In the digital era, Instagram has profoundly altered how individuals, particularly Generation Z (Gen Z) engage with each other, both online and offline. Instagram’s visually-oriented interface fosters curated self-presentation, comparison culture, and para-social relationships, influencing the dynamic of Gen Z friendships. Understanding the complex interplay between digital and face-to-face interactions is crucial as modern friendships increasingly inhabit both offline and online realms.
In the age of technology, digital and social media is continuing to advance and evolve rapidly. In 2023, 63.6% of the worldwide population were using social media platforms (Statistica). The prolific uptake of social networking sites is changing how online users interact, and how they think about their relationships with the people around them, both physically, and virtually. Generation Z (Gen Z) are the young people born between 1997-2012 and have been impacted by the online world the most, as these individuals have little experience of life without it (Statistica, 2024). As well as this, the creation and maintenance of friendships and relationships throughout young adulthood is highly important to personal development (Pouwels et al., 2021). With the consistent high usage of social networking sites among this generation, it is important to look at how this can change the dynamic of relationships. Instagram is popular for social networking and is seen as a tool for communication that is important in “mapping visual social media cultures” and the communities within (Leaver et al., 2020, p.12). The highly visual nature of Instagram emphasises the high levels of curated self-presentation, comparison culture and para-social relationships displayed on the platform, shaping the dynamic of Gen Z friendships.
Social networking sites have been some of the most social technologies created, gaining the ability to shape a change in how society interacts (Delanty, 2018). Instagram began as a platform for instant communication through images and has become so much more since then. Features originally included the ability to share images, like and comment, but the capacity to direct message, post stories, save highlights and advertise came later (Leaver et al., 2020). Four years ago, Instagram surpassed one billion users on the platform, and has become a digital space for people to interact on a global scale (Laughlin, 2020). However, the main feature of the app continues to be for visual communication through photo-sharing. This allows for an aspect of non-verbal communication in relationships, adding a layer of depth to them (Elder, 2018). Other non-verbal communication through Instagram includes features such as liking a user’s post or story and reacting with an emoji to stories, as they have clear meanings attached to them. Elder argued that using social networking affordances can demonstrate individualised attention and can be highly valuable in friendships (2018). Actioning this on the platform comes through tagging another user in a post, commenting, or sending a direct message. This can show a person was thinking of another, and acting digitally to express this. Another example of this can be in the sending of an image or video to another user through the platform. Inviting the other user to participate in joint attention of something becomes a symbolic way of sharing the sender’s life with the recipient (Elder, 2018). This proves that the highly visual nature of Instagram can be highly conducive with creating and maintaining friendships.
Instagram affords itself to networked communication between users through image-based content creation and the interactions with these posts. These features contribute to carefully and strategically curated online personas and profiles (Leaver et al., 2020). A study from 2020 showed that when user’s feeds were full of interesting content, young people would respond by posting similar content themselves, and this enhanced their chance of developing friendships on the platform (Lee & Borah). As users follow others who present a life full of highs and beautiful moments, they become more likely to emulate this presentation. Another study in the UK showed that most young university students said that they would only post the highlights of their lives online and would edit or delete images that didn’t present the best versions of themselves (Moreton & Greenfield, 2022). This shows that Gen Z users commonly create content with the intent of building an aesthetically appealing identity online, in a bid to impress their followers on the platform. It is important to note that this points to digital technology affecting a change in the structure of community, as the feeling of closeness can be created virtually (Hampton, 2016). This contributes to an evolved approach to relationships among young people.
Although the presentation of aesthetically pleasing online personas on Instagram can lead to the furthering of friendships, it can have negative effects as well. Individual’s presented identities on social networking sites are often exaggerated versions of the person’s physical self (Chambers, 2013). This can have an impact on the user’s sense of identity, as a level of performance comes into play each time they partake in activity on the platform. Australian comedian, Celeste Barber often makes social comments on the dangers of reflecting a too curated version of oneself online, recreating ‘perfect’ images with a realistic take (Instagram, 2024a). This highlights the social norm of being carefully presented and more posed on social media. A study in 2021 revealed that the more often an individual used social media, the less stable self-esteem they would have (Miljeteig & Von Soest, 2022). This can be linked to the consistent consumption of ‘perfect’ images online, affecting people’s relationships with their own bodies and selves. These feelings can also flow on to create feelings of envy or jealousy, as other people’s online identities appear to be more desirable than their own reality.
Comparison culture is rife on Instagram, as users can actively seek out specific profiles to browse their followers, posts, stories and more. The content found on Instagram profiles can contain strategically placed edited images boasting achievements and exciting moments (Miljeteig & Von Soest, 2022). Due to this, the platform is much more likely to be used for social comparison, as other people’s lives appear to be consistently positive and interesting. Importantly, when posting on social media, users keep their followers in mind as an imagined audience, guiding their behaviour and subsequent content publishing (Yao et al., 2024). Often one’s digital audience on social media consists of a person’s own social circle of friends and family, with small amounts of acquaintances and former connections mixed in (Chambers, 2013). Therefore, a curated online presence is created with this audience in mind, and content is shared to appear interesting to the user’s social circle, as a potentially subconscious bid to become personally involved in the culture of comparison online. According to Pouwels et al., positive comments from peers are highly important in the success and progression of friendships (2021). This can physically manifest through the comment function on Instagram feed posts, and the ability to react to stories as well. Responses to a UK study highlighted that almost all participants felt that higher amounts of likes and followers equaled better levels of social acceptance (Moreton & Greenfield, 2022). Another survey complemented these findings and found that 41% of Gen Z respondents found themselves comparing themselves to other users on Instagram (TCF, 2024). This illustrates the prevalence of comparison culture on Instagram, and that high counts of likes and followers on Instagram can be seen as an accomplishment among young people, and a way to build stronger friendships as they become more socially integrated in their desired circles.
Constant exposure to idealised images and lifestyles online can lead to feelings of inadequacy, affecting how young people behave online. 90% of young respondents in a UK survey said that they saw themselves negatively and felt unhappy, with a third of these people wanting to change aspects of their bodies (TCF, 2024). This shows the deep impact that social media can have on digital users, as they compare themselves to the unrealistic beauty standards seen through highly visual platforms. However, social comparison online can have some positive effects too. It has been argued that the envy created in comparison culture can be harmless, and that it can elicit motivation and positive outcomes (Meier & Schäfer, 2018). This is encouraging, as users can feel inspired by comparing themselves to the media they consume online, illustrating the complex nature of young people’s psyche.
As Instagram evolved and became a much more curated space, the professionalisation of profiles became commonplace. This changed some digital users’ motives on the platform, as the creation of ‘influencers’ and ‘content creators’ showed an evolution from personal profiles to identities based on marketing and business gain (Márquez et al., 2023). Social technology can facilitate a sense of belonging in certain groups or communities (Delanty, 2018), and as influencers gained traction and gained more followers, this created a community around them. Within this sense of community, para-social relationships can occur. These form when someone feels that they have a personal bond with another and feeling personal affection, regardless of not having an individualised relationship with them (Litvack, 2020). Through social media, this can manifest when a user consistently and regularly posts about their personal life online, giving a follower a sense of truly knowing the individual, which is commonly felt towards influencers and celebrities online. This imagined relationship can be problematic, as it is not reciprocated or based on true friendship or mutual personal affection. An example of a built community can be seen in Australian influencers and entrepreneurs, Lucy and Nikki, who refer to their devoted fans as ‘punters’. Their posts consistently garner supportive comments from their large following, which emulate the high level of familiarity and affection many people feel towards the duo (Instagram, 2024b). The platform’s facilitation of emotional connectivity can create a networked public, where personal communities are expressed online through public interactions. (Boyd, 2011; Chambers, 2013). This shows that the platform allows for the development of emotional connections (Elder, 2018), but these can also take form through para-social relationships that don’t emulate true friendship.
The ability for users to build relationships with others through their social media presence can impact the complex dynamic of relationships for young people. According to Elder, social interactions online can help people avoid some of the negative obstacles of physical interactions (2018). As an example, young people feel more comfortable sharing personal or intimate information with friends online, rather than in person (Pouwels et al., 2021). The social capacities of Instagram can stimulate and positively affect the closeness between young people as they continue to interact online. However in most friendships, the digital demonstration of friendship can occur when individuals are together or physically apart (Elder, 2018). Via Instagram, this can take place through direct messaging, commenting, or reacting to another user’s content remotely. In person this can be creating, sharing, and tagging another user in content while they are together, to share their relationship publicly. It is important to note that 40% of adolescents surveyed in the UK said that they felt that their socialisation online was potentially at the expense of their face-to-face contact (Pouwels et al., 2021). This can imply a feeling of conflict as young people struggle to balance the more complex foundations and maintenance of relationships that occur in space both offline and online. In person communication remains important for the growth of friendships, as the digital world cannot replicate the mental health and well-being benefits of people spending time with one another physically (Stieger et al., 2023). This shows that although digital media can have positive effects on adolescent relationships, it’s also important to understand that the landscape in which friendships are formed and continued is becoming a hybrid between the online and offline spheres.
Instagram continues to be a hugely influential and evolving social platform that plays a part in changing the ways that young people develop and conduct their friendships and relationships. The platform’s highly visual nature and affordances allow for meticulously curated self-presentation, comparison culture and para-social relationships. Each of these can have mixed psychological impacts on young people, affecting how friendships are created and maintained. As social networking continues to advance at pace, it is important that more research is done on this sociological topic to better understand the impact on young people’s relationships. The changes in dynamics of Gen Z’s digitised friendships are ongoing, as more people strive for meaningful relationships both online and offline.
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