INSTAGRAM AND SELFIE CULTURE.

WRITTEN BY ABBEY HARGREAVES

Instagram is a social media website and application in which users can share visual posts such as photos and

videos to others that they “follow”. These visual posts can range from selfies, to life events to pet photos and

more (Mattern 2016, p. 6). In 2016, there was over 400 million users active on Instagram (Mattern 2016, p.

4), with recent statistics now showing over 1 billion active users on the app (Constine 2018).

Instagram 2019, Instagram sign up/login process, viewed 6 September 2019, <https://www.instagram.com>

Originating in the United States, Instagram was co-founded in 2010 by Stanford University classmates,

Kevin Systrom and Mike Kriger. In 2009, Systrom designed his own app called ‘Burbn’— created with the

purpose of users being about to tell others where they are, play games and share pictures (Mattern 2016, p.

8). While designing the app, Systrom asked Kriger to join him to further build it, but after its launched

noticed that people enjoyed sharing photos taken on their phone (Mattern 2016, p. 8). This realisation lead to

the creation of Instagram which was launched on the 6th of October 2010.

A selfie can be commonly defined as “a photographic object [that] initiates the transmission of human

feeling in the form of a relationship” between two or more people (Senft, TM & Baym, NK 2015, p. 1589).

Selfies are a way of expressing and communicating ourselves (Tiidenberg 2018, p. 7). They can convey
gender, help others to understand us better, be a tool to “reclaim” our sexuality, and can showcase different

versions of ourselves to others online (Tiidenberg 2018, p. 7).

Addams Rosa, J & Kim, Y 2018, 15 Selfie Tips That Will Get You All the Likes, Seventeen, viewed 6 September 2019, <https://www.seventeen.com/

life/g747/tips-perfect-selfie/?slide=11>

The rise of selfies in society is often linked with the popularity of Instagram (Wagner, C, Aguirre, E, &

Sumner, E 2016, p. 1), as Instagram is a social media platform in which selfies can be posted onto and shared

with others. Instagram encourages selfies through hashtags such as #SelfieSunday in which people post

selfies every Sunday (Wagner, C, Aguirre, E, & Sumner, E 2016, p. 3). On Instagram, selfies can be

interacted with by either liking, achieving or commenting on a post.

However, when it comes to selfies there is a moral panic in society that surrounds them and their effect. A

contemporary debate that surrounds both Instagram and Selfies is this idea that selfies are viewed as “acts of

vanity or narcissism” (Senft, TM & Baym, NK 2015, p. 1590). Research conducted by Moon et al. (2016, p.

24) found that individuals higher in narcissism tended to be more active on Instagram, by posting heaps of

selfies and “self presented photos” and often updating their profile picture. People, usually women or queer

individuals, are heavy judged on social media for their selfies (Senft, TM & Baym, NK 2015, p. 1592). This

is because people who take selfies and post them regularly can be seen as self absorbed and vein.
Yet, one of the larger debates involving Instagram and Selfies is its link and effect on body image and self

esteem. Body image can be defined as the “perceptions and attitudes” that a person holds about “their own

bodies in relation to larger cultural expectations” (Wagner, C, Aguirre, E, & Sumner, E 2016, p. 2).

Body image and self esteem is linked to Instagram selfies as they are connected to expectations. Ideal body

images in Western society expects women to be “toned” and “thin” (Wagner, C, Aguirre, E, & Sumner, E

2016, p. 1). Although both men and women suffer from body image issues, it is women who are mostly

effected as they are more likely to be viewed as “physical and sexual objects” whose value in society is

weighed from their “bodily appearance” (Wagner, C, Aguirre, E, & Sumner, E 2016, p. 1).

Young women will regularly post selfies on social media sites like Instagram with the purpose of sharing

them with their “audience of followers” in attempt to seek likes and showcase their bodies (Vendemia, MA &

Deandrea, DC 2018, p. 118). Noted by Tiidenberg, people post selfies to become a so-called “master of

likes”— a person who receives multiple likes or comments on a selfie and thrives off the attention they

receive from their friends or followers (2016, pp. 3-4).

These body ideas are reinforced by celebrities who post selfies on Instagram and receive millions of likes for

their posts, pressuring and effecting how young females feel about themselves as they feel like they have to

achieve similar body ideals (Brown, Z & Tiggemann, M 2016, p. 37). An example of a celebrity that meets

Western society body image ideals is Kim Kardashian who fits into the “toned” and “thin” ideals.

kimkardashian 2019, Kim Kardashian Selfie, 3 September, viewed 6 September 2019, <https://www.instagram.com/p/B165PgegCia/>
Kardashian received over 1 million likes for this selfie, and some of the comments underneath the image

included “gorgeous”, “is perfect girl” and more— reinforcing society’s expectations and appreciation for the

ideal body type.

kimkardashian 2019, Kim Kardarshian Selfie Comment Page, 3 September, viewed 6 September 2019, < https://www.instagram.com/p/B165PgegCia/

>

Selfies are often edited with a recent experiment showing “retouched” images negatively affect womens

body image, especially among those high in “social comparison” (Vendemia, MA & Deandrea, DC 2018, p.

120). A study conducted by Charles Wagner, Ester Aguirre and Erin Summer showed that there was more

selfies taken than actually posted (2016, p. 6). Women won’t post their selfies on Instagram if it doesn’t

reach the societal expectations or is deemed worthy of posting.

Overall, there is an identified relationship between Instagram and Selfie Culture that can have contrasting

effects on an individual— from expressing their identity and self-love to negatively effecting their body

image.

WORD COUNT: 880

REFERENCES.

Brown, Z & Tiggemann, M 2016, ‘Attractive celebrity and peer images on Instagram: Effect on women's

mood and body image’, Body Image, vol. 19, pp. 37-43.

Constine, J 2018, ‘Instagram hits 1 billion monthly users, up from 800M in September’, TechCrunch, 21

June, viewed 6 September 2019, <https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/instagram-1-billion-users/>

Moon, JH, Lee, E, Lee, J, Choi, TR & Sung, Y 2016, ‘The role of narcissism in self-promotion on

Instagram’, Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 101, pp. 22-25.

Tiidenberg, K 2018, Selfies: Why We Love (And Hate) Them, Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley.

Senft, TM & Baym, NK 2015, 'What Does the Selfie Say? Investigating a Global Phenomenon.’,

International Journal of Communication, vol. 9, pp. 1588-1606.

Wagner, C, Aguirre, E & Sumner, E 2016, ‘The relationship between Instagram selfies and body image in

young adult women’, First Monday, vol. 21, no. 9, pp. 1-10.

Vendemia, MA & Deandrea, DC 2018, ‘The effects of viewing thin, sexualized selfies on Instagram:

Investigating the role of image source and awareness of photo editing practices’, Body Image, vol. 27, pp.

118-127.

OTHER NOTES.

Some images were found on Instagram and were screen-shotted. They have been referenced as either an

image or social media post.