Virtue Signalling via Social Media and the rise of Veganism.

Social Network Sites allow users to create powerful online identities by portraying their strong moral codes by virtue signaling their activism to causes and movements such as veganism, which has grown in popularity exponentially with the uptake of Social Media.

Abstract

This paper will discuss the performance of online identity and how people can demonstrate their moral and ethical codes with a few keystrokes while not actually having to necessarily demonstrate their commitment to them in real life. A hashtag referring to a “cause de célèbre” is all that is needed to portray oneself as a progressive and socially aware member of society. Virtue signaling is a new phrase for this modern phenomenon – where ones online activism is amplified to their followers without it necessarily having to impinge on their lifestyle. Veganism is just one type of activism that is promoted heavily via social media – particularly “soft veganism” where good looks and pretty food images idealize the lifestyle without the consequences of its restrictive practice being shown, or even animal suffering. Vegan influencers have encouraged the rise of veganism among Western populations, in particular young people for whom social media has been a constant all their lives. However what happens online is not necessarily what is happening offline as this paper will demonstrate.

The concept of identity and the definition of community have become a source of fresh debate in this modern era of internet connectivity and the rise of Social Networks. Now one must also work at constructing a digital identity and finding a like-minded and accepting community online. Identifying oneself with progressive and socially aware movements is one way users demonstrate their ethical and moral codes. By using hashtags the individual can then join a community with similar beliefs and follow and be followed by members of that community. Once a member of a community, individuals can then continue to craft their digital identity to adapt and mold to their expected online performance. Demonstrating ones virtues has always assisted in raising one’s status within communities, however offline this needs usually needs to be physically demonstrated, for instance, through volunteering. Online one can signal their virtues by aligning with causes without any physical engagement or evidence of the same. This paper will demonstrate how social network sites allow people to create powerful online identities by portraying their strong moral codes in the form of virtue signaling their activism to causes and movements, such as veganism which grown in popularity in line with the growth of uptake of social media.

Over fifty years ago a sociologist by the name of Erving Goffman wrote a book; “Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”, which carries truths about identity that have not altered even though the world we now live in, and how we live in it, would be in many ways unrecognizable to Goffman. Community, for example, while still existing in the real world, has now an online dimension facilitated by the affordances of Web 2.0, particularly in relation to social media. We will come back to Goffman’s seminal work to discuss his insights, but firstly we need to consider that identity crafting is especially relevant in terms of the community that the individual wishes to belong to.

In terms of online communities, constructing identity can be free of status markers that are unavoidable in real life, such as physical appearance or where you live. However with social media identity creation is also unavoidable if you choose to sign up to many of the platforms, most require you fill out a profile at the very least.  For the purposes of this paper we will consider social media as one of the “Big Four” – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter – although obviously there are a myriad of other social platforms with their own criteria for membership.

Goffman’s work analysed how individuals worked to control the impression they gave others. Perhaps what makes Goffman so relevant in todays mediated world is his take on how people perform identity to influence others. He argues that the stronger the influence one can make on others he meets, the more socially harmonious their life will be. Goffman states “It is in his interests to control the conduct of others, especially their responsive treatment of him.” (Goffman, 1956 p.3).

It is the concept of this influence over others that is fundamental in online identity creation.  “Influencers” is a term that has become synonymous with social media terminology and an influencers predominate requisite for success is a strong online identity. Success in terms of social media relies on the number of followers one can amass. The way an influencer can increase their followers is a whole essay (at the very least) in itself, so for the purposes of this paper we will focus on just one technique employed by many influencers – “virtue signaling”.

While the term virtue signaling may sound like a scientific definition of sociological practice developed by eminent people in the field, it actually was first coined by a journalist for The Spectator, James Bartholomew, in 2015. (Bartholomew, 2015).  While Bartholomew’s claim of creation of the phrase has since been somewhat disputed, we will allow him the credit for the purposes of this paper. Regardless it describes a phenomenon that has become prevalent among many social media influencers – a conspicuous online display of their social awareness and benevolence.

Furthermore “virtue signaling presents specific interests as matter of universal humanity and morality while framing those who oppose the status quo as morally deficient.” (OpenDemocracy, 2017). In other words virtue signaling is the “woke” cousin of political correctness. All one needs to do to demonstrate their progressive attitudes and beliefs online is to add a hashtag, for example #activism. Ironically, while the Macquarie Dictionary definition of an activist indicates that one is “a zealous worker” all it has taken for an online identity to indicate their activism is the work of a few keystrokes. (Macquarie Dictionary, 7ed.). Bartholomew described the practice by stating “One of the crucial aspects of virtue signaling is that it does not require actually doing anything virtuous” (Bartholomew, 2015).

Perhaps the reason the term virtue signaling has only just become a useful term in today’s world is because before there were online communities, one had to actually perform an act of virtue in a real life community, for it to be ascribed to their identity. For instance volunteering to help the disadvantaged by working in a soup kitchen took time and commitment and compassion, and most importantly a physical presence.

In other words it has become phenomenally easy for a social media influencer to build an identity of idealised qualities and present themselves with positive self-concept on these highly visible social mediums. (Wallace, 2018). The number of causes and issues that an influencer can align themselves with is beyond the scope of this paper, so instead we will focus on one topic which has seen enormous growth in popularity, directly in proportion to the rise of social media – veganism.

More than just the uptake a purely plant-based diet, veganism is a movement committed to ending exploitation and suffering of animals by avoiding all food, clothing, cosmetics and entertainment that exploits animals. Veganism has serious virtue currency on social media – whether it’s “hard veganism” which is a racial, marginalized and political movement committed to ethics and criticism of a capitalistic food system – or “soft veganism”, an eco-chic lifestyle practice of self-improvement. (Wilson, 2019. p3 – p7). Affiliating oneself online with veganism by virtue signaling via hashtag takes a lot less effort than what it actually involves to become vegan. Veganism by its definition is a very restrictive dietary and lifestyle practice in reality and can be difficult to maintain.

There is nothing new about veganism – it has been around as a defined dietary and ethical concept for decades, waxing and waning in popularity over the years.  It is no coincidence that the growth of veganism has coincided with the uptake of social media platforms – in fact it’s these platforms that have given new credo to veganism, particularly among young people.

In an article by Sarah Marsh for The Guardian in 2016 a number of teenagers from several western countries were asked why they had become vegan. Their reasons varied from ethical to health to environmental concerns but they all had one common factor that had influenced them to make the change to a plant only diet – social media. In particular Instagram, which came out on top in terms of influence, with YouTube coming a close second. Veganism as a lifestyle choice has enjoyed phenomenal growth in popularity over the last decade.  Marsh’s article presents figures of a 350% increase in people identifying as vegans in the UK since 2006. (Marsh, 2016).

A study on vegan self-presentation on Instagram by Amber de Zeeuw et al in 2017 examined in depth three popular vegan Instagram accounts. They note while the definition of veganism inherently means no animal cruelty, the accounts under review posted a negligible number of animal related images… they are mainly self and food images. These influencers promote veganism to their followers by documenting their daily activities and the food they eat, and in this way they give us insight into their class status or “appearance”. (de Zeeuw, 2017).  Goffman described this form of identity performance as the “projection of moral character” – in other words virtue signaling. (Goffman, 1959, p23). In the case of Instagram the projection of moral character and ethical behavior through veganism is easily categorised by a multitude of vegan hashtags, such as #veganlife (7.5m posts) or the slightly less popular, perhaps for reasons which are demonstrated later, #veganforlife. (1.2m posts). (Top-hashtags.com, 2020).

This projection of moral character by influencers on social media, while arguably easier to perform and control online than in real life, has the downside of any failure to adhere to the vegan scripture being able to be amplified online.  The backlash can be enormous, damaging the “personal branding” and financial lifeline of the influencer irreparably.  The skills, personality and unique characteristics that have been packaged together to form a powerful identity online can destroyed in one poorly judged moment. (van ‘t Laar, 2017. p10)

Take for example the case of @Rawvana, a vegan and “raw eater” who had amassed 3 million followers via Instagram and YouTube, by espousing the benefits of her lifestyle which is at best can be described as extremely restrictive, and at worst dangerous and irresponsible. As only can happened in our highly mediated world @Rawvana was noted eating fish on a fellow influencer’s vlog, after which the vegans rose up in online outrage. Tearful apologies followed along with overly detailed dietary reasons for her downfall, which basically confirmed that her online lifestyle had made her so weak and sick she had been forced to take up another type of lifestyle offline – one that involved eating animals. This begs the question however – if not for @Rawvana’s slip-up would she still be making money from her online influencer status? This is just one such case that highlights the artifice of online identity. (Mahdawi, 2019).

In August 2019 Cassidy Graves for online news site Vice wrote an expose on the many vegan influencers renouncing their strict practices in order to save their health. Graves describes how some of them were eating meat for weeks or month before “coming out”. One famous vegan vlogger, Bonny Rebecca, posted an online “confessional” explaining her break from her militant veganism to her followers, describing her shame and guilt and that as a consequence feels she has “completely lost her identity”. Another devotee was quoted; “I’ve been telling people I’m vegan for ten years, but really for the last four or five I’ve been including animal products and I’m too scared to tell people”. (Graves, 2019).

In conclusion while identity exists both in real life as well as online life for an individual, they may look completely different. Both identities require work and development through expression of beliefs and moral codes, however the construction of a real life identity takes time and more importantly, action. Online it is easy to identify oneself with progressive and socially aware movements by the use of hashtags for example. The user can then find a community with similar beliefs to follow and to be followed by. Their success and status within the community is dependent on their ability to craft their digital identity to adapt and mold to their expected online performance. By demonstrating your moral and ethical goodness online by virtue signaling your status can be raised within these communities, without the need to physically demonstrate them or provide evidence of them. It is only in the digital world that social media influencers can amass followers by constructing a virtuous identity via hashtag signaling, without the physical need to actually do anything truly virtuous.

REFERENCES

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