting activities and major events), “coolness” (posts designed to impress others) and “creativity” (posts focusing on the users creative skills).” This sentence reminds me of the old saying in the 1960-1970’s of “keeping up with the Jones.” Basically the same things you have described: escapism, ego tripping and the need to be seen as an influential important person. Your paper was very insightful and I enjoy reading it.
Hey Robin, Thanks for your comment.
It’s certainly not a new phenomenon, even when meeting new people you can notice a tendencies for others to put on somewhat of a facade to impress. It seems humans have a natural tendency to present what is alluring to the people around them.
Hi Aidan,
I particularly liked your discussion on the four motivations for posting on Instagram. Surveillance, documentation, coolness and creativity. I think that as creators of content across social media we are driven by these motivations. I wonder if they are all driven by a narcissistic desire in all instances or are they simply the method by which we use the tools of the platform to connect with one another?
Do you think it is fair to say that Instagram has more commercial interests than say Twitter which is more the domain of current affairs? Your paper has raised some interesting thoughts for me in the way in which we gravitate to different platforms.
I don’t like Instagram because it feels like posturing and it leads me down the path of comparing myself to others. This being said, are these destructive feelings generated from comparison by design to create an influencer environment ‘aka Instagram’ or is it merely a consequence of our emotional capacity and deep-rooted narcissistic tendencies?
Very interesting paper. Thanks for sharing.
I would say one of the biggest weak points is it’s lack of encouragement for discussion compared to Twitter. Due to it’s dependence on imagery Instagram becomes much more surface level where as twitter allows extremely easy discussion via @ replies etc. I would say Instagram is in a much better position in terms of marketing of products and even people in the form of influencers. I feel we are naturally inclined to compare ourselves and what we have to others, the phrase “the grass is always greener on the other side” comes to mind. However in the past these feeling were much more based in reality compared to the unreal images presented on Instagram.
Hi Aidan,
Well done on your essay and your thoughts on Instagram. I joined Instagram really early on in the piece at the end of 2009 and was drawn to the photography aspect of the platform. Let’s just say I am not in the millennial category, but I have seen it evolve in that time. Do you think the Insta story makes any difference to peoples attitude to the platform? Has there been any research on the impact when that aspect of the platform was introduced? I wonder if the introduction of IGTV will change things also.
I have recently heard that Instagram may be trialling the fact that the number of likes for a post may not be shown. What do you think the impact of this would be on someones Instagram follower count? I know, I am drawn to look at the number of likes for each post and then if I don’t know the person, I would stalk and check out how many followers they have.
Thanks again for the insights.
Cheers,
LUki
I wasn’t able to find any research on the newer features implemented by Instagram such as stories and IGTV however I would imagine that the advent of Instagram stories in particular would see users feeling an even deeper connection to those they follow with a much more frequent and potentially more personal view into their lives.
It would be interesting to see the impact of a hidden like count however it’s unlikely that this would have a major impact on upward comparisons being made towards those users portraying an unrealistic lifestyle. Numbers of likes undoubtedly have an impact and are the main metric for determining a users popularity and absolutely encourage the narcissistic motives I discussed in my paper.
I think you are correct about users being more connected through the Insta Stories. The users who are creating a community of followers tend to initiate quick surveys to connect and let people be part of their daily lives. Through my research, I have realised I am more drawn to the story first and then will scroll the feeds after that. I am sure there is a psychological reason for that, but maybe that’s for another paper!!
Hey Aiden,
Your paper certainly made me want to go and binge watch some Catfish, hahaha. Have you seen it?
If you haven’t, it’s a show by MTV in which the hosts essentially help people who are dating someone online find out whether or not they are talking to a real person (taking this concept you mention of being “highly sensationalised” to a whole new level: being a complete lie). I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single episode where the mysterious online lover turns out to be who they say they are.
I found this show quite a relevant example for your paper, espeically when you began to discuss how this kind of behaviour can be used as “form of escapism, to purposely deceive others for their own gain or to simply ease their insecurities and attempt to boost the ego”. I’ve definitely seen each of these listed items come into play on Catfish. For example; girls coming to terms with their sexuality and posing online as someone of the opposite gender in order to talk to other women; people attempting to get revenge on and/or remain in romantic contact with their ex-partners; men insecure about their bodies and using more ‘idealistic’ photos; YOU NAME IT.
These technologies not only offer people the ability to enhance their own self in deceptive ways, but they also allow people to go one step higher and create a completely new identity altogether. Catfish can be seen in many ways as another silly reality tv show, however I also find it to be an interesting study of how social networking technologies can affect and/or impact both human insecurities and relationships.
Hi Aidan
I really enjoyed reading your paper. You are spot-on with regard to the narcissistic elements related to Instagram use. It is like many of the Instagram users are more interested in keeping up with, and outdoing, each other. It is all quite self-serving and focussed on presenting highly stylised images in order to gain more followers and therefore gain more attention. I sometimes think that this is related to insecurity, and a high number of followers will lead to an increase in feelings of self-worth. I might have to look into that.
In one of my other comments I mentioned a news article about so-called ‘influencers’ who take part in dangerous stunts for social media photos. The sad thing about this is the risk that others will try to reproduce these stunts and end up being severely injured or losing their lives. You have probably already heard about this but here is the article if you would like to have a look.
https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/warnings/instagram-couple-who-posted-photo-of-them-kissing-out-of-a-moving-train-slammed-on-social/news-story/85c62971a711b5dc23d27006aab450d9