Social Media and Sense of Self

My use of Instagram in sharing myself to others

How do I present a sense of self on my social media? When prompted with this question in class recently, I actually had to stop and think. Frankly, I’d say my own portrayal online is authentic, but I can easily admit it is altered. The person I put myself forward as on my main Instagram account is slightly skewed, and I don’t mean to say that I’m intentionally and exceedingly being dishonest, it’s just that I’m obviously going to post my best pictures and moments and choose not to share my worst. And I’d argue this says much more about our current social climate than it says about myself, because we’re all guilty of it.

Growing up, I actually didn’t often have much desire to post photos of myself, my interests or what I was up to on Instagram. I could see many of my peers doing so and I would occasionally partake, but it just never scratched an itch I had. When I reflect on this it’s actually kind of ironic, because I have always considered myself somebody who has a pretty nice life and is decent looking. I have some nice clothes and some nice photos, I go out a lot and am very social, these are things people closest to me would know, and I think that has always been enough for me. Later on in high school I did become very insecure about my physical appearance, there’s almost two years (late 2019 to mid 2021) where I didn’t post anything to my Instagram and took a few months off the platform completely. So when I came back to Instagram last year, I was surprised at the differences in my engagement and I’ve changed the type of content I put forward.

You can’t shy away from the fact that Instagram is now completely dominated by influencers and advertisements that are an obvious side effect of marketing which stems from western capitalism. Instagram has, essentially, been weaponized by corporations and industries as they have seen the benefits of a strong social media presence which leads more profit towards them. Around about 900 million users on Facebook and Instagram are unknowingly used as target groups for advertising and in 2019, at least 33% of stories posted were affiliated with a brand (Fucio, 2019). This shows the platform’s increase in business power, making money off user’s activity and behaviour.

My Instagram page (@joel_rainbow) as of August 2022

So, like I said, the content I share on my Instagram is a filtered, deliberate representation of the highlights of my life. I would not consider somebody who follows my account but doesn’t know me personally, somebody who knows me well. Selfie culture and the likes have certainly affected the way I perceive myself and the content I digest online, “The predominance of the selfie genre in relation to other memorialization practices shows that the selfie is an established vernacular practice on this platform. The platform vernacular of Instagram can be further understood and contextualised through broader trends in digital photography and social media use,” (Meese, Gibbs.. 2015).

The stories feature on Instagram is an affordance of the platform that keeps me coming back. I like that I can just show something simple and have it on my page for just 24 hours, and if I want to, highlight it to keep on my profile even longer. Examples of my story highlights:

I suppose my intended audience is just people who are in - or have been in - my life and choose to see what I’m up to every now and then. I also do a lot of it for myself nowadays, building up my own profile, perhaps for future employers or business opportunities as I get more into communications and fashion. I do however, want to strive towards being more authentic and open on my Instagram in future.

Reference List:

Fuciu, M 2019, ‘The Rise of Instagram – Evolution, statistics, advantages and disadvantages’, Revista Economica, vol. 71, no. 4, p. 21.

Meese, J, Gibbs, M… 2015 ‘Selfies at Funerals: Mourning and Presencing on Social Media Platforms’, University of Melbourne/International Journal of Communication 9

[Accessed via UOW Library]