Abstract: This paper aims to demonstrate how social media platforms, namely Instagram, promote and foster identity performance. By looking at the foundational aspects and functions of Instagram, such as user curation tools and instant gratification systems, and also the emerging popularity of ‘influencers’, this paper takes a look at how the platform’s encouragement of identity performance could lead to possible damage to the real-life development of the adolescents’ identity.

Social media platforms foster an environment of self-representation and identity expression. The performance of one’s identity has become a major aspect in studies of social media as user’s are often tasked with managing and maintaining a variety of different performed identities on a variety of different social media platforms. The term ‘social media’ refers to a variety of web-based networks that allow users to communicate and interact, visually and verbally, with one another (Carr, C. T. et al., 2015). Due to the shift away from local, densely-knit communities, towards widely dispersed, complex networks, a notion known as ‘networked individualism’ (Hampton & Wellman, 2018), users on social media are now exposed to thousands of other users every single day, often meaning the identity they perform is likely to be relatively public. It has also been argued that sociability is enabled through performances of the self and that these performances must be polysemic, targeting multiple audiences, without losing a sense of the real self (Papacharissi, 2010). This becomes a point of interest as I consider how the function of Instagram effects one’s ability to retain a sense of self offline. According to Instagram (2022), their platform is, “a free photo and video sharing app available on iPhone and Android. People can upload photos or videos to our service and share them with their followers or with a selected group of friends. They can also view, comment and like posts shared by their friends on Instagram.” However, Instagram is also a platform for personal representation and the performance of identity, and it is particularly popular amongst the adolescent population. Instagram boasts unique user curation abilities, almost everything about the Instagram user experience is curated by the user, allowing users to perform their identity however they choose. Instagram has instant gratification embedded into the function of the platform with ‘likes’ being a significant factor in identity affirmation and the user experience. The rise of popular content creators on Instagram, known as ‘influencers’, has seen social media content creation and identity performance commoditized. Social media platforms, namely Instagram, encourage the performance of identity through user curation, instant gratification, and the popularity of influencers. Whilst the performance of identity can be a positive thing, questions arise around the effect it has on the developing adolescent brain.

Perhaps one of the most attractive features of social media platforms, especially Instagram, is the ability to curate one’s unique, individual, personal profile, representing their personal brand however they choose. Curation, as Davis (2016) states in her article, ‘Curation: a theoretical treatment’, refers to, “the discriminate selection of materials for display.” She likens the social media user to a curator in that it is their job to “carve out” the most relevant information; the most relevant in the performance of their identity online. She elaborates, saying that “curation has emerged as a central component of digital media practice,” which is evident in the curatorial practices embedded in Instagram as they form part of the foundational aspects of the platform and its functionality. Goffman’s (1959) notion of identity performance says that, depending on the situation, people reveal and conceal parts of themselves, performing different versions of the self. For example, if a person is going on a date, they will present a different identity to if they were going for a job interview. This theory can be applied to social media, and how users curate and manage their identities on Instagram as every time a user chooses images to share, composes text, or edits a post, they are engaging in identity work (Hogan, 2010), presenting their chosen identity. While Instagram may not be the best example of this, and platforms such as Tinder, would likely be a greater example, there is still a large amount of identity curation that goes into a user’s Instagram profile. The action of starting an Instagram account and curating a profile is the first example of how Instagram encourages identity performance from its users as they select and omit particular things about themselves that they either do or do not want to include in their profile. In fact, every aspect of a user’s Instagram profile is curated by the user themselves; from their username, to their profile picture, to every picture posted. Users are afforded utmost freedom and agency in crafting and curating their online identities on Instagram, be it authentic or anonymous, through their own personal selection and omission processes. Once the profile is curated to the users’ liking, then it is time for the identity to be performed and, over time, maintained. Robinson (2017) explains her notion of the ‘identity curation game’ and states that in order for adolescents’ to successfully curate their identity online there are, “three implicit rules: (1) constantly update or be sidelined, (2) engage in constant reciprocated identity-affirming interactions, and (3) maintain a strategy of vigilance to remove traces of failed identity performances.” This means, according to Robinson, adolescent Instagram users, in order to successfully curate and maintain their identities on the platform, should be making several posts, leaving several likes and positive comments on other users’ posts, and actively deleting any media that challenges their performed identity, for example a ‘bad’ photo of them, in any one day. The problem with this is that, “Adolescence is an extremely important time period for social cognitive development” (Sherman et al., 2016), they are often still in the process of identity discovery, so by applying these pressures of maintaining a curated identity on Instagram when they are still in the process of developing their identity could be harmful to their development in real-life.

The rise of popular social media content creators, commonly known as ‘influencers’, has seen social media become a commodity as a portion of users have been able to monetise their popularity on platforms such as Instagram. The term ‘influencers’ refers to social media users who monetize their online performances through practices of self-branding, or developing a public image used for commercial and capital gain (Vear, 2020). Online influencers have an audience, “followers”, with whom they have built a relationship with over time, developed, between the influencer and their followers, as a result of numerous, regular interactions, including likes, shares, comments, retweets, or messages all via social media. Due to the users’ large following, companies will often reach out to them offering them a paid brand promotion. In fact, according to Vear (2020), 67% of marketing and communication professionals use influencers for content promotion. Due to the increased popularity of influencer work on social media platforms, the relationship between branding and self-representation practices has become more interconnected as social media has normalized the union of our identities and social lives with brands and consumption, hence influencers find a large portion of their work in brand partnerships. The adolescent follower then sees the aforementioned brand partnership post and because this internet celebrity, whom they admire, is associating themselves with this brand the adolescent is more inclined to then purchase from that brand. The popularity of Instagram influencers has seen a rise in adolescent social media users practicing “aspirational labour” (Duffy, 2016), the notion of getting paid to do what one loves, particularly where most of the people are not getting paid yet. That is, teenagers are creating content in the hope one day they could be paid for it. I would argue that this is possibly due to the attractive lifestyle many influencers seem to have whereby they perform minimal labour for maximum reward; a fifteen second dance, or posting a picture wearing a certain brand. In fact, in 2020, it was noted that the influencer marketing industry was worth 10 billion dollars (Haenlein et al., 2020). So it’s no surprise when a research firm, Morning Consult, runs a survey on influencer culture with 2000 Americans aged between 13-38 and finds that 86% of those surveyed would post content on social media for money, and 54% would become an influencer if given the opportunity (Locke, 2019). But influencers can also often be unexpectedly jolted into the world of fame. For example, in 2009, Colleen Ballinger debuted Miranda Sings, an untalented woman who believes she is going to be famous, on Youtube, where she then became famous almost overnight. In 2018, her Instagram account still boasted 6.5 million followers, highlighting her success. I would argue that Colleen Ballinger’s identity performed on Youtube, Miranda Sings, is an example of how identity performance can help a person in social media succeed, and also how identity performance can be commoditised. In fact, Miranda Sings was so successful that in 2016, Colleen Ballinger made history as she became the first YouTube personality to move from internet fame to scripted television with her Netflix series, centering on Ballinger’s Miranda character, ‘Haters Back Off!’ On the other hand, it is also argued that an influencer’s success comes down to their authenticity, and their openness with their followers. The relationship that is established is argued to be the most important part when it comes to an influencers ability to influence their audience, more so than the physical number of followers they have. (Burke-Garcia, 2019). Influencers have become very good at blurring the lines between the public and private spheres, particularly through ‘vlogs’, blending their performed identity between the ‘front stage’ and ‘backstage’ (Goffman, 1959). Goffman describes ‘backstage’ as “a place, relative to a given performance, where the impression fostered by the performance is knowingly contradicted as a matter of course,” however influencers have managed to reveal their ‘backstage’ selves through video blogs while maintaining the performance of the ‘front stage’ identity. This has been a large contributor to their success; the ability to appear authentic through identity performance.

The affirmation of a one’s identity is much sought after on Instagram as the instant gratification tools built into the platform make it a key element of the Instagram user experience. The Cambridge Dictionary definition of ‘gratification’ is “pleasure or satisfaction” (GRATIFICATION | Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary, n.d.). Therefore, when referring to instant gratification, I am referring to instant pleasure. There are two key features that provide users with instant gratification; one being comments, although only positive ones will provide gratification, and the other being likes. I will focus on the latter. Among social media users ‘likes’, a numerical evaluative tool for feedback on social media platforms, appear to be widely accepted as a form of social endorsement and identity affirmation (Sánchez-Hernández et al., 2022). The quantitative ‘likes’ system on Instagram facilitates social comparison and feedback seeking processes, which are especially important during the period of adolescence. Naturally, adolescent Instagram users want to have their identity affirmed, and ‘likes’ are the best way to do that in the digital world. According to Valkenburg (2006) receiving feedback of approval, likes, from peers will boost the adolescents’ self-esteem and well-being, whereas feedback of disapproval will have the opposite effect (Weinstein, 2018). In fact, part of the reason why many people say social media is ‘addictive’ is because of the instant gratification that ‘likes’ give users, and how it effects their brain. One study found that parts of the brain activated by eating chocolate or winning money were also activated when adolescents saw large numbers of ‘likes’ on their social media posts. One of the particularly active regions was the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain’s reward circuitry. A circuit considered to be especially active during the period of adolescence (Anonymous, 2016). Therefore, I argue that some adolescent Instagram users, in order to gain more positive peer feedback, may construct false realities to share on the social media platform, branding themselves as something they are not and showcasing a life that is far from their reality, damaging their sense of identity in real life as they are performing an identity on Instagram that is so far from their identity in the real world.

Through user curation, immediate gratification, and the popularity of influencers, social media sites, such as Instagram, foster the performance of identity. While the performance of identity can be beneficial, concerns have been raised about its impact on the developing adolescent brain. The liberty provided by the user curation tools on Instagram allows users to perform their identity however they wish but may cause adolescents to construct an identity so far from reality that is has implications on their identity development in the real world. The rise of influencers has seen a rise in aspirational labour being practiced by adolescents as they perform their chosen identities in hope of one day becoming an influencer. Instagram’s embedded gratification system that provides users with instant feedback on their performed identity can be positive when the user’s identity is affirmed with ‘likes’ however it also has the power to sway more impressionable users into changing their identity to gain more ‘likes’. Social media platforms can be a liberating place of self-expression and identity exploration, however the pressures that come with a platform like Instagram, pressures to maintain the curated identity, to have the identity affirmed by likes, can become overbearing on the younger users who are still in a significant time of development. There are limitations to this paper, as I feel that there may be a more distinct identity performance experience on another social media platform, such as Tinder, for reasons regarding that platform’s purpose. I also feel that the discourse surrounding influencers is so complex that it was difficult to fit in this paper entirely. Some areas for further research could include a closer look into how influencers, and social media users alike, blur the lines between front stage and backstage performances, or possibly how adolescents’ performed identities change according to the amount of ‘likes’ received.

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