Instagram vs. Reality
Learning critical digital literacy in the visual social web
Frederike Lichtenstein Supervisor: Alberto Cossu Second reader: Dhr. Prof. Dr. Robin Boast Master of Arts, New Media and Digital Culture University of Amsterdam, 25 June 2018Keywords Critical digital literacy, Instagram, informal learning, participatory culture, critical influencing Abstract In a world where digital technology has penetrated almost every domain of human life young people grow up and learn within techno-social environments as much as in formal education contexts. Even though those young people are often referred to as ‘digital natives’ studies show that many lack the competency to critically question the online cultures they are partaking in. As critical digital literacy is not yet incorporated into school curricula the question arises in what way it is part of teenagers’ informal learning experiences on social media. Focusing on the visual social media platform Instagram and taking into account the platform specific affordances as well as the critical space forming around the hashtag #instagramvsreality this research aims at analysing the ways in which Instagram provides a learning environment for critical digital literacy. It illuminates how users engage in critical practices by performing reality in opposition to Instagram culture or critically influencing other users and thereby contributes to a more informed discussion about learning in the visual social web. Acknowledgements First of all, I want to thank my supervisor Alberto Cossu for his useful suggestions and general assistance during the research and writing process. Secondly, I would like to express particular gratitude to my family and friends as without their patience and incredible support the given work would not be what it is today.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction ... 1 1.1 Research question ... 4 1.2 Thesis outline ... 4 2 Theoretical framework ... 4 2.1 Learning on social media ... 5 2.1.1 Learning in participatory cultures ... 7 2.1.2 Informal learning, social learning, situated learning ... 10 2.2 Literacy ... 12 2.2.1 Defining literacy in a new media setting ... 12 2.2.2 Critical digital literacy ... 15 2.3 Instagram ... 18 2.3.1 Self-presentation and identity management ... 19 2.3.2 Interface and norms of use ... 21 2.3.3 Instagram’s dominant platform culture: The ideal of the ‘perfect self’ ... 23 3 Methodology ... 29 3.1 Affordance analysis ... 29 3.2 Hashtag analysis and case studies ... 30 3.2.1 Following the hashtag ... 31 3.2.2 Following the user ... 32 4 Analysis ... 35 4.1 Instagram’s learning environment ... 35 4.1.1 Connectedness ... 35 4.1.2 Creation ... 36 4.1.3 Collaboration ... 37 4.2 Critical digital literacy on Instagram: #instagramvsreality ... 38 4.2.1 Exposing the ‘fake world’ ... 42 4.2.2 Learning critical digital literacy ... 47 4.3 Spreading the message: @the_truth_is_not_pretty and @brookie_tee ... 49 4.3.1 Creating the authentic self ... 49 4.3.2 How authenticity is defined ... 52 4.3.3 Sharing a common cause ... 53 5 Discussion ... 54 5.1 Critical digital literacy as performed ... 55 5.2 Critical influencing ... 57 5.3 Concluding thoughts ... 58 6 Works cited ... 60 Appendix ... 69Table of Figures
Fig. 1 Co-hashtag network graph | #instagramvsreality ... 40 Fig. 2 Co-hashtag network graph, #instagramvsreality | First cluster ... 41 Fig. 3 Co-hashtag network graph, #instagramvsreality | Second cluster ... 42 Fig. 4 Example post: ‘Appearance’ | #instagramvsreality dataset ... 43 Fig. 5 Example post: ‘Emotion’ | #instagramvsreality dataset ... 43 Fig. 6 Example post: 'Lifestyle' | #instagramvsreality dataset ... 43 Fig. 7 Example post: ‘revealing the truth behind the image’ | #instagramvsreality dataset .. 46 Fig. 8 Example post: ‘Showing context’ | #instagramvsreality dataset ... 46 Fig. 9 Example post @the_truth_is_not_pretty, posted on 28 April 2018 ... 50 Fig. 10 Example post @brookie_tee, posted on 21 April 2018 ... 51 Fig. 11 Example post @the_truth_is_not_pretty, posted on 31 March 2018 ... 52 Fig. 12 Example post @brookie_tee, posted on 5 April 2018 ... 521 Introduction
In a world where digital technology has penetrated almost every domain of human life it comes as no surprise that today young people grow up under entirely different circumstances than ten or even only five years ago. Socialisation and enculturation processes have changed fundamentally as children come into contact with the internet at increasingly earlier stages of life and digital media is an omnipresent factor in their sociocultural environment (boyd). According to a 2015 study by the Pew Research Center, 92 per cent of US teenagers between the age of 13 to 17 go online on a daily basis, due to the convenience and ubiquity of smartphone use. 24 per cent even state that they are online “almost constantly” (Lenhart 2). In particular, social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter have significantly altered young people’s communication landscape (boyd 6). According to a recent study by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, more than 90 per cent of US teenagers use social media platforms on a regular basis. Similar numbers can be found for European contexts (EU Kids Online). Today, young people from all over the world build and navigate these social web spaces to communicate with peers, express themselves, gather information and seek entertainment. For them, participation in social networks has become an unwritten rule and it profoundly shapes how they perceive their social and cultural environment online as well as offline (boyd 7). Looking back, it becomes apparent that social media, as much as other digital technology, is subjected to a process of constant and rapid transformation. Whereas this process has caused some social networking sites to vanish, it has carried others forward, thereby establishing new communicative trends. One of those recent trends describes the increasing dominance of visual media (Manjoo). As the dissemination of written text declines, images and video content become the prevalent form of communication in online spaces. This development is also clearly reflected in the growing popularity of visual social networks, such as YouTube, Snapchat or the mobile photography application Instagram. Recent studies show that the latter is the most used social networking service among teenagers to date (The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research). Children and young people being born into this digitally mediated and increasingly visually saturated society are often referred to as ‘digital natives’ that intuitively acquire skills to effectively handle the digital technologies they use. The term was first introduced by Prensky (2001) and has since become a recurring expression widely applied by media and academia alike. This “mythos of the self-taught,
technically-oriented youth” (Lange 298) however, obfuscates significant distinctions and gaps as ‘digital native’ does not necessarily mean ‘digital literate’. Scholars such as boyd or Jenkins et al. have criticised the common perception that teenagers today are seen as “digital wunderkinds” (boyd 197), being naturally technology-savvy and able to easily interact with digital media: “Although youths are becoming more adept at using media as resources (for creative expression, research, social life, etc.), they often are limited in their ability to examine the media themselves.” (Jenkins et al. 20) This ability, or digital literacy, however, is central to the development of youth as it enables them to thrive in a 21st century society. Instagram is a visual social media platform that allows the editing and sharing of pictures and has become one of the most popular mobile applications in the world. It is famous for being used for virtual self-presentation practices; according to co-founder Kevin Systrom, particularly teenagers on Instagram aim to portray “the best presentation of themselves” (Wallace). Systrom also describes Instagram as follows: "It's beautiful, it's curated, it's a safe place, creatively-minded, so people on Instagram are expecting to see creative, gorgeous photos” (Satran). This can be connected to the common perception of Instagram as a visual platform with specific norms of use and strong aesthetics that value a specific kind of beauty and perfection (Manovich 20). Popular media therefore often regard Instagram as a problematic space especially for teenagers as they are subjected to those values (Macmillan; van Boom; Fox). Recent studies show that Instagram’s perfectionism ideals indeed can be connected to mental illness and detrimental effects on adolescents’ body image, envy or fear of missing out as many compare their lives to the glossed over image that is presented on the platform (Royal Society for Public Health; Feltman and Szymanski; Kleemans et al.). Due to its aforementioned popularity among young people Instagram as a social media platform consequently has a relevant impact on how its young users perceive themselves and their position within the world. In its highly visual context, critical digital and visual competencies that comprise of the scrutinising and criticising of given norms and aesthetics become important. They encompass the ability to distinguish the world as it is depicted in the visual social web from the real world and therefore enable a more reflected perspective on social media content. As studies suggest, critical literacy interventions are shown to have positive effects on body image and eating disorders and promise to be beneficial for adolescents’ mental wellbeing (Bindig). As young people spend more time online than in school and more
employers expect them to have the skills to successfully operate social media and other digital technology, an increasing number of scholars demand an incorporation of digital competencies into the curriculum (Greenhow and Gleason 464). But formal education only hesitantly begins to do so. At the same time, most parents also refrain from educating their children because they regard themselves as “digital immigrants” and often lack the knowledge to do so (boyd 176). Consequently, young people navigate online spaces such as Instagram ‘learning by doing’ in informal learning communities (Greenhow and Lewin 24). Proceeding from this the question arises, in what way Instagram provides a space for the learning of critical digital competencies.
So far, research concerning social media in the context of digital literacy is rare (Knobel and Lankshear 250). Educational scholars like Mao or Gikas and Grant analyse the general potential of mobile and social media for learning in formal educational contexts from the perspective of the students. Others are investigating social media through a literacy lens: Greenhow and Gleason, for instance, are analysing the social media platform Twitter, examining tweeting as a new literacy practice. In a similar manner, Knobel and Lankshear (249) explore literacy practices on Facebook. Instagram as a highly visual social network in particular has not yet been analysed in terms of its potential as a learning environment for critical digital literacy. So far, research concerning Instagram in the context of learning mainly approaches the objective from an educational studies perspective, for instance encompassing its use in a classroom context (Serpagli). In the area of cultural and new media studies, a research gap can be identified: Scholars like Greenhow (9) or Mao (213) demand further research into learning practices on social media, how knowledge is shared through networks and how those networks are formed outside of classrooms and in informal online environments. In her paper, Pangrazio (172) demands research in the specific area of critical digital literacy and, amongst others, suggests more investigation into the digital context in which literacy is practiced as well as into “what sorts of practices and techniques have successfully developed critical digital literacy”. With my thesis I am aiming at approaching these questions and filling the aforementioned research gap by providing a first, explorative analysis of Instagram’s potential as a learning environment for critical digital literacy, investigating its technological infrastructure and specific critical culture. Moreover, as the implementation of social media into formal education is a highly debated topic among scholars and educators alike my
research could provide an insightful contribution to this debate possibly facilitating a more informed discussion about the ways in which critical digital literacy takes place on Instagram.
1.1 Research question
Analysing Instagram through a critical digital literacy lens, I want to answer the following research question: In what way does Instagram provide a learning environment for critical digital literacy? 1.2 Thesis outline To answer my research question I plan on conducting the following analytical steps: First of all, I want to take into account relevant literature to define the central concepts my research is based on, such as learning and literacy, and develop how Instagram’s dominant platform culture is structured. In a first analytical step, I then want to conduct an analysis of Instagram’s technological affordances, taking into account its features as a visual social networking platform and thereby investigating how these features specifically provide an environment for learning practices. Secondly, I plan on taking a closer look at specific cultural practices on Instagram, thereby focusing on a selected hashtag as well as two public Instagram accounts which address the platform-specific critical digital literacy in different ways. In the following discussion I then want to situate my findings in the bigger story I have already briefly discussed in this introduction, concluding with an account on which limitations I faced during the research process as well as list opportunities for further analysis.
2 Theoretical framework
Before commencing with the detailed exposition of this thesis’ theoretical framework it is important to note that I am generally approaching this research objective from a cultural and new media studies perspective. As I am aiming at analysing emerging cultural practices on the visual social medium Instagram, the question arises, why it is relevant to study media cultures in the first place. At this point I want to refer to Silverstone’s work on media culture. He argues that media is not merely a channel that transports messages but should rather be regarded as a meaningful social process, connecting people and ideas and having an impact on people’s judgement and meaning making (Silverstone 5). Furthermore, Silverstone (6) perceives media to be playing a central role in altering people’s perceptions of the world around them andthereby shaping culture and society: “They filter and frame everyday realities, through their singular and multiple representations, providing touchstones, references, for the conduct of everyday life, for the production and maintenance of common sense.” Proceeding from this position he emphasises the importance of studying media culture as it is inseparably entwined with everyday life (Silverstone 2). Particularly social media offer a prevailing site for cultural production as they shape people’s values, norms and beliefs (Rose 290). Technology and their sociocultural use thereby cannot be seen separate from each other. In the context of this thesis it becomes apparent that learning can be regarded as a cultural process worth investigating - among its numerous definitions, culture is often described as something that is learned (Gerbner et al.). I want to build on this understanding of media culture as process and analyse how specific cultural practices shape the perception of a certain medium, in this case Instagram. 2.1 Learning on social media As I have argued in the introduction, children and young people today grow up in digital worlds as much as in the physical world, they become participants in online environments at increasingly earlier stages of life. Social media and particularly social networking sites such as Facebook or Instagram form an established part of their daily routine (boyd 5). Social media services provide them with platforms for communication and the easy exchange of information. Moreover, they facilitate the forming of digitally mediated social networks. Proceeding from this, boyd and Ellison (211) define social networking sites as “web based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.” The term social media is also often used synonymously with Web 2.0 principles. Coined by O’Reilly, Web 2.0 encompasses forms of user-generated content, interactivity and collaborative production. This definition is specifically relevant in the context of this thesis as the social networking site Instagram’s main functionality encompasses the exchange and distribution of self-made and self-edited photos. To summarise, I will understand social media as a set of services that enables the establishment and sharing of a personal network as well as different forms of participation in the form of user-generated content.
Due to their ever increasing proliferation, particularly among young people, research about social media platforms, their effects and cultural meaning is ubiquitous across academic disciplines. In the context of learning, however, social media only recently became an object of interest for researchers (Greenhow and Robelia 120). Until today, many popular media sources regard participating in social networking sites as a mundane leisure time activity which - at least at first glance - makes the idea that these online environments could actually facilitate meaningful learning and socialisation processes seem quite implausible (Greenhow 5). Secondly, particularly in connection with children and adolescents, social media is often analysed in the light of its dangers and detrimental effects on educational development and identity construction (5); the belief that technology, and particularly social media, puts young people at a greater risk than ever before is prevalent (Jenkins, Ito and boyd 44). However, with a growing interest in social media and education, empirical research suggests that participation in online social networks actually holds the resources for positive empowerment through learning – inside as well as outside of formal education (Greenhow; Jenkins, Ito and boyd; Burnett and Merchant).
According to the Oxford Dictionary, learning means “the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught”. This definition implies an understanding of learning as a highly individual process that mainly takes place in educational spaces, is facilitated by teachers and happens internally, fully detached from sociocultural settings (Jenkins, Ito and boyd 91). This rather narrow understanding of learning, however, is criticised by various socio-cultural theorists and anthropologists (Jarvis; Lave and Wenger; Jenkins, Ito and boyd). They suggest a novel and much broader learning concept and, based on that, demand a paradigm shift in the formal education system. In this thesis I want to perceive the term learning in its broadest sense, more or less apart from traditional conceptions. I thereby take a social constructivist perspective, as I agree with Greenhow and Lewin’s (8) position that “learning is situated in the context of circumstances, activity or culture”. In this context I also want to refer to the works of Stuart Hall as I perceive audiences not as passive receivers but as active agents embedded in their own social and cultural frameworks of knowledge, production and infrastructure while they are making meaning from media messages. As processes of cognition and knowledge acquisition take place in diverse situations and settings it can be argued that learning is not a practice that has a set beginning and end; rather, all
humans are involved in a constant and lifelong learning process. This position is also supported by Jarvis (3) who argues that studying learning also means studying “people in time, space and society”. Thus, learning and creative expression are seamlessly embedded in everyday life practices and sociability (Jenkins, Ito and boyd 7). Particularly children and adolescents’ socialisation and enculturation are shaped by learning processes that emerge as part of the increasingly digital society. Such learning has a significant impact on the forming of identity as it becomes a process of interaction and connectedness, active engagement, creation and collaboration with other people (Sefton-Green and Erstad).
Proceeding from this understanding, the role of digital, social technology in facilitating learning processes becomes significant. Many European countries begin to realise the impact digital technology has on adolescents’ development and slowly start to implement them into the curriculum, mainly by changing education policies and investing in equipment (Conrads et al. 13). Studies indicate, however, that there exists a “digital disconnect” (Greenhow and Robelia 121) between young people’s internet use in their free time compared to classroom environments. Scholars and educational reformers have therefore developed a growing interest into how learning takes place outside of school contexts and embedded in participatory online communities (121). As most social media afford a space for communication, creation and collaboration it can also support learning practices. Hence, it makes sense to take a closer look at these practices and analyse how they unfold on different social networking sites. To quote Greenhow’s (7, emphasis in original) essay on social media and learning:
“If educational curricula have typically been consumed with learning what (learning science, math, social studies content) and with learning as becoming (learning to become a scientist or historian by applying the tools and practices of the discipline), we can now also focus deeper attention on understanding social learning: how people learn with whom, or learn to be contributors to local and global society with what degree of influence.” 2.1.1 Learning in participatory cultures As I have already established, social media in their basic definition allow the participation of their users. Participation in the sense of Jenkins et al. refers to the various possibilities users of online cultures, collectively or individually, get to share, contribute, appropriate, create, remix and express and thereby shape the environment they are part of. Henceforth, a
participatory culture refers to “a culture with 1. relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, 2. strong support for creating and sharing creations with others, 3. some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices, 4. members who believe that their contributions matter, and 5. members who feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least, they care what other people think about what they have created)” (Jenkins et al. 5). The idea of participatory cultures therefore contradicts the older assumption of audiences as passive consumers of information. It allows them to become active participants in various ways, for example by publishing their own content on a social networking site. Ever since the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, participation plays a significant role not only for individuals but also for whole online communities. They provide an environment for participants to interact and collaborate with each other, the boundaries between producer and consumer increasingly blur. As young people move through web spaces and take part in such communities of practice in their leisure time, participation can take many forms. While some interact, exchange information or collaborate in online forums or wikis, others are filming, editing and uploading videos to YouTube, create and publish fanfiction on a blog or make an effort to maintain their carefully established online-image on a photo sharing platform. According to Jenkins, Ito and boyd (10) even selfies can be a form of participatory culture as they meaningfully refer to a bigger community and provoke some sort of social consequence. As different social media sites facilitate different forms of participatory cultures they also provide an environment for learning or other forms of political or creative engagement (Jenkins et al. 9). Like that, knowledge acquisition can be a consequence of participation in a community (Jenkins, Ito and boyd 5). In line with that, scholars Lave and Wenger coined the term “community of practice” to refer to learning that takes place while people engage in shared practices or working towards a common goal and thereby develop a particular relationship, a sense of community with one another (Lave 64). They argue that, this way, learning can also contribute to the forming of identities. In a similar manner, participatory cultures can be linked to a form of cultural resistance that expresses “critiques of the ideologies being circulated within commercial culture” (Jenkins, Ito and boyd 13). Here a connection can be drawn to Hall’s understanding of cultural appropriation as a way of challenging dominant culture. By using and incorporating symbols
related to a prevailing culture, marginalised groups and subcultures can express their opposition to common values and ideals of their time (Clark et al. 52-53). Such an understanding of resistance as taking symbolic action against the predominant values of a certain culture can also be conferred to modern day online contexts (Jenkins, Ito and boyd 15). Social networks, similar to offline cultures, provide a predetermined “configuration of meanings” (Clark et al. 11), a certain cultural framework in which individuals are expected to act accordingly. As a consequence, this dominant culture can provoke alternative movements that make use of the affordances of a certain medium by appropriating and thereby subverting them. Like that, participatory culture can also be “about people finding voice, agency, and collective intelligence within the corporate-maintained structures of Web 2.0 platforms” (Jenkins, Ito and boyd 184). It becomes apparent that participatory cultures provide a space for creative as well as critical interventions (1). It is important to note, however, that participatory cultures are not necessarily always connected to what can be commonly regarded as positive movements, Jenkins, Ito and boyd (10) instance the case of ‘pro-ana’ communities.
Today, young people engage with participatory cultures in different ways and for various reasons (Greenhow 7). What unites all of these practices is that they are mostly interest- driven and self-motivated and take place not in school environments but in informal socio-cultural settings. In contrast to structured classroom environments, learning in those settings happens under completely different circumstances, it is much more open and flexible. Learning effects in such spaces therefore often occur unintentional and spontaneously, like that they become a by-product of participation processes (Jenkins, Ito and boyd 93). As Greenhow and Lewin (24) state: “Social media has unique and powerful features, readily facilitating connections to others […] through sharing and community evaluation, leading to participatory engagement in effective, multimodal learning communities”. Hence, even though studies suggest that in many cases young people use social media without an educational purpose in mind, an analysis of its potential fostering of learning promises to be useful nevertheless (Buckingham Defining Digital Literacy 86; Jenkins, Ito and boyd 93). As can be seen, participatory cultures provide means of informal, social and situated learning.
2.1.2 Informal learning, social learning, situated learning
Learning facilitated by teachers during fixed instructional sessions and embedded in institutionalised settings such as schools, colleges or universities can be regarded as formal learning (Gikas and Grant 19). But what are the unique characteristics of the spontaneous and often unintentional learning practices happening in online spaces and particularly in participatory cultures? Amongst others, Greenhow and Lewin (10) propose the concept of informal learning. According to them, informal learning is generally characterised as being voluntary, peer-driven, experimental, innovative, provisional, flexible and spontaneous. It takes place during the activities of young people’s daily lives in online and offline spaces and can often be unintentional and therefore also remain undetected by the learner (Gikas and Grant 19). According to Gikas and Grant (19) 80 per cent of a human’s learning in life comprises of informal learning. And particularly in social media settings informal learning is prevalent (Mao 221). But even though the substantial impact of this form of learning seems to be evident, informal learning practices were neglected by academia for a long time; educational research only recently started to acknowledge it and analyse its potential implications also for formal learning environments. Today’s connected and mobile technologies provide young people with a wide range of novel learning opportunities that take place independent of time and space (Greenhow 4; Gikas and Grant 18). For instance, in 2003 American scholar James Paul Gee published a book called “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy”. What Gee (3) states about the use of video games for literacy learning can also be applied to learning in participatory cultures. He describes how video game players “collaborate in teams, each using a different, but overlapping, set of skills, and share knowledge, skills, and values with others both inside the game and on various Internet sites”. Similarly, participants in social media networks share values, skills and knowledge whilst contributing to and taking part in more or less complex socio-cultural activities on platforms like Facebook, Tumblr or Instagram. Learning taking place in participatory cultures is therefore also collaborative and social learning. As consumers become producers, learners become teachers and vice versa. Proceeding from that, informal learning can be active as well as passive. It may be facilitated through participation, creation and collaboration but also through meaning making processes and consumption thereby building on the opportunities and restrictions of the digital
infrastructure the respective platform provides. Like that, informal learning becomes an important form of learning for the users as they engage with content that is meaningful to their living environment on- and offline (Mao 219). As digital competencies are not yet part of school education, informal learning practices enable young people to acquire specific knowledge and values highly relevant to their experiences in online environments that they probably would not have learned otherwise. Informal learning in the context of social media can refer to various kinds of practices such as building personal learning networks, shaping information flows, remixing and appropriating content and other individual and collaborative forms of meaning making and knowledge production. As a consequence, consisting hierarchies and norms on these social media platforms can be disrupted. Learning practices on social media can therefore also be described as situated. Situated learning refers to a form of learning that “takes place in the same context in which it is applied” (Gikas and Grant 22). This includes real life situations but it can also be a functional approach to learning in social media settings. To summarise the aforementioned approaches, in this thesis I want to focus on a form of learning that takes place in everyday life in participatory cultures instead of schools, is facilitated by people that engage in social practices instead of teachers, and is interest-driven and therefore often incidental and unintentional (Ito et al. 24). As young people engage in informal learning on social media they accumulate knowledge and engage in practices that become meaningful for their own identity construction and their world view. Apart from that, it becomes apparent that learning processes on social media unfold within the interaction between the technological infrastructure provided by the respective social network itself and the social and cultural practices or participatory cultures that take place on it (Livingstone 385). Therefore, I will understand a learning environment as an online environment that provides the technological prerequisites for informal, social and situated learning practices as they are defined by the action possibilities for connectedness, creation and collaboration. Following from this, the question arises in what way social media facilitates “an environment for the development of twenty-first century competences that can provide opportunities for extending learning beyond the confines of traditional schooling” (Burnett and Merchant 53). Which skills, competencies and kinds of knowledge are relevant in context of these ‘twenty-first century competences’?
2.2 Literacy
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the term literacy in its most basic and common form describes “the ability to read and write” and is therefore, at least since the invention of the printing press in 1450, tightly entwined with traditional educational contexts (for an extensive account of literacy history see Beach). Throughout academic discourse the concept of literacy has been widely used to provide theoretical frameworks for educators and scholars alike, in most cases encompassing a set of particular functional competencies that can be acquired through respective interventions. However, due to the rise of new forms of media during the past decades, the concept of literacy increasingly shifted to a broader understanding that extends the traditional notion of reading and writing to audiovisual and digital texts (Buckingham Defining Digital Literacy 74). As Jenkins et al. (33) state: “Changes in the media environment are altering our understanding of literacy and requiring new habits of mind, new ways of processing culture and interacting with the world around us.” Proceeding from this, literacy nowadays can also be defined as a skillset that helps people to fully participate in a society structured by 21st century conditions (Beach). It should come as no surprise that these conditions are also predominantly influenced by the advent of digital technologies. 2.2.1 Defining literacy in a new media setting Even though the traditional idea of literacy still forms an important part of newer literacy concepts, scholars consider a variety of additional abilities as crucial prerequisites in a new media environment (Beach). In particular, recent developments such as the proliferation of the internet, Web 2.0 and mobile technologies lead to new forms of communication and cultural phenomena and therefore resulted in the idea that new forms of competencies should be cultivated for people to successfully handle digital media and become informed members of society (Buckingham Defining Digital Literacy 75). Today, a plethora of different and partly overlapping understandings of literacy exists across academic disciplines such as educational studies, cultural studies and media studies, ranging from overarching conceptions such as multiliteracies (Cope and Kalantzis), new literacies (Coiro et al.), or 21st-century literacies (Beach) to more specific notions of visual literacy (Messaris), television literacy (Buckingham Children talking Television), information literacy (Spitzer, Eisenberg and Lowe), media and new media literacy (Lin et al.) as well as digital literacy (Gilster; Lankshear and Knobel) and social media literacy (Rheingold; Livingstone). Other terms often used when
addressing the topic of literacies in the context of new media include internet literacy, e-literacy, network literacy, or computer literacy (Bawden 17). Due to the limited scope of this thesis it is not possible to touch upon all of the aforementioned concepts. However, the extensive range of terminology demonstrates that literacy is a continuously evolving, ever-changing concept that evinces a complex debate about which competencies are particularly fundamental for children’s and young people’s development in a globalised and digitised world.
Many of the above mentioned literacy models particularly emphasise the ability to successfully operate information and communication technologies and numerous educational theorists demand the incorporation of these new competencies into school settings (Lankshear and Knobel 4; Buckingham Defining Digital Literacy 76). An example for this is the familiarity with software and hardware, the knowledge of how to efficiently search for information online or the skill of knowing how to use devices such as tablets and smartphones for specific purposes (Buckingham, Rethinking Media Education 44). Buckingham summarises these skills under the term “access”. However, a growing body of literacy research also stresses the importance of socio-cultural competencies (Buckingham, Defining Digital Literacy 73; Bawden 18; Jenkins et al. 30). This becomes particularly apparent in the concept of digital literacy. The term was first coined by Paul Gilster in his 1997 book of the same name and proceeds from more traditional notions of literacy transferred into the digital age. According to Bawden (18), Gilster’s concept of digital literacy simply means the “ability to understand and to use information from a variety of digital sources”. As mentioned above, this understanding is based on the idea that literacy embodies more than the mere mastery of functional and technological skills, but involves cultural and cognitive processes as “digital literacy is about mastering ideas, not keystrokes” (Gilster 1). Hence, the traditional concept of literacy as a set of individualised and functional skills is complemented by the idea that literacy also involves social and cognitive practices of understanding and meaning making, facilitating a certain way of thinking (Bawden 18). According to Lankshear and Knobel (5) this involves “the myriad of social practices and conceptions of engaging in meaning making mediated by texts that are produced, received, distributed, exchanged, etc., via digital codification.” Additionally, the idea that literacy can be acquired in a variety of different contexts, for example in social media environments, became widely adopted (Lankshear and Knobel 8). In
this thesis I want to build on this sociocultural understanding of digital literacy, which proceeds from a constructivist understanding of learning (see chapter 2.1) and also encompasses more traditional notions of literacy that can be connected to print culture. In the context of social media, digital literacy should not merely be perceived as an individualised set of skills but more as a relational practice connected to the reading of multimodal texts, collaboration and community involvement in online participatory cultures (Jenkins, Ito and boyd 97). It is important to note at this point that literacy practices evolve along with the constantly changing digital environment as new technologies facilitate new literacies (Greenhow and Gleason 467). New social media platforms provide new ways of socialising and allow people to develop agency in new ways (Greenhow and Gleason 468). It therefore makes sense to closely investigate social media platforms and the literacy practices they facilitate (Lin et al. 167). In their new media literacy framework, Lin et al. (162) propose a four-field matrix to categorise literacy practices in a digital environment. For that purpose, they build on earlier work by Chen et al. constructing two continua, one stretching from consumption to prosumption, the other one from functional literacy to critical literacy. They distinguish four different types of literacy, “functional consuming”, incorporating the most basic ability to understand and consume digital content; “functional prosuming”, containing the ability to successfully produce digital content; “critical consuming”, referring to the ability to critically analyse and evaluate digital content and “critical prosuming”, encompassing the ability to meaningfully participate in a digital context (164-166). Even though their framework can indeed be criticised for only superficially grasping literacy in its rather complex and socially embedded nature, however, it provides a helpful model to understand the scope of digital literacy, reaching from a mere technological and functional skillset to a more active, meaningful and primarily critical engagement. Lin et al. argue that this critical engagement can be seen as the most important form of literacy in the 21st century (162). Proceeding from the above mentioned accounts and conceptions, in this thesis I want to define a digitally literate person as a person that is able to navigate the possibilities and challenges of digital, multimodal media, knows how to operate technology but also proves a critical attitude towards platforms, content and distribution to be able to make informed decisions and meaningfully take part in participatory cultures, for example on social media. A digitally literate person therefore can be regarded as a critical
consumer and competent producer at the same time (Lundy and Stephens 1058). In line with Lin et al. (162) several scholars emphasise the importance of a critical evaluation of digital media as an important part of digital literacy (Buckingham Defining Digital Literacy 78). To quote boyd (181): “In a networked world, in which fewer intermediaries control the flow of information and more information is flowing, the ability to critically question information or media narratives is increasingly important.” In the following chapter, this critical attitude, or critical digital literacy, is therefore described in more detail. 2.2.2 Critical digital literacy One big advantage that is often mentioned in relation to digital media is that these spaces are in their technological nature open for everyone to use and users are free to decide about content and culture at their own will. This very democratised ideal of social media spaces in which all power belongs to the users, however, obfuscates the fact that “social influences provide a priori conditions for the sorts of choices that are made” (Burnett and Merchant 48). As all technology is man-made it is designed with an intended use in mind and inequalities that dictate offline-spaces also transfer to online spaces. Amongst others questions of wealth and social class, gender and race, religion and education determine the degree to which someone is able to participate online and they consequently also shape which ideologies and conventions develop around a social media platform’s dominant or mainstream culture. This dominant culture thereby constantly reproduces “the structures and meanings which most adequately reflect the position and interests of the most powerful class” (Clark et al. 12). In its most common understanding critical digital literacy addresses concerns that generally have to do with the distribution of power, privilege and representation in digital contexts (Pangrazio 168). This refers to the distinction between on the one hand a dominant culture which directs specific conventions, norms and ideals and on the other hand marginalised groups or subcultures which are not visible in this process of mainstream cultural production. Apart from that, it also encompasses forms of production, design and distribution of technology, misinformation and processes of commercialisation. Buckingham (Defining Digital Literacy 78-79) distinguishes four different conceptual fields of critical digital literacy which, correspondingly, concern the sites of representation, language, production and audience. According to Buckingham, a digitally literate person should be able to reflect on who is producing what kind of message in what way and with what intend in mind, thereby also asking about what or who is not visible in it. Hence, the idea of critical digital literacy focuses
on the ability to critically examine and analyse the new media environment and one’s own positioning within it. It not only encompasses the competence to expose predominant norms and conventions, but also the competence of scrutinising and evaluating the quality and trustworthiness of media messages so to consequently be able to produce one’s own messages in a reflected way (Rheingold 22). This particularly applies in a social media context.
In a growingly multimodal and entirely digital environment, literacy practices also include the critical reading of imagery, video and sound (Greenhow and Gleason 467). According to Burnett and Merchant (43) language has traditionally been “seen as central to the social construction of knowledge and consequently to how power circulates” but with the increasing prevalence of imagery this view has shifted. Young people today grow up surrounded by visual and audiovisual media and they also use visual media to express themselves (Lundy and Stephens 1057). Imagery can be found everywhere; from more traditional visual domains such as cinema, magazines and newspapers, to the screens of digital out of home technology, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Moreover, the enormous popularity of visual social media exemplified by thriving platforms such as YouTube, Snapchat or Instagram has led to a growing significance of interpersonal visual communication. Images thereby function as representations or interpretations of the world, they have a significant impact on how people communicate, behave and make meaning of the environment surrounding them (Rose 2). People particularly struggle to critically analyse images as they are often perceived to be direct representations of reality and like that more trustworthy than written text (Eveleth). Critical digital literacy accordingly encompasses specific abilities that allow people to decode, evaluate and effectively ‘read’ imagery and video (Lundy and Stephens 1058). Thus, in social media spaces where everyone can produce such multimodal media messages, questions about authorship, dominant ideology and intentionality become increasingly important (Pangrazio 168). The notion of critical digital literacy thus builds upon the understanding that all sorts of multimodal texts people encounter online are created by someone with a specific rhetoric purpose in mind and are interpreted individually by different readers. As Lin et al. (164) argue: “Individuals should not simply perceive media contents as neutral conveyors of reality, but recognize the construction of media messages as a subjective and social process”. This aspect is also addressed by Dufflemeyer and Ellertson (6) in their more elaborate definition of critical literacy which summarises the concept’s most significant characteristics:
“Critical literacy can be defined as the ability to see text […] not as a transparent window on reality, but as constructed from a viewpoint, with someone’s communicative purpose and a calculated effect in mind. The critically literate person, however, goes beyond the individual text and applies that enhanced awareness, attained from being a creator/author and not just a passive consumer/reader of texts, to a more generalized critical consciousness about the world and the discourses therein that affect us.” Within an ever-changing digital environment, critical digital literacy encompasses different forms of critical engagement with digital media content on an individual or collaborative level; they contain forms of understanding, analysis and evaluation as well as abstraction, design, participation and creation (Lin et al. 166). Like that, critical digital literacy can be regarded as a proactive process; as users become producers they develop the “ability to imagine innovative and alternative creations and practices” within the system they are part of (Pangrazio 167). As I have described in chapter 2.1.1, in participatory cultures these practices often include forms of meaningful cultural appropriation, deconstruction, hijacking and remixing. Other forms of critical practice include the application of stylistic devices such as parody and irony or contrast and they contain the potential to sustainably change media culture. At this point I would like to return to Jenkins et al.’s (55) understanding of culture-specific appropriation as the practice of “taking culture apart and putting it back together” which can also be a way of criticising a dominant culture. It becomes apparent that creation can be regarded as an act of criticism. A producer of critical content thereby can inspire other users to develop critical digital literacy and in turn become producers (Pangrazio 167). As a consequence, a community of practice can be formed with counter-cultural characteristics as “they make articulate their opposition to dominant values and institutions” (Clark et al. 61). Like that critical digital literacy practices can be regarded as informal learning practices.
To summarise, critical digital literacy enables social media users to identify stereotypes, prejudices and dominant values in digital texts and expose them as not realistic or representative. Based on the awareness that all messages online are constructed a discrepancy between what is shown on social media and reality is perceived. Like that, critical digital literacy “can advance sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice, as well as misinformation, problematic ideologies, and questionable values” (Kellner and Share 373) and expose inherent bias in social media networks. It empowers
people to scrutinise how prevalent ideologies shape social media content and to consequently navigate such spaces with more awareness and reflexivity about their own positioning within the platform culture. As a consequence, people can develop novel forms of individual agency “to create their own meanings and identities and to shape and transform the material and social conditions of their culture and society” (381). In the following chapter I want to describe how critical digital literacy as described above manifests on the biggest visual social media platform to date: Instagram. 2.3 Instagram Instagram is a visual social networking platform that was released as a free mobile application in 2010 by founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. As a photo-sharing application Instagram “combines many activities together in a single structure – taking photos, editing and distributing them, viewing photos posted by people you follow, discovering other photos, commenting, etc.” (Manovich 18). Even though it is also accessible through a website (www.instagram.com), photo uploads are only possible in the official app. Therefore, the majority of Instagram users access the service on their smartphones which contributes to the app’s unique user experience (Lee et al. 552). In 2012 Instagram was bought by Facebook (Manovich 134). Since then the app has been subjected to many changes and rebranding processes and various new features were added: Whereas until then, photos on Instagram had to be square-shaped, in 2015 the platform introduced horizontal and vertical images and added more editing possibilities as well as a video function. In 2016 new functions were added once again as the platform implemented the Stories function, providing a Snapchat-like ephemeral messaging service (Laestadius 574). In April 2018 Instagram announced that they would add a video chat function. Today, Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks in the world; more than 800 million people actively use Instagram every month and more than 40 billion photos have been shared on the platform so far (Manjoo). As mentioned before, the social network is particularly prevalent among a younger audience; 59 per cent of the 18-24 year olds use Instagram (Osman). 90 per cent of Instagram’s users are under the age of 35 (Laestadius 577).
2.3.1 Self-presentation and identity management
Instagram’s self-proclaimed purpose is to “capture and share the world’s moments” (Instagram About Us) and publish them in an aggregated format. The platform is therefore structured around mobile photos as its central elements, it transports an “image first, text second” (Lee et al. 552) approach which differentiates it from other social networking services. Users are invited to take photos with their smartphones, edit them and publish them within the app, thereby capturing and documenting their life and sharing it with their personal social network. Proceeding from this, it becomes apparent that – similarly to other social networks - Instagram is used for the establishment and maintenance of social relationships to family, friends, or other on- and offline acquaintances and peers (555). For others it also serves as a personal archive as well as a fun distraction. The arguably most decisive motive for the use of Instagram, however, is its possibility for visual self-representation and online identity management (Marwick 143). The platform’s strong focus on photography allows users to present their own identity, beliefs and lifestyle in creative, visual ways and thereby facilitates the creation of a more or less authentic virtual self (Lee et al. 555). Its focus on moments, expressed also through the compound title ‘Insta’gram (in reference to ‘instant camera’), points towards the common practice of capturing emerging activities and situations taking place in the users’ everyday lives as well as taking self-portraits or ‘selfies’ in the moment, establishing the image of an “authentic persona” (Caldeira 143). Based on this, the user manages their online profile which contains carefully selected snippets of their life and self and thereby narrates a certain story: “this series of images on the Instagram’s users [sic] feeds serves to evoke personal stories, illustrating fragments of lives, and sharing with other users a broad definition of who is the individual that shared such images” (143). Following from this it comes as no surprise that the most-taken kind of photo on Instagram is the selfie (141). But self-staging practices also encompass pictures that do not contain the users in person. Images of landscapes or objects function as visual metaphors for properties of the portrayed identity and reveal context information about the user (Caldeira 151). Instagram followers therefore only see a more or less artificial portrayal of a user’s life that in many cases does not have to do much with the user’s actual, ‘real’ life (Cwynar-Horta 42; Calkin). Accordingly, in the context of Instagram, the presentation of the self becomes a performance for an audience of perceived spectators
– or critics - and sometimes even a commodity as users are aware of the impression their virtual self has on others and they make use of calculated self-presentation strategies to gain social validation within the platform (Burnett and Merchant 49). In relation to such self-monitoring practices, Calkin (12) draws an interesting connection to Michel Foucault’s theory of the panopticon which describes a system in which control is exercised through the fear of being watched. Similarly, on Instagram, users appear to be watched and evaluated at all times. As Instagram is mainly used for virtual self-representation and online identity management, many users strive to establish a favourable online image in compliance with the dominant culture to appear socially desirable and avoid negative consequences or even punishment for non-normative behaviour. As a consequence, Instagram becomes “a ‘stage’ where they can dramatically perform an idealized version of themselves” (Caldeira 142) mainly in form of photographic images. Posts are scripted, pre-planned, staged and edited in specific ways to make them comply with particular visual norms and build an authentic visual rhetoric (Cwynar-Horta 43). This practice is not only common among professional users such as microcelebrities or influencers but also among ‘normal’ users. As a consequence, those prevailing norms are constantly reproduced and reinforced (Burnett and Merchant 43). Such forms of strategic self-presentation encompass the photos that are taken, their content and presentation; “each Instagram participation ritual is an integral characteristic in our perdurable quest for desirable identity” (Calkin 19-20). Because of its global dissemination and monopoly position Instagram has been described as the initiating factor to a “new era of mobile photography” (Manovich 11 emphasis in original) occupied with the favourable presentation of the individual. At the same time, it serves as a powerful social network and a commercial platform where brands, traditional pop culture celebrities such as Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift, and so called microcelebrities, Instagram users striving to achieve fame within the platform economy, compete for likes and followers (Marwick 146). In her work, Marwick (137) discusses the idea of “Instafame”, a type of status Instagram users can achieve by gaining a great number of followers. Accordingly, Yau and Reich (6) state that a high number of likes or comments on a post is considered as evidence for popularity. For many users, popularity on Instagram becomes an important additional motivation for their identity building practices as they “strategically formulate a profile, reach
out to followers, and reveal personal information to increase attention and thus improve their online status” (138). As the accumulation of status becomes increasingly important to such Instagram users, the practice of buying likes, comments and followers to artificially increase Instafame becomes common. Furthermore, reward on Instagram has expanded from the social domain to the financial. So called Instagram influencers aim at increasing their Instafame to appear more attractive to marketers. They often have “an established credibility and audience” and the power to “persuade others by virtue of their trustworthiness and authenticity” (Pixlee). Thereby they can become powerful opinion leaders within the platform culture. Influencers cooperate with companies to advertise products on their personal profiles and thereby create revenue and establish a brand around themselves. By sending influencers free products to present on their accounts or inviting them to representative events companies on the other hand hope to sustainably retain influencers and generate online enthusiasm around a particular brand (Cwynar-Horta 41). Like that the involved stakeholders become part of immaterial labour structures as they increase the profit of brands and the platform alike. Instagram users become “aesthetic workers” in an “aesthetic society where “production and presentation of beautiful images, experiences, styles, and user interaction designs is central for its economic and social functioning” (Manovich 117). This ongoing process of professionalisation and commercialisation has led to discussions about product placements and transparency on the platform and indicates that Instagram now encompasses functions that go beyond those of a social networking platform. It becomes apparent that Instagram provides an environment for social as well as medial communication: As various stakeholders prosume visual content making use of the same user interface and functionalities the lines between casual and professional photography, commercial and non-commercial content blur and questions of authenticity become increasingly relevant.
2.3.2 Interface and norms of use
Instagram users can decide for themselves to what extent they want to be active or passive participants in the cultural and communicative processes taking place on the platform. According to their level of participation, they make use of the app’s diverse functionalities. Over time, certain norms of use have developed around these functionalities as part of the dominant platform culture. These norms encompass the perceived appropriate way to use the platform’s technological infrastructure. Similar to other social networking platforms, Instagram provides users with their own personal profile which they can modify by choosing
a nickname, uploading a profile picture as well as filling in a short description about themselves called ‘biography’ or ‘bio’ (boyd and Ellison 211). Apart from that, a user’s profile page gathers their posts in a chronological image grid. As mentioned above, it becomes apparent that visual content is the most significant content within the social network (Marwick 139). An Instagram post usually consists of an image or video, which was taken with the app’s own camera or uploaded from the phone’s internal memory, and a written description. Images thereby can be edited in different ways; Instagram not only allows manual alterations such as cropping or the changing of brightness, contrast and colours, it also provides pre-sets of so called filters which impart a ‘retro effect’ to the photos to make them more visually appealing. Apart from that, photos are often edited in third-party app’s such as Facetune or VSCO which allow additional options for alterations (Manovich 12; Marwick 144). In line with users’ self-presentation strategies, photos on Instagram are produced to be aesthetically pleasing, some common strategies include the use of good and bright lighting and high quality cameras. For some users, particularly influencers, this practice even includes the careful curation of a profile that follows a certain visual ‘theme’, for example a continuous colour scheme (Manovich 126). Moreover, the so called ‘carousel’ function allows users to combine up to ten images and videos in one post, followers can then access the content by using a swipe gesture on their smartphones (146). Before publishing, photos are then equipped with meta information by tagging other users in the picture or adding a geotag. Another common practice is the adding of hashtags to a post’s description. On Instagram, hashtags (indicated by the # sign) are used to socially group Instagram posts according to semantic categories and increase the posts visibility (Highfield and Leaver 5). Abidin (124) describes them as “Instagram speak”. Images tagged with the same hashtags are meaningfully grouped together and can be accessed in an aggregated format. They can relate to events, news or social and political movements, however on Instagram they can also have a mere descriptive purpose, or indicate “humor, wordplay, and poetry” (Calkin 68). Hashtags therefore enable the emergence of communities and spontaneous publics (Highfield and Leaver 5). At the same time, they do not necessarily have to indicate a homogenous group with a common goal. Commonly used hashtags such as #followforfollow, #likeforlike, or #instagood are used in the hope to attract followers (Marwick 147). So called emojis, small icons similar to emoticons, are used to enrich the post description with emotions (70). Once
an Instagram post is published users can like, comment and share it and thereby utter their approval to the presented content.
When opening the Instagram app, users usually land on the content feed page that collects all posts of followed accounts or hashtags in a constant and algorithmically organised visual stream. By following them, users can connect with other people and thereby expand their social networks. Depending on one’s privacy settings it is generally possible to follow everyone and be followed by everyone. As soon as one user follows another they see their posts in their Instagram feed and a unilateral connection is made. The connection can become bilateral when the user is followed back. The direct message functionality allows connected users to send private messages, share posts or communicate with a group of people. The Explore page contains posts and accounts that are considered to be relevant to the respective user as well as highly engaged with content, recommending other people to follow. The Stories function allows people to curate interconnected streams of audiovisual content that are visible for 24 hours until they vanish from the feed page and can only be seen by the users themselves in their archive. “Instagram provides users with a fairly open-ended social media tool, suggesting that individuals could choose to represent themselves using a range of techniques.” (Marwick 138) 2.3.3 Instagram’s dominant platform culture: The ideal of the ‘perfect self’ As a social media platform, Instagram accommodates a distinct platform culture that is based on common behaviour and determines how the platform should be used (Lee et al. 552, Caldeira 154). To communicate effectively on Instagram and establish a desirable virtual self, users accordingly comply with certain perceived values, norms and aesthetics that characterise the platform’s unique visual vernacular and determine which behaviour is socially appropriate or inappropriate. These conventions encompass how users posts and what they post about, how they make use of the technological infrastructure and how they interact with followers, commentators or friends in different ways. Manovich (18) accordingly states:
“Image cultures that develop around technological media are defined not only by raw technologies, the ways they are packaged and promoted by companies, or the ways in which people use these technologies, but also by cultural ‘languages’ – systems of conventions and techniques that define the subjects, narratives, editing, compositions, lighting, sequencing, and other image characteristics.”
These cultural languages transcend the image as the central element of the platform as they also encompass hashtags, comments, Stories and other platform specific properties. Certain conventions thereby become more dominant than others and social conventions are built around the imaginary of the ideal Instagram user striving for validation (Calkin 15). Particularly the visual social web fosters strong visual cultures that reproduce social relations and roles and are constructed around specific aesthetics (Rose 15). In the case of Instagram, those aesthetics as they mainly relate to the visual representation of one’s own life are strongly connected to social ideals from the offline world, including beauty, wealth and emotional stability (Marwick 141). As image standards become explicit in advertisement or traditional notions of status, those values are based on the wish to be socially desirable and popular in an attention economy and avoid embarrassment or even punishment (Caldeira 151). They can be categorised into three areas which define the ideal of the perfect self as I understand it in the context of this thesis: emotion, appearance and lifestyle. Norms within these categories determine what is seen as “insta-worthy” (Arnold) and what is not and they prescribe how a normative Instagram account should look like. As Manovich (80) adds, the ideal photo thereby combines a normative motive with a – preferably high-quality - form. The ideal of the perfect self gets reinforced by microcelebrities and influencers that reach an extensive group of followers and thereby significantly shape the common ideals (Marwick 157). It is important to note at this point that not all Instagram users necessarily strive to fulfil all aspects of the ideal of the perfect self and in practice the three areas cannot always be clearly differentiated. However, I consider this categorisation to provide a useful approach to understand critical digital literacy on Instagram. Emotion: Constant happiness
According to a study by Waterloo et al. (14), on Instagram the presentation of positive emotions is perceived to be more appropriate than that of negative. Looking at the most used hashtags and emojis (as they are often used to express sentiment) this perception is confirmed: The top ten most used hashtags in 2017 include only positively connoted expressions of emotions such as #love, #happy and #beautiful (Instagram 2017 in Review). Moreover, according to a study by Curalate, all of the top ten most used emojis display positive emotions (Goodman). Proceeding from this, it becomes clear that normative emotionality on Instagram is characterised by constant happiness and content. It is strongly connected to
imaginaries of a stable social environment, including loving relationships to partners, close friendships, as well as an exciting, extraordinary life full of joy and love (Yau and Reich 9). On the one hand, this includes the depiction of confidence, extroversion, strength, thoughtfulness, optimism, fun and vitality. Those emotions are expressed through commonly used hashtags such as #goodvibes, #blessed, or #goals. The presentation of negative emotions on the other hand, related to loneliness, sadness, fear, depression, anger, worry, or low self-esteem is perceived as undesirable and therefore less visible on the platform (6). Consequently, the dominant norm excludes self-presentations expressing struggle, weakness and emotional vulnerability which in turn can lead to people suppressing such emotions.
Appearance: Beauty and fitness
Posting a picture of one’s own body and face is considered to attract the most likes. The already cited study by Yau and Reich shows that young people on Instagram strive to appear likeable and attractive. The notion of attractiveness is thereby connected to traditional, mass media ideals of feminine and masculine beauty which are reflected in the common visual aesthetics (8). Instagram users become part of what Caldeira (142) describes as a “renewed cult of the body and of the self”. Particularly female users wish to appear beautiful and strive towards a “Barbie ideal” (Cwynar-Horta 49) that privileges certain characteristics mostly connected to thin, abled bodies with perfected, blemish free skin. The taking of a normative selfie thereby becomes a lot of work: it “doesn’t happen in a single try, it implies time and dedication, multiple poses and multiple attempts, until finally a satisfactory image is created” (Caldeira 149). What is perceived to be a flaw or imperfection is omitted for instance “by twisting, turning and crossing their arms and legs in order to appear smaller” (Cwynar-Horta 52) or taking up a perceived to be flattering facial expression such as the so called ‘duck face’, characterised through pursed lips (Marwick 141). Another strategy is the retouching of selfies using specific software or apps. For instance, images are ‘improved’ according to the ideal by using filters, changing the lightning and colour, erasing pimples and birthmarks, thinning the body shape or altering facial features. Like that, a perfected “new body” is created for the purpose of the Instagram picture (Caldeira 146). A typical trend within appearance centred images on Instagram is fitness related content, described by Goldstraw and Keegan (2) as the ‘#fitspiration’ trend. In connection to the
