Commodifying Mindfulness: The Relationship between Identity Performance and Entrepreneurship through the Lenses of Yoga on Instagram

(1)

Commodifying Mindfulness

The Relationship between Identity Performance and

Entrepreneurship through the Lenses of Yoga on Instagram

Annika Heinemeyer

Master Thesis

Master of Arts (MA) in New Media and Digital Culture

Supervisor: Tim Highfield

Second Reader: Jan Simons

June 28, 2019

(2)

2

Abstract

This thesis provides an insight into how the social media platform

Instagram is used by yoga entrepreneurs for self-promotion and

business pursuits. Set within frameworks of identity performance

online, digital entrepreneurship, Instagram’s development into a

business platform as well as the contemporary growing market with

yoga and mindfulness, this study aims to outline the posting behaviour

of yoga entrepreneurs on Instagram in relation to monetization

strategies. To do so, the most recent 20 posts by ten established yoga

Instagram entrepreneurs and their Instagram stories over a period of

three days were studied through a visual and textual content analysis.

The study concludes that yoga entrepreneurs use Instagram as a tool

for personalized and ‘authentic’ promotion, first and foremost by

presenting yoga as initial step to a desirable, healthy and ‘cool’ lifestyle,

which is seamlessly contextualized with the promotion of commercial

yoga products and services.

Keywords:

(3)

3

In closer examination of the contemporary Western media culture, Zen Buddhism scholar Jørn Borup describes a striking omnipresence of Buddhist images, especially in lifestyle and health centred contexts: “Buddha is cool and chic in the West, and as a popular brand has moved from temple to market” (41). Even though ancient Eastern Hindu and Buddhist practices and ideas such as yoga or meditation can be rooted back several thousands of years, recent evidence has shown renewed interest of the public in meditative activities, with the goal of becoming happier, healthier and more mindful (Sun et al. 378; Mathews et al.; Manns). The amount of people practicing yoga increased from 9.5% in 2012 to 14.3% in 2017, while at the same time the practice of meditation even increased more than threefold, from 4.1% to 14.2 (Manns). Equally, terms like ‘karma’ or ‘zen’ have become appealing signifiers of happiness and overall well-being (Borup 48). According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, dubbed the professor and “godfather of modern mindfulness” (Booth), mindfulness originally describes a “moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a specific way, that is, in the present moment, and as non-reactively, as non-judgmentally, and as openheartedly as possible” (1). Mindfulness has been described as a self-help tool for “spiritual self-development” (Borup 49) and guiding concept for people with the desire to slow down and to subvert pressures, stress and obligations attached to work and other social requests (Melissa Gregg; Raphael). Modern working conditions such as flexible contracts and working hours as well as constantly being tied to computers and smartphones has not only led to various mental and physical health problems but also the increased desire to reverse these impacts (Zambarakji). Paradoxically, mindfulness has been adapted to media contexts and can be accessed in various forms, through technologies such as meditation apps, sleeping trackers or other devices or technologies serving to quantify or improve people’s mindfulness. Likewise, with the publication of a whole range of articles and guideline books about how to dive into the Buddhist mindset easily - for example Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life or Buddhism: A Beginner’s Guide - ideas about mindfulness and enlightenment have become to be advertised as an easily adaptable mindset for the masses on a market where “spirituality is for sale” (Borup 41).

(6)

6

An article by the Guardian in 2015 argued that mindfulness has been recognized and used as a profitable business idea and commodity to be bought and sold on the free market, particularly driven by people who are becoming “professionally mindful” (Sherwood). Since the publication of this article, the market around health, mindfulness and wellness has not only developed remarkably, but has also shown up yoga as one of the most established and popular drives within this market (Manns; Mathews et al.). Leading yoga practitioners from India brought yoga into the Western world and shifted the focus from the traditional physical-spiritual connection to a more body-centred practice and thus, marketed the yoga lifestyle in association with modern ideas of wellness and beauty ideals (White 2; Mathews et al.; Jain 76). In that sense, critical voices describe this commodification of Eastern spirituality as cultural appropriation1_{in which yoga has been} reduced to a fetishization for beauty and physical fitness, especially for wealthy white women (Boll 31). This however does not seem to detract from the appeal yoga has nowadays and research by the Global Wellness Institute has shown that “all the yoga classes, meditation retreats, spas, aromatherapy oils, quartz crystals, juice cleanses, and other wellness-focused practices” have contributed to turning the global market with wellness into a USD$ 3.7 trillion industry in 2015 and even USD$ 4.2 trillion in 2017 (O’Leary and Velasco; Raphael). Consequently, countless yoga studios with lessons starting from US$15 as well as yoga-related magazines and clothing brands have sprouted from the ground. Gyms have adapted yoga into their programmes by naming it ‘Power Yoga’ and highlighting its impacts on physical fitness and appearance. Travel agencies contribute to the flourishing market with yoga and wellness by advertising yoga retreats in exotic environments. Yoga institutions and studios in India but also the rest of the world have specialized in offering ‘Yoga Teacher Trainings’ that certificate participants as professional teachers within about 21 days by the costs of average US$3000. That is to say, yoga has become a “pop culture phenomenon” within Western societies (Jain 20) and a fashionable lifestyle concept and image of a contemporary zeitgeist in which investments in one’s wellbeing and mindfulness are highly valued and ancient Eastern practices are sold as signifiers for a healthy, socially desirable and ‘cool’ lifestyle (Borup 41; White 1; Jain 3; Lewis 538; Raphael; Manns).

1_{Cultural appropriation is understood as the adoption and usage of a culture’s specific symbols,}

rituals, artefacts, genres or technologies by other cultures. While this process has been described as inescapable in terms of any form of cultural contacts, it usually refers to the the assimilation and exploitation of marginalized cults or is involved in the assimilation and exploitation of subordinate cultures in contrast to dominant cultures, mostly visible in East versus West discourses (Rogers 474).

(7)

7

1. 2. The Role of Social Media

In her work on the adaption of yoga to Western cultures, Birgid N. Boll has defined the presence of yoga brands and entrepreneurs on social media as a driving force on the global market with yoga and wellness (36). Yoga teachers share their classes on video platforms such as YouTube, write their own blogs or create Facebook groups to engage with a yoga-interested community. Popular examples are Mady Morrison, who became one of the most well-known in Germany through her social media appearance and created the Facebook group #yogamitmady - Yoga Community with more than 10 thousand members or Adriene Mishler, a 33-year-old yogi from the US who has more than 4 million subscribers to her YouTube channel Yoga with Adriene. Mishler’s annual earning through her online yoga business is estimated to be more than USD$360,000 solely through sponsorship deals with companies like Adidas (Bramley). Consequently, these examples illustrate once again what a profitable phenomenon yoga is on the general market and further explains striking individual aspirations to establish yoga as a business through social media and especially through the photo-sharing platform Instagram.

Shortly after its launch in October 2010, Instagram became one of the most popular social media platforms, particularly through allowing users in contrast to more structured social media sites such as Facebook to communicate predominantly through images which they can easily make “visually interesting and appealing” (Manovich 40) through filters and in-app editing options (Manovich 11; Boll 37; DeMers). According to Instagram’s co-founder Kevin Systrom the original purpose of Instagram was to create a form of a visual diary, a space where users can capture and share immediate impressions and moments of everyday life: “We do not offer the ability to upload from the web as Instagram is about producing photos on the go, in the real world, in realtime.” (Manovich 12). Instagram is potentially open for everyone, from professional content producers, brands, celebrities and ordinary users alike and aims to provide a space for people where they can “connect with their interests and passions” ("About Us Instagram"). In that sense, Boll explains that Instagram became not only popular for the basic documentation of one’s individual yoga journey and progress, but also a place for a world-wide yoga community to emerge and has led to the formation of multiple yoga accounts with up to at least one hundred thousand followers (41). As an illustration, the hashtag ‘#yoga’ on Instagram reveals more than 68 million tagged posts up to June 2019. Related hashtags are for example ‘#yogi’ (12.4m posts), ‘#yogachallenge” (7m posts) or “#yogainspiration” (8.2m posts) that are used dominantly by people sharing yoga content on Instagram and thus contribute to the high popularity and media presence of yoga.

After Instagram was bought by Facebook in 2012, features were added to the platform that turned it into a powerful marketing and advertising tool used by business holders, celebrities and private users alike. Not only got businesses the opportunity to connect

(8)

8

Instagram posts directly with external websites and social networks, but also to “have a dialog with their customers” (Manovich 134). Instagram’s marketing possibilities are especially based on the mechanism to strategically merge sensations of “intimacy, access and authenticity with promotion and branding” (Toffoletti and Thorpe 301). Studies on the Instagram performances of fashion bloggers (Duffy and Hund), celebrities (Marwick and boyd) or athletes (Toffoletti and Thorpe) have shown that the way users present themselves on Instagram is driven by feedback and reputation they get by other users, which is measured through metrics as for example likes and follower counts. The higher the metrics, the higher the influence and thus, their potential financial successful. This way, Instagram makes it possible for people to gain attention and popularity without having to be featured through traditional mass media, and allows potentially every topic to thrive and enables new entrepreneurial opportunities for the broad mass of its users (Boll 39). Consequently, Instagram proves to be an ideal marketing opportunity for yoga entrepreneurs to build up brands and businesses, to make them accessible for a large customer base and thus, to contribute to the striking popularity of yoga-related products and services experience on the global wellness market.

1. 3. Research Question

Having discussed the emerging role of mindfulness and wellness today, a certain contradiction remains to be striking: If mindfulness means to subvert influences of the fast-paced work cultures and norms, how is it commodified and promoted through social media? Apart from considering notions about cultural appropriation of yoga in Western social media contexts, this argumentation indicates specific identity performances yoga entrepreneurs perform on Instagram that are profit-oriented while maintaining the spiritual and mindful associations of yoga. As previously discussed, the image of yoga in the contemporary media culture is dominantly based on associations with desirable ideas about lifestyle and physical appearance and has “become a commodity to be bought and sold as a mode of constructing identity” (Boll 30). This study will examine strategies behind this phenomenon more closely and will explain how yoga is specifically commodified through Instagram, how yoga entrepreneurs present themselves on Instagram and where the relationship between identity performance on Instagram and successful entrepreneurship lies. After having been aware of yoga for several years, I noticed that yoga has become more and more present, not only on Instagram also in the general society. Taken that the rise of wellness professionals or “spiritual entrepreneurs” has found to be a constantly growing and - perhaps increasingly - normalized phenomenon on social media (Gregory 211), the overarching question of this research is: How do yoga entrepreneurs perform their identity on Instagram and how does this interrelate with successful entrepreneurship? More

(9)

9

precisely, what kind of visual and textual content is shared on the platform specifically and how is Instagram used for entrepreneurial pursuits?

Previous studies have focussed extensively on the medial representation of yoga in contemporary Western societies, as for example regarding its shift from an once male-dominated practice to an almost exclusively female one (Boll 27) and its exclusively presentation through beauty ideals (Cowans). The contribution of this study will be to take the impacts social media had on modern work cultures into consideration. Through the lenses of yoga, this research will investigate on how Instagram can be utilized for digital entrepreneurship. Furthermore, while previous research has been done on identity performance based on Instagram’s image feed, the more recent feature Instagram stories that has only been added to Instagram in 2016 has not been researched as extensively yet. Consequently, this research is an ideal opportunity to investigate on how stories are used for self-presentation and entrepreneurial purposes - both for communication and self-presentation as well as in contrast to Instagram’s original image feed.

1. 4. Research Structure

In order to investigate into the identity performance of yoga entrepreneurs on Instagram, this research is based on a theoretical framework consisting of relevant theoretical concepts regarding identity performance. Therefore, I will outline how identity performance has been studied for self-presentation and identity performance in everyday life situations, predominantly based on theories by Erving Goffman (1959) and Anthony Giddens (1991). The key argument of Goffman’s theory is that people can manage and navigate the impressions they have on other people in everyday life situations. This concept has been widely applied to social media contexts and based on that I will outline more specifically how users present themselves on Instagram. By reflecting on yoga as an alternative lifestyle I will discuss that especially the presentation of lifestyle choices functions as main identifier for one’s online identity. Following this, the next part of my theoretical framework will address how Instagram has emerged as an increasing platform for marketing and business opportunities. To connect the theoretical foundation of this study with the aforementioned research interest, Instagram’s affordances and possibilities for identity performance and entrepreneurship will be addressed in order to specify Instagram as an object of study. Therefore, the final part of the theoretical framework will discuss the role of identity performance on Instagram for self-promotion and self-branding pursuits and in which ways these performances facilitate digital entrepreneurship.

(10)

10

Based on that, this research sets out to explore how Instagram is used by yoga entrepreneurs for monetization pursuits, first and foremost by analysing the shared content by ten yoga entrepreneur accounts and the way they use Instagram’s affordances for self-presentation and self-promotion. Therefore, methods for a comprehensive content analysis on posts and stories will be set up. Finally, the last two chapters of this research portray and discuss the outcomes of the analysis and their meanings in relation to the research questions and draw a conclusion to provide a base for potential further studies.

(11)

11

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

To set up the theoretical framework for this study I discuss how theories on identity performance have been adapted to new media contexts. This will show that in offline and online environments alike, individual identity performances are driven by ‘selective self-presentations’, particularly in the presentation of lifestyle and social ideals. In a second step, I examine how identity performances determine popularity and monetization on Instagram. Therefore, I discuss how self-branding strategies can be employed for influencer marketing and digital entrepreneurship or, in this specific case, yoga entrepreneurship on Instagram.

2.1. Performing Identity

Identity is commonly defined as “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual” (Merriam-Webster “Identity”). However, based on implementations by gender scholar and philosopher Judith Butler, instead of being a static, one’s identity is rather performatively constituted and might be different depending on the way people decide to present themselves to others in different social contexts and conditions (21). Presenting predominantly idealized impressions of oneself has found to be a ubiquitous practice, especially on social media (Deeb-Swihart et al. 42). Consequently, a comprehensive understanding of identity performance in online as well as in offline environments provides a foundation to investigate further on entrepreneurship on Instagram.

2.1.1. Impression Management

One of the earliest and mostly referenced work on identity is The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by the Canadian sociologist Erving Goffman published in 1959. Self-presentation according to Goffman basically describes how individuals perform and negotiate their identities and how they present themselves to others in a social setting with focus on how they want to be perceived by others (10). In that sense, a performance includes all the activities by one person serving to influence their perception by others (Goffman 8). Consequently, with “impression management”, Goffman refers to a performance of self that is achieved by giving presentational cues about one’s identity (Goffman 14). Stating that generally in everyday life, first impressions are predominantly goal-driven, Goffman implements that people tend to

(12)

12

consider their performances for self-presentation carefully, balancing out individual goals and the self that they perceive the audience to desire (Goffman 5; Reichard Smith and Sanderson 343). With the dramaturgical metaphors of ‘front stage’ and ‘back stage’ performances, Goffman describes that an overall impression of the self emerges through negotiating one’s performances between these two positions. While front stage performances describe a person’s conscious performances in front of an audience (Goffman 13), back stage performances are those characteristics and actions that people commonly want to remain hidden and not judged by the audience (Goffman 69).

As a core aspect of his theory Goffman states that a person’s presentation of self consists of what they explicitly and deliberately give and give off, the former meaning the cues an individual actively communicates and gives to the audience, while the latter refers to cues that tend to be perceived by the audience unintendedly (Goffman 113; boyd 168; Bullingham and Vasconcelos 101). Eventually, the theoretical approach of impression management describing people's intention to present idealized presentation of themselves to an audience, will play an important role in the further course of this study.

2.1.2. Selective-Self Presentation

Scholars relying on Goffman’s theory of impression management indicate particularly that photography has become essential for self-presentation and emerged to be an important tool to communicate with peers (Van Dijck “Digital Photography” 60; Djafarova and Trofimenko 3). While Susan Sontag states that “what photography supplies is not only a record of the past but a new way of dealing with the present” (130), José van Dijck builds on this by arguing that photography experienced a shift from being an instrument for sharing memories to being an instrument for communication and for capturing and sharing present moments and experiences immediately (“Digital Photography” 63). While photography was initially considered as a practice and hobby preserved for wealthy people and professionals, it was made available among all classes with the development of technology (Mirzoeff 72). In line with Goffman’s implementations on self-presentation in everyday face-to-face situations, photographs became simultaneously the stage and documentation of one’s identity with the camera function as tool for affirmation (Nir 17). Taken that smartphones have become ubiquitous in people's everyday life, the integration of a camera into these devices have placed photography to a new level of attention and shifted the practice of photography from professions or hobbies to insertions of everyday lives and experiences (van Dijck “Digital Photography” 65). Consequently, digital photography and smartphones with a camera function allows people more control over their self-presentation by facilitating extensive possibilities for

(13)

13

selection and idealization processes, initially simply by providing extended storage spaces and capturing possibilities (Leaver et al. 2; Caldeira 143).

With the general digitization of communication, sharing photographs has become the most efficient way to express and communicate oneself which established sharing images online as natural default mechanism on social media sites (van Dijck 68). In that sense, Katrin Tiidenberg and Edgar Gomez Cruz argue that regarding the dominance of online interaction, images have become a crucial determiner of how we make sense of everyday practices and experiences and “shape our world” (79). By referring to identity performance and impression management, scholars ascribe the advent of social media extensive capabilities to manage and control their identity performances (Goffman; Marom 12; Reichard Smith and Sanderson 344). Just like in offline environments, similar strategies to present idealized images of the self could be observed in the ways in which individuals share images of themselves on social media (Djafarova and Trofimenko 2; Baker and Walsh 4555; Caldeira 155).

According to the social philosopher Pierre Bourdieu, photographs have always been marketed by aesthetic value, given that in its origins, photography was dominantly used as a tool to portray and celebrate the good aspects of life (qtd. in Verdina 12). Consequently, image-based social networking sites offer users a whole range of possibilities for idealized and selective self-presentations, especially regarding to an attractive presentation of the body (Tiggemann and Zaccardo 1010). Based on that, Sophie P. Caldeira argues that users consciously tend to create images that aim to be conform with common aesthetic ideals in order to get more likes and appraisal (155). In a similar vein, Kirsty Young points out that all features and affordances provided by social media platforms including imageries, texts and audio serve users to perform their identities based on purposefully selected intentions (3). These implication match Joseph B. Walther’s theory of a “selective self-presentation”, describing users’ intention to present themselves in the best light possible which sheds light on their motivation for particular posting performances on social media (Walther 2540). Exhaustive research on self-presentation and identity performances on social media has found that identity performances are to a great extent driven by feelings of social acceptance and affiliation and that users tend to alter their performances depending on how they intend to be received by others and the feedback they desire to get (Marwick and boyd “I Tweet Honestly, I Tweet Passionately” 124; boyd 119; Young 4; Farquhar 468). For example, Baker and Walsh described that users producing healthy eating related content on Instagram, predominantly publish pictures of their bodies together with compatible hashtags, being aware that these images are likely to get more measurable approval and reputation (4555-4559). Similarly, Young differentiates between a “real” and an “ideal” self, in which the ideal self would be one’s self-presentation in the best light possible (4).

(14)

14

Based on Goffman’s idea of front- and back stage performances, Alice Marwick and danah boyd describe that users adjust their identity performances to an “imagined audience” (“I Tweet Honestly, I Tweet Passionately” 115). While unmediated environments presuppose the immediate presence of individuals through spatial and temporal constraints, the audience on social media is less specific and theoretically limitless (boyd 121; Marwick and boyd “I Tweet Honestly, I Tweet Passionately” 115). By taking cues from the respective social media environment, users tend to conceptualize their audience and adjust components comprising one’s online identity, such as style or language (Marwick and boyd “I Tweet Honestly, I Tweet Passionately” 115). Regarding the commodification of yoga in Western cultures, Jain has found that yoga entrepreneurs constantly construct brands in correlation to consumer desires and needs (79). Consequently, this research will investigate not only on how yoga entrepreneurs present themselves on Instagram, but also on how this responds to follower engagement and community exchange.

2.1.3. Identity Performance through Lifestyle Choices

The implementations outlined so far go in line with the work of sociologist Anthony Giddens, who investigated on the changed nature of identity from the traditional societies up to what he describes as “post traditional” or “late modern” societies (Giddens; Buckingham 9). Building up on the earlier theory by Goffman, Giddens argues that a person’s appearance of self is not predominantly dependent on external influences and relies on an self-presentation on the front stage based on social norms and conventions, but more on people’s own choices and actions performed in everyday life (Giddens 6). One of the key aspects of Giddens’ theory therefore lies on the increased importance of individualism. This led to what Giddens describes as “reflexive project of the self” meaning that identities are in general more fluid and that individuals are able to constantly make decisions about their identity performances in order to create biographical narratives eventually building up and sustaining consistent identities (Giddens 75). By this, one’s outplayed identity can be flexible, changed and altered over time but still be portrayed as a coherent image to others (Giddens 76; Buckingham 9).

One main aspect of Giddens’ implementations focuses on how individuals can perform and narrate their identities based on what he calls “lifestyle choices” meaning that people are not what they are but what they make out of themselves (Giddens 75). Speaking about lifestyle, Giddens does not refer to a concept associated with economical consumerism but to a concept consisting of a specific set of routine practices making up the material of identity which is an inevitable and ubiquitous aspect of late modernity. More precisely, all the small lifestyle decisions individuals have to make each day from what to eat to what to wear and the

(15)

15

performance of making and remaking construct biographical narratives and thus, self-identities (Giddens 81-82). Highlighting the aspect of choice within the variety of lifestyle options in modern times, Giddens indicate however that rather than taking a choice out of a purely free will, all individuals necessarily perform lifestyle choices in order to create and their identities and senses of selves (Giddens 81).

Regarding social media, several studies have shown that in order to portray desirable self-images promising positive feedback, users must constantly portray “desirable lifestyles and hegemonic beauty ideals” (Tiidenberg and Baym 3). In line with for example studies on women’s display of pregnancy (Tiidenberg and Baym), clean-eating (Baker and Walsh) or “fitspiration” (Tiggemann and Zaccardo) on social media, the role of performing lifestyle choices on platforms like Instagram serves on the one hand as a powerful tool to perform one’s online identity and on the other hand to situate one’s narrative within various trends and movements within digital networks and to actively include oneself with a community of like-minded individuals (Baker and Walsh 4565; Caldeira 155). Consequently, identity is to a large extent achieved through consumption of material goods or services connected with lifestyle choices (Giddens 2001 qtd. in Dittmar 12). In the case of the commodification of yoga, Jain has found that contemporary yoga entrepreneurs market yoga detached from its original principles, but in connection with other consumable and easier accessible lifestyle components ranging from outplaying diet choices such as advertising clothing brands or wellness products. Through that, they position and market yoga within wider fitness and health related market discourses (78).

(16)

16

2.2. Studying Instagram

Based on the mechanisms of imageries and social media for self-presentation discussed so far, Instagram has been described as an “increasingly popular platform for self-presentation online” (Baker and Walsh 4553). In the following part of the theoretical framework, the concept of affordances will be taken into consideration to examine how Instagram has evolved from an exclusive social media platform to a business platform. Based on that, l discuss how Instagram’s platform affordances enable specific identity performances and determine the kind of content shared on the platform.

2.2.1. Mediating the Self on Instagram

Generally speaking, social networking sites revolve around individual users and their interaction with the site in means of sharing content about themselves (Bakhshi et al. 966). In that sense, Instagram provides users extensive possibilities for self-presentation as they can literally “write themselves into being” (boyd 121) by setting up online profiles and sharing selected personal information (Khamis et al. 196; Caldeira 142).

The theory of affordances basically describes a construct of possible actions in an environment (Gibson 127). This concept has been adapted to different contexts, as for example to design studies (Norman) or the connection of technology and social research (Garvern; Wellman et al.). This research will refer to the concept of affordances by analysing what media technologies or objects offer, provide or permit the user to do, or more precisely, which specific preconditions Instagram provides for specific user behaviours and actions (Bucher and Helmond 3; Gibson 127). Consequently, by using the available knowledge of users, features of interfaces and platforms can be designed and adjusted accordingly and be built into devices or technologies to create normative ways of engaging with a platform (Stanfill 1060). On this basis, the basic steps to create an online identity on Instagram lies in choosing a username, setting up a profile picture and potentially a short description about oneself, a ‘bio’, at the very top of the profile. Additionally, this space allows users to place direct links to other sources that potentially complement their online identity, as for example personal blogs or social media platforms.

While setting up a profile counts as initial step for identity performance, sharing content takes up the process of performing one’s online identity (Caldeira 143). Even if written captions can be used to contextualize images, the visual culture remains to be the most significant platform-specific feature and more powerful for self-presentation (Caldeira 141; Carah and

(17)

17

Shaul 3). By adding hashtags to their posts, users can influence the visibility of their images. If users search for example for the hashtag ‘#yoga’ on Instagram they get portrayed all images labelled with the hashtag (Baker and Walsh 6). Photographs of users or ‘selfies’ -pictures taken by oneself of oneself- can function as a two-sided way for identity performance. While visual strategies for aesthetic presentation, for example signalling attractiveness through revealing outfits or making use of Instagram’s in-app editing options discussed earlier, function as a way for seeking and ensuring attention and visibility, this “aesthetic appeal” can be further contextualized with personal views and contents in respective captions (Leaver et al.).

Furthermore, besides performing identity through sharing images of themselves, users may decide to perform their identity based on what has been previously described as ‘lifestyle choices’, including images of locations or material objects, the consumption of services or commodities and, generally speaking, every day and trivial practices and decisions (Caldeira 155). In that sense, particularly the presentation of desirable scenes such as beaches and travelling settings has become a widely used practice on Instagram to glorify a particular lifestyle and to portray desirable and “beautiful lives” (Leaver et al.).

Whether or not one’s performance on Instagram achieves the desired effects however depends on the “feedback mechanism” built onto the platform which shows itself in the form of likes and comments. While receiving a like or positive comment serves as “a quick validation”, negative feedback or the absence of it indicates disapproval (Caldeira 153). Consequently, this feedback mechanism allows users to adjust their identity performances and actively influence the impressions they want to convey. The extent of all the interactions and feedback possibilities on Instagram however depends on if one’s account is set to ‘public’ or ‘private’. While technically anyone can get access to and give feedback on posts by public accounts, the account settings of private limits an account’s content to approved followers. Even though Instagram is public by default, these settings allows users to some extent to control and influence their online presentation on Instagram (Caldeira 155).

According to Tarleton Gillespie most platforms are geared towards being profitable (348). Agreeing with that, Tania Bucher and Anne Helmond argue that the affordances of most platforms do not only relate to end-users and their activities but also to third parties such as developers who extend the affordances offered by the platform, and advertisers who monetize platform activities (19). Regarding the normative nature designed on social media platforms, the affordance approach can help to understand why, when and how social media application change, for example in branding practices and can therefore be used to investigate Instagram’s possibilities for monetization and entrepreneurship (Treem and Leonardi 147). This is particularly interesting under the premise that the success of Instagram discussed in the introduction of this thesis has found to rely predominantly on the fact that the features of the platform have been largely expanded and adjusted over the years which eventually led up

(18)

18

to Instagram’s transformation into a business platform (DeMers; Leaver et al.; Manovich 17; See Ch. 1.2).

First and foremost, the functionality of hashtags as one of Instagram’s strongest features has been extended from merely making content visible and categorizable within the platform by introducing the ‘explore feed’ in 2012 (Constine “Instagram’s New Explore”). Since then, hashtags got predominantly repurposed to influence and measure hashtag reach and thus, overall entrepreneurial success (Carah and Shaul 73). Using Instagram for business purposes has been further increased by allowing people to connect their account with other social media platforms and networks and by facilitating advertising through the introduction of the ‘sponsored post tag’ (Manovich 134). By 2013, Instagram provided a video function, which allows users at the beginning to produce 15 second videos with filters which was later extended to 60 seconds (Strange; Constine “Instagram Launches Stories”). This function has been extended throughout the years, not least through the introduction of IGTV in 2018, an independent app where users can publish up to one hour long full screen videos. Even though IGTV is a standalone app, videos can be accessed and shared within the normal Instagram app at the same time (Systrom). Since 2017, Instagram allows users to post multiple images or videos within one post instead of being limited to one (Leaver et al. 9). According to Taylor Lorenz, Instagram has changed in many ways since its launch and has shifted from being a platform for merely sharing selected and filtered images to being “a messy, tangled social network where photos fight with stories, IGTV, GIFs and video clips for attention” (Lorenz). In that sense, the ‘Instagram story’ feature introduced in 2016 which allows users to post 24 hour-lasting images and videos that are portrayed openly at the very top of one’s home feed has been one of the far-reaching innovations on the platform (“New Ways to Interact on Instagram”). By being vertical by default Instagram stories do not only portray a format opposed to usual posts, but also offers a range of new possibilities for user engagement, as for example the possibility to answer directly to these stories, either with (emotion-)stickers or comments. With favouring immediate “in the moment” experiences, stories have broken with previous sensations of highly selected content shared on Instagram (Lorenz; Leaver et al.). In contrast to posts, Instagram stories allow users new aesthetic possibilities by editing pictures directly with text or similar components such as emojis and GIFs, but also with features such as polls, countdowns or surveys. Besides that, they can conduct approval/response sliders through featuring the heart-eyes emoji, share music, tag people and locations and additional information as temperature or moods. Story filters, such as ‘boomerang’ and ‘superzooms’ as well as playful elements and animations such as dog ears or flower crowns, allow not only more playful or fun representations instead of featuring predominately aesthetic ones, but also allows users to direct the focus of their story and thus, the viewers’ sensations (Leaver et al.). For verified users, Instagram provides the possibility

(19)

19

to add a ‘swipe up’ function to their stories, which is located at the bottom of the screen and directs users to chosen websites or blogs (Instagram).To enhance sensations of immediate and intimate presentations, users can record ‘live-videos’ through which they can interact with their followers in real time, who can react to the stories directly through a question sticker tag (Leaver et al.; Instagram). Beyond that, users may choose to share stories as ‘highlights’ so that it gets archived in a separate field above one’s image feed and can be approached at any time until the user deletes it (“New Ways to Interact on Instagram”).

What is striking here is that, stories provide extensive possibilities for what Marwick has described as “selective posting” meaning that users carefully consider the frequency and amount of posting and post as “posting several times in a row is disfavored” and might “over-saturate” their followers (“Instafame” 143). Instagram stories generally encourage users to share more content on Instagram, including “every little thing that happened in a day” (Leaver et al.) without having the feeling of spamming or “over-posting” (Constine; Instagram). In addition to contrasted aesthetic realizations of stories and posts, Leaver et al. argue that “stories become a way of posting content that was shareworthy but not perhaps deserving of permanence on the profile”. Given the relative newness of the story function, this assumption might be confirmed when investigating the identity performances of yoga entrepreneurs but could also show up potential differences.

2.2.2. Instagram’s Aesthetics in the Change of Time

Following Brian McNely, Instagram’s basic platform infrastructure provides similar affordances to other popular social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, including a reverse chronological timeline, asymmetric follower relationships and the possibility for express reputation through liking and commenting features (McNely). However, Manovich has indicated significant differences of Instagram compared to other platforms: “Twitter is for news and links exchange, Facebook is for social communication, and Flickr is for image archiving, Instagram is for aesthetic visual communication (41). As aforementioned, Instagram’s filter and editing options allow for highly selective self-presentations. With a view on these features, Leaver et al. describe the development of certain aesthetic standards and styles emerged on Instagram as well as a general aesthetic of everyday life and situations: “The visual stakes of any image can be heightened by strategic filter use, transforming the mundane into a more dramatic or emotional scene” (12). Initially, the newness of Instagram’s filters was widely perceived like a default action before posting and resulted in an exhaustive use of retro- and vintage filter. With the development of the platform from solely being a social networking site

(20)

20

up to be a professional commercial platform for brands and professional content producer however, Leaver et al. argue that the initial exhaustive usage of filters has been replaced by more professional use of editing options (12). This, according to Lorenz, resulted in a specific “carefully staged, color-corrected, glossy-looking” style of Instagram, particularly visible in ubiquitous, perfectly arranged and edited images of avocado toast, beaches and coffee cups that are most exemplary for the aforementioned implementations and particularly disseminated through Instagram influencers (Lorenz). However, Lorenz further indicates that in line with Instagram’s general ephemerality and as “every trend has a shelf life”, a new trend emerged on Instagram over the last year targeting to present authenticity and accessibility over apparent aesthetic, which is often referred to as “Instagram vs. reality” (Lorenz). Within this movement, users increasingly post apparent unstaged and unflattering pictures along with long captions thematizing emotional or personal topics such as mental illness, which is not uncommonly used as a new marketing strategy by amplifying perceptions of authenticity and thus, credibility into Instagram influencers and brands (Lorenz).

Given that Instagram’s platform is constantly concerned with refreshing feeds and providing user with new image flows, users aiming to increase one’s visibility constantly must perform particular actions and behaviours on Instagram. In their study on Instagram’s branding culture, Carah and Shaul have emphasized that the ephemeral nature of the platform significantly encourages attention seeking performances that are thus, “persistently promotional in character” (72). In a similar vein, previous studies on the presentation of yoga on Instagram highlight the platform’s possibilities for popular yoga Instagrammers to emerge, predominantly by constructing their identities towards aggregating maximal follower bases (Boll 39). By evaluating aforementioned theories on exclusively idealized self-presentation on social media (Carah and Shaul; Cowans) and more recent studies on Instagram’s changed aesthetics (Manovich; Lorenz) as well as considering Instagram stories as more recently introduced and less extensively studied platform feature (Leaver et al), this study will investigate on how these more recent features have affected identity performances and the way content is shared on Instagram. Consequently, in addition to examine on how yoga entrepreneurs perform their identity on Instagram, this study will connect those identity performances with entrepreneurial and monetization pursuits on a growing marketplace.

(21)

21

2.3.” The Brand called You”:

Digital Entrepreneurship on Instagram

The previous part of the theoretical framework has discussed Instagram’s development from a basic social media platform into a business platform and the impacts respective changes of the platform had on the ways Instagram is used for identity performance. The following section bridges the gap between identity performance and digital entrepreneurship by examining self-branding and marketing strategies and performances on Instagram. More precisely, I discuss how these performances can be employed for digital entrepreneurship on Instagram.

2.3.1. Influencer Marketing

Instagram brought up not only new forms for online self-presentation through its specific visual culture discussed earlier, but also a new type of user, publicly known as “influencers” describing commonly those users with particularly many followers on social media (Djafarova and Trofimenko 4). Following Gandini, to “influence online” describes an individual’s ability to affect other people in their behaviour, acting and thinking through social media (86). The term influencer emerged from the phenomenon of “lifestyle bloggers” who built up their career by constructing “micro-celebrity personas” and harness their medial presence and blogging activities to promote their own businesses such as for example web shops (Abidin 3). In contrast to celebrities in traditional mass media whose popularity is widely portrayed, influencers are commonly “famous to a niche group of people” (Marwick “Status Update” 114).

In previous studies, scholars have described specific identity performances amongst influencers, in means of attracting and maintaining followers as well as in the way they use their influence for commercial pursuits (Abidin; Marwick “Instafame”; Djafarova and Trofimenko; Banet-Weiser; Erkan; Carah and Shaul). First and foremost, Instagram allowed the influencer phenomenon to emerge by allowing users to actively accumulate followers without requiring following back in return (Abidin 7; Marwick “Instafame” 137). This system resembles the phenomenon called ‘para-social relationships’ which describes the illusion of real, face-to-face friendships created for people, for example when watching television shows or consuming music (Marwick “Instafame” 139). Through the advent of social media this phenomenon has taken new dimensions and shifted from evoking “para-social” feelings to evoking “potentially social” feelings through enabling new forms of social and emotional connections (Marwick “Instafame” 139; Baym 44). These connections unfold themselves predominantly through the opportunity to connect with people detached from spatial and temporal constraints (Baym 1). Within these predominantly one-sided relationships, the influential accounts make their lives accessible to their followers as a whole community without

(22)

22

taking the individual user into consideration, while the followers in turn respond to influencer accounts “as if he or she were a personal acquaintance” (Marwick 139). Previous research on the relationships between popular beauty YouTubers and their audience for example has shown that the intimate setting of the platform creates feelings of trustworthiness, closeness and friendship (Rasmussen 280). Consequently, evoked feelings of intimacy and identification constitute the main characteristic of influencers and micro celebrities in comparison to traditional celebrity media figures (Rasmussen 283; Djafarova and Trofimenko 3; Khamis et al. 7).

Beyond that, social media enables people to ascribe themselves to online communities, which forms a significant part of one’s online identity (Baym 38). By actively engaging in a community on social media, one automatically gives off identity cues by outplaying lifestyle choices, which has been described as a component of building up one’s online identity earlier in this thesis (Baym; See Ch. 2.1.3.). On Instagram, hashtag-communities present the most dominant form of community that allows people to identify with a particular interest, such as fitness (Tiggemann and Zaccardo; Baker and Walsh), eating disorders (Tiggemann et al.) or sexual identity (Herrera). In cases of Instagram influencers, a sense of community is predominantly based on content and actions shared by the respective influencer (Seargeant and Tagg 9). Consequently, in the case of yoga entrepreneurs on Instagram, users interested in related values and practices would be more likely to engage in online communities maintained by those influential accounts that in return perform their online identity based on maintaining and enhancing their community, seeing them as potential consumers.

As already briefly mentioned, the more followers an individual has in general, the greater is their perceived influence on social discourses (Djafarova and Trofimenko 2; Marwick “Status Update” 96). Social media platforms do not only provide a space for sharing textual and visual content about one’s personal life and to mobilize and build up online communities, but also a space for engaging in commercial practices that has been widely taken advantage from by brands using influencers as new advertisement intermediary through strategic product placements or electronic word-mouth advertising on a greater scale by documenting personal experiences and recommendations (Rasmussen 280; Abidin 86; See also Toffoletti and Thorpe 15; Manovich 112). With this practice, understood as “influencer marketing”, those who receive larger amount of attention and influence, can assimilate “authentic personal brands” that can be employed by companies and brands to reach consumers (Hearn and Schoenhoff 194).

Influencer marketing became a popular marketing strategy for advertisers as influencers are more relatable to consumers than traditional advertisements. More precisely, influencers can function as embodied presentation of the brand and assimilate trust into the

(23)

23

goods they advertise, but also evoke that followers get more attached to the influencer, than to the goods they advertise themselves (Dittmar 12; Abidin and Thompson 468). The mechanism behind this marketing strategy is: If a specific public figure or stereotype is associated with a brand, consumers tend to identify more with the respective brands in means of becoming like this desired stereotype or influencer.

Jennifer M. Whitmer argues that regarding modern market conditions, the cultural value of a brand became more about their identity than their utility. Consequently, influencer marketing is not only about promoting brands, but about conveying ideals of wellbeing, happiness and beauty, or, has Dittmar describes it, about “communicating lifestyle and identity constructions” (12). As influencer marketing emerged to present paid-off business opportunities, attaining the status as influencer became a highly existent feature of social media use amongst users (Marwick “Status Update” 5; Van Dijk “You have one identity” 203). Therefore, influencers engage in self-branding practices, meaning they strategically adjust their online appearance and identity performance to build up personal brands (Marwick “Instafame”138).

2.3.2. Self-Branding

One of the earliest notions on self-branding was articulated by Tom Peters in the publication The Brand called You for Fast Company in 1997 invoking to create a unique and dynamic brand in order to be outstanding at the labour market (Peters; Khamis et. al 192). In line with that, Wee and Brooks define that in self-branding practices “the actor is expected to present a self that is constantly working on itself, to better itself and its own relationships with others, all the while demonstrating that its behaviours are reflections of an authentically unique personality” (56). Similarly, Marwick defines self-branding as a form of self-presentation relying on perceiving oneself as a consumer product and selling this image as a product to others (166). Self-branding has been discussed predominately in social media as well as in marketing contexts. For marketing, self-branding is according to Gandini “a device for self-promotion for the pursuit of self-realization in a context that reifies entrepreneurialism as the main ideological stance” (124). In social media environments, self-branding practices describe investments in social relationships and online performances promising a potential for fame and celebrity through attention and reputation (Gandini 124; Khamis et. al 196). These practices are not only rewarded with personal attention affirmation by the social media audiences, but also with economic or social benefits (Khamis et. al 196). By combining social media use with entrepreneurial pursuits, social media users are potentially able to monetize and commodify their identity through social media platforms (Abidin and Thompson 468).

(24)

24

Extensive research has found that portraying exclusively appealing and aesthetic images is crucial within Instagram’s influencers marketing economy (Toffoletti and Thorpe 13; Marwick “Instafame” 156). Studies retrieved for this thesis have shown that especially individuals maintaining wellness and health related Instagram accounts perform their online identity mainly through body representation the presentation of white, thin and aesthetic body types, such as athletes (Smith or Sanderson) or yoga bloggers (Cowans). Other studies have shown that this phenomenon accounts not only for female accounts, but also for male accounts (Tiggemann and Zaccardo; Toffoletti and Thorpe). In line with that, previous research on female cover images of established yoga print magazines has examined the visual representations of the body as agency for the fulfilment of general ideals on the market with wellness, health and fitness (Webb et al. 93).

According to Crystal Abidin, with Instagram’s development into a marketing platform, especially images received high commercial value (3). In other words: Presenting certain image styles and types became a major determinant for attention on Instagram’s image-based ephemeral platform (Toffoletti and Thorpe 308; Carah and Shaul 72; Dobscha 103). In that sense, according to Sarah Banet-Weiser, some bodies are for example more brandable than other bodies, all depending on the specific audience's perception of social codes of desire and desirable femininity (58). Interesting for this study is that previous studies have shown that yoga today is commonly associated with physical fitness and aesthetic and resulting from this, overall well-being, happiness and health (Jain 78; Boll 40). To bridge the gap between body representation, yoga as a lifestyle and self-branding, Carah and Shaul’s implementation that Instagram enables “endless loops of body work that both produce forms of calculable attention and embed the construction of the self within market processes” comes into play (73). Given that the phenomenon of body-centred selective self-presentation and self-branding in online environments have been observed remarkably more frequently in female social media practices, it has been described as “postfeminist sensibility” and linked to neoliberal values (Gill; Duffy and Hund; Banet-Weiser “Keynote Address”; Liu and Suh). According to Michel Foucault, the neoliberal subject constantly works on improving him or herself and calculates invested work and profits through self-branding strategies, predominately by portraying narratives of free choice, autonomy and individualism (226). By drawing on several studies on contemporary social media production, Duffy and Hund argue that the ideals of individualism, creative autonomy, authenticity and self-branding explain the narratives and forms of gendered social media production that have emerged in the recent years (3). Despite women tend to portray themselves in independent and feminist attitudes, they are still bound to certain neoliberal guidelines in which for example presenting an attractive body is seen as key sources of female identity (Liu and Suh 18; Gill 149; Fitzsimmons 8).

(25)

25

Taken Instagram’s public accessibility and a heightened presence of self-love and “body positivity movements” (Cwynar-Horta 37) as well as previously discussed “Instagram vs. reality” discourses into consideration (See Ch. 2.2.2), the aforementioned studies indicate that despite social media providing users with the possibility to take potentially more control over their online self-presentation, identity performances on Instagram still occur predominantly through idealized body presentation and aesthetic and sexual attributes which portrays normative and stereotypical gender images in both, professional as well as user-generated content (Gurrieri & Drenten 103). Consequently, this research is interested into potential alternative body representation of self-curated images on Instagram and its connection to marketing purposes and monetization and will show how identity performances and self-branding strategies are entangled on Instagram to realize entrepreneurial pursuits on the contemporary wellness market.

2.3.3. Entrepreneurship on The Spiritual Marketplace

The rise of new media has manifested itself not only in people’s everyday life and communication but has also been the subject of study of several scholars about the impacts it had on work cultures (Duffy; Duffy and Hund; Drenten et al.). Facilitated through social media a whole new archetype of new media workers emerged over the last decade who “seemingly make a living from their passion projects” (Duffy and Wissinger 4655). In addition to influencer practices, Instagram became a tool for individual users to openly portray and promote their businesses or freelance work (Manovich 126). Social media platforms redefined the traditional understanding of consumer and producer by providing users a low-cost infrastructure to create online content and, subsequently, to visualize themselves as self-employed workers and entrepreneurs on the platform (Drenten et al. 21; Gregory 214). Likewise, several scholars have evaluated that the market is driven by the stance that one’s job should not seem like work, more likely, it has to be compatible with one’s “love” and “passion”, and is this dominated by mantras like “Do What You Love” (Duffy 442) and a highly consistently outplayed, almost flaunted “fuck you money” attitude (Marwick “Status Update” 80).

According to Marwick, the new affordances provided by social media on the neoliberal market have led to the stance that self-employed entrepreneurship is taking up the highest status within the creative and new media work cultures (“Status Update” 80). In a similar vein, Brooke Duffy and Emily Hund argue that this has led to the aspiration of a whole new class of creative workers that perform their online identity like “creative self-enterprises” (1; Duffy 442). By performing what Duffy terms “aspirational labour” (446) these workers invest time, energy

(26)

26

and resources of themselves and commit themselves fully to their work in means of being rewarded for their work at some point, even though in percentage terms only a few individuals eventually become successful through social media influencer or entrepreneurship activities (Duffy 454). Consequently, the symbiosis of neoliberal market logics and social media made it possible for individuals to transform workers into self-regulated and entrepreneurial commodities (Gill 26; Marwick “Status Update” 167).

One of the key conditions for building up a successful self-brand has been examined by several scholars as authenticity, a concept that is associated with the idea of presenting a true and actual self and has gotten increasing interest in marketing and social media discourses (Duffy and Hund 3; Khamis et al. 203; Marwick “Status Update” 17; Duffy 447; Marom 22). Following Gregory, a huge sector on social media is taken by a “spiritual marketplace” in which users build up authentic online personas and self-brands in the first place by engaging actively in online conversations and by documenting ones “‘authentic’ daily life” (214). Agreeing with that, Marwick argues that authenticity is conveyed through consistency: “authenticity is judged over time, in that people’s authenticity is determined by comparing their current actions against their past for consistency” (“Status Update” 120) which aligns with earlier implementations by Goffman about an expected consistency between appearance and manner for desired impression management (Goffman 16). Consequently, regarding performances of Instagram influencers, authenticity refers to an individual’s motifs and motivations, relying on their personal passions and beliefs and the portrayal of one’s “hidden inner life” (Marwick “Status Update” 120). Aligned with that, Marom points out that the concept of authenticity is often strongly associated with the idea of living a “meaningful life” (Marom 22). In a similar vein, Helga Dittmar argues that in our contemporary society, consumers can be “thought of as identity-seekers” (2). Therefore, consumers strive to invest into goods that are linked to desired attributes of wellbeing and physical attractiveness, embodied by those promoting those goods (Dittmar 2). This phenomenon strongly relies on the aforementioned implementations about embodied lifestyle presentations by social media personas and its effects on marketing pursuits and links to Sarah Banet-Weiser’s observations of a general “spiritualization of the corporate system” in which investments in self-care are highly valued as “buying good is being good” (“Authentic” 176).

Connecting the contemporary ideals of turning one’s passion into a career with the raised desires for wellness and mindfulness discussed in the introduction of this thesis, this market provides fruitful opportunities for entrepreneurship (Khamis et al. 202; Marwick “Status Update” 193; Duffy 452). This is mainly based on the fact that Instagram has been characterized as an intermediary for professional as well as ordinary users to create content and to carry out consumerism and advertising activities (Gillespie 351). Consequently, Instagram has found to be especially dominated by self-proclaimed wellness and fitness gurus

(27)

27

selling their expertise by linking to various coaching and consulting programs, books or other products and services by themselves or related brands (Gregory 209). According to Gregory, the rise of the spiritual marketplace is mainly based on the contemporary spirit that people increasingly invest money and time for personal care, health and wellbeing. This has given rise to self-appointed “life coaches” offering guidance to achieve respective life improvements (211). With “going pro” or taking the step from “blog to brand”, Gregory describes a neoliberal spirit to rather brand themselves instead of remaining merely a brand strategy. Thus, she indicates a distinction between merely creating online content and being a self-employed “spiritual entrepreneur” (211).

In line with Instagram’s functionality as a powerful tool for self-presentation (Baker and Walsh; Smith and Sanderson; Döring), previous studies have concluded that yoga content on Instagram demonstrate predominately images of white, thin and female yoga practitioners (Cowans; Jain). In these studies, however, the user behind these representations and their potential entrepreneurial purposes has not been taken into consideration - as to if the publisher of the respective images was a yoga teacher, an owner of a yoga clothing brand or merely a passionate or occasional practitioner (Cwynar Horta 41). Consequently, this study is interested in how ‘spiritual’ or ‘wellness entrepreneurs’, in this case yoga entrepreneurs, present themselves on Instagram and more specifically, how Instagram is used as a tool for digital entrepreneurship and self-employment on an emerging market with wellness, health and mindfulness.

(28)

28

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1. Selecting accounts

This research focuses on individual identity performances with users clearly indicating that yoga comprises a major part of their business, which they promote on Instagram. A huge number of Instagram accounts are concerned with topics related to wellness, wellbeing, fitness and health, within which the publication of occasional or regular yoga-related content is highly visible. To detect accounts that make a living with the aid of Instagram a selection process of different steps was conducted to form a final and comprehensive data corpus for the following analysis. Consequently, several articles of yoga- and lifestyle-related online journals such as Yoga Journal or doyouyoga.com were searched through in order to find matching accounts2_. From there, Instagram’s feature of recommending similar accounts was used as a ‘snowballing system’ to discover more potential accounts. However, only accounts with at least 100.000 followers were included as this indicates that those accountholders realized successful entrepreneurship based on their Instagram performances and are thus most representative for this study. Additionally, only accounts that are clearly maintained by individual people were included. This was evaluated by a mentioning by one of the yoga-related journals or webpages as well as through a ‘verified badge’ which confirms that the profile belongs to a real person (Instagram Help Center). To differentiate yoga entrepreneurs from users that merely practice yoga as a hobby a close-reading of the individual account’s ‘bio’- the space at the very top of a profile- was conducted include only those individuals that actively target to use Instagram as a monetization tool or platform to make business in any way. Therefore, it was mandatory that the accounts have set their profile on ‘public’, meaning that they consciously want their profile to be accessible and visible for everyone. As a last selection criterion, only accounts publishing their content in English were included into the data set. This does not only serve to create a common ground for the research, but also indicates the user's intention to make their content accessible to a larger audience, based on the language’s wide reach, detached from any spatial or temporal constraints.

2_{Articles retrieved for the selection process were for example “6 Most Inspiring Yogis on Instagram}

Commodifying Mindfulness: The Relationship between Identity Performance and Entrepreneurship through the Lenses of Yoga on Instagram