This study examines adults’ postings of photos of children on social media and offers a unique methodological approach to studying visual data. A major innovation of this study is first, to enact the concept and method of narrative inquiry to the digital photographs. Having applied this method, the study also offers findings about the diverse values that emerge across two specific digital parenting cultures organized via Instagram hashtags of #fashionkids and #letthekids. Values analysis of 500 photographs indicated that these hashtags (...) constitute cultures defined by distinct values of ideal childhoods. While #fashionkids photos emphasized children’s attendance to the photo making activity with stress to their possessions, #letthekids photos expressed mixed values of freedom and domestic happenings with a strong emphasis on unawareness of the photographing and togetherness. While the qualities of childhood images collected in the same period hint at meaningful patterns, the way those qualities interact with each other in distinct cultures suggest that there is not one ideal image that could represent childhood in the best possible way and the photographers’ values very much influence the visual sense-making of what’s being portrayed in children’s photographs. (shrink)

Instagram serves as a powerful instrument for youth socialization, self-expression, and self-performance in visual online spaces. Using social semiotics and multimodal discourse analysis, this study examines the potential ideological meanings and implications of selfie-shooting and sharing on Instagram on young adults’ self-concept. A corpus of 110 questionnaires, including almost 85 captioned selfies, was surveyed as multimodal utterances. In doing so, this study argues that selfies can create young adults’ split-selves while constructing their multiple personas in visual online spaces. This marks (...) the significance of viewing selfie-creators not only as authors of their selfies, but rather as viewers of a three-fold self: an ideal-self, a projected-self, and an internal-self, to negotiate social and power relationships, while (re)positioning observer-observed roles. This study claims originality in unraveling how young adults use visual and textual mediated communication to represent and perform their split-selves. It suggests that selfie-shooting-sharing has become a key self-performance tactic and behavior in online cultures. Therefore, young adults deploy selfies and captions to posit a redefinition of certain social values, such as aesthetics and freedom, while deploying their selfies and captions. Challenging certain orthodox social allegiances, they conceive wildness, messiness, and exuberance as emerging neo-aesthetics components of appeal. This study contributes to the literature on personal visual communication with insights on how Egyptian young adults perform their self-concept via the semiotic practice of selfie-shooting-sharing. (shrink)

Este artigo visa compreender como os filtros embelezadores do Instagram Stories influenciam a percepção de beleza de seus usuários. Estudos informam que a prática de selfies tem orientado jovens em busca de cirurgias e procedimentos estéticos. Frente a isso, a questão de pesquisa é: de que forma os filtros embelezadores do Instagram Stories interferem na percepção de beleza dos seus usuários? Para tanto, recorre-se à bibliografia sobre plataformas digitais, Instagram Stories e selfies, além de um estudo empírico sobre os filtros (...) embelezadores nessa plataforma e aplicação de questionário. Como resultado, percebe-se, no Instagram, uma dinâmica de performance com selfies que se ajusta com a emergência de uma percepção beleza (pele lisa, nariz fino, lábios volumosos) reconhecida pelas usuárias e desejada como resultado de intervenções cirúrgicas e de procedimentos estéticos. (shrink)

Over the last decade, digitalisation has been a subject of increasing attention among scholars and practitioners. The effect of culture and religion on advertisements, consumerism and marketing, is deniable. The main goal of this research is to present a comprehensive conceptual model based on cultural and religious diversity in digital marketing. This research mainly includes introduction creolisation concept and the elements (religion, music, clothes and custom) as the most important factor in digital advertisement and branding. In this regard, this study (...) examines Instagram consumer products users from five different subcultures in Iran (Lor, Kurdish, Baluch, Arab and Azeri) and considers the impact of creolisation elements on digital advertising, brand identity and brand globalisation. Data were collected by sending 1200 questionnaire via email to subcultures and then analysed using LISREL software.Contribution: The results demonstrated that Islamic religion between participants affects their brand loyalty, therefore the Islamic worth in advertising is necessary. It was suggested that creolisation elements significantly affect digital advertisement, brand identity and brand globalisation. Consequently, all hypotheses were accepted. On the other hand, the impact of brand identity and digital advertisement on the brand globalisation was also confirmed. Discussion and managerial implications concerning creolisation were explained. (shrink)

En el último tiempo, han alcanzado especial popularidad en Argentina los tratamientos estéticos mínimamente invasivos, como las inyecciones de ácido hialurónico y toxina botulínica para rellenar y modelar diferentes partes del rostro. También aparece extendido, entre lxs médicxs y las clínicas estéticas, el uso de la plataforma Instagram para la promoción de estos servicios. Así, esta red social se convierte en un espacio donde lxs profesionales muestran, describen, explican y alientan este tipo de procedimientos. Nuestra investigación tiene por objetivo analizar (...) los sentidos que giran en torno a estos tratamientos, enfocándonos en la concepción del cuerpo que subyace en estas prácticas, los criterios estéticos que se ponen en juego, las formas de interpelación a las mujeres en tanto principales consumidoras de estos servicios y las transformaciones que prometen. A partir del análisis de cuatro cuentas de Instagram orientadas a la promoción de tratamientos estéticos en Mendoza y de cuatro entrevistas en profundidad a lxs médicxs responsables de estas cuentas, analizamos, en primer lugar, la concepción del cuerpo como un proyecto continuamente perfectible y las relaciones de tensión y complementariedad entre criterios estéticos clásicos y criterios contemporáneos; en segundo lugar, describimos la noción del alma como proyecto asintótico, con anclajes psíquicos y afectivos particulares y ciertas tensiones paradojales. Concluimos que los tratamientos estéticos se construyen como tecnologías de yo, convergentes con una est/ética propiciada por el ethos neoliberal. (shrink)

For students of photography who were born in the digital era, publications and magazines about photography are no longer the reference sources of information, but it is the social platform Instagram. There, they are looking not only for current aesthetic trends, but they also actively use Instagram in their art projects. Lev Manovich calls this modern phenomenon Instagramism. In our paper we look at the basic features of his aesthetics. Than, we will compare how established artists such as Cindy Sherman, (...) Richard Prince and Czech photographer Libuse Jarcovjakova work with Instagram and in which ways their approach is different from the co-called Instagrammers. (shrink)

The article explores how digital images of hands are used as a symbolic representation of intimacy and intimate emotions in influencer communication on Instagram. Based on digital ethnography with female influencers in the Czech Republic, the analysis focuses on three categories of communicative practices, where hands function as a visual representation of intimacy—creating community, a sense of vulnerability, and the notion of rawness and openness. The analysis points to the gendered nature of influencer communication. It explores how intimacy is established (...) specifically by women influencers who need to navigate vulnerability with the need to protect themselves against gender-based online violence in the form of hate comments and sexualized hate speech. (shrink)

Instagram is currently the social media platform most associated with online images, but images from other platforms also can be collected and grouped, arrayed by similarity, stacked, matched, stained, labelled, depicted as network, placed side by side and otherwise analytically displayed. In the following, the initial focus is on Instagram, together with certain schools of thought such as Instagramism and Instagrammatics for its aesthetic and visual cultural study. Building on those two approaches, it subsequently focuses on other web and social (...) media platforms, such as Google Image Search, Twitter, Facebook and 4chan. It provides demonstrations of how querying techniques create online image collections, and how these sets are analytically grouped through arrangements collectively referred to as metapictures. (shrink)

Online platforms like Instagram cover potentially distressing imagery with a sensitive-content screen (blurred imagery plus a content warning). Previous research suggests people typically choose to “uncover” and view screened content. In three studies, we investigated whether the presence of screens mitigates the negative emotional impact of viewing content. In Study 1, participants viewed positive and neutral images, and screens (with an option to view the negative images beneath) for a 5-minute period. In Study 2, half the participants saw a grey (...) mask in place of the typical sensitive-content screen. In addition, each image appeared for a fixed period (5 s) and participants had no option to uncover it. Study 3 was like Study 2 except half the participants saw negative images preceded by a sensitive-content screen and half saw negative images without screens. Overall, participants reported a significant increase in state anxiety and negative affect from pre-to post task when they were exposed to sensitive-content screens, whether or not they were also exposed to the negative imagery beneath. Our data suggest sensitive-content screens cause negative responses – state anxiety and negative affect – that do not translate to an emotional benefit when people view negative content. (shrink)

Nonprofit organizations can utilize social networking sites for their activities. Like individual users, they can create SNS accounts, upload posts to show what they are doing, and communicate with other users. Thus, their accounts can be investigated from the same perspective of personality which has been one of the key lenses through which SNS posts of individual users was investigated. In the line of literature that analyzed the personality of non-human objects such as products, stores, brands, and websites, the present (...) research analyzed the personality of NPOs’ Instagram accounts using an online AI service. Also, it investigated how their personality traits were related to the characteristics of the uploaded photos at content and pixel levels. The results of analysis of 223,446 photos on 177 Instagram accounts suggested that the personality of NPOs’ Instagram accounts can be summarized as being high in openness and agreeableness but low in extraversion and neuroticism. And it was found that openness and agreeableness were the personality traits that associated the most with the photo features. Also, the personality traits of NPOs’ Instagram accounts, except neuroticism, were predicted from the photo features with an acceptable level of accuracy. Implications of this research and suggestions for further research were presented. (shrink)

This article explores some of the classed dynamics of doing digital feminist activism. Based on 30 qualitative in-depth interviews with feminist activists, who are based in Germany and the UK, the article examines the ways in which class background and class inequalities shape feminists’ experiences of being politically active on Instagram. Taking Instagram’s visual focus as a starting point for analysis, the article demonstrates the know-how and editorial skills required to produce visually appealing content. Access to this form of expertise (...) is not equally available, however, and class background affects —though does not determine— who feels confident and at ease in producing visually engaging content. Shifting to a different set of knowledges, the second part of the article homes in on a widely shared sense amongst the activists that they had to know and say the “right” things when taking part in activism online. Self-education was deemed an important feature of doing digital feminist activism, and this article critically explores the classed, but also racialised politics of digital “learning cultures”, and the ways in which the apparent requirement “to know” may have exclusionary effects. (shrink)

Introduction. The development of online marketing in social networks creates unique opportunities for personal selling. Especially these opportunities are manifested in online education when they buy a brand of an expert with experience in a particular field. That is why a competitive space is being formed in the Instagram social network, where a personal brand acts as a product or service. -/- Materials and methods. Studying the effectiveness of promoting a personal brand in social networks based on the Instagram platform (...) was chosen to have great visual opportunities for self-presentation. As part of the collection of empirical material, two methods were used: a survey (N-200) and content analysis of three blogger accounts with high rates of activity and popularity. -/- Results and discussion. Content analysis of bloggers showed that an algorithmic feed on a social network allows bloggers to control the content. To help them, Instagram provides statistical data on user reach, thereby capturing trends in the movement of the blogger’s audience. The main task of a blogger is to combine real and “virtual” images so as not to lose consumer confidence. A survey of social network users confirmed the importance of a personal brand for them. The survey also made it possible to identify the most popular audience requests that they expect from bloggers and their accounts: valuable reviews and recommendations, case studies and author’s solutions, storytelling, blogger’s reflections and motivating messages, live broadcasts, and stories are important. -/- Conclusions. The results obtained underline followers’ high level of interest in the bloggers’ personal brand on Instagram. The study results show that the most significant number of those involved (those who give feedback and are constantly involved in interaction with the account) is where the formation of a personal brand is built to a greater extent on the emotional level of perception of the individual. (shrink)

Neste artigo, analisamos postagens do Instagram da Bela Gil sobre alimentação saudável e comentários publicados pelos usuários. Partimos de uma observação sistemática do perfil entre janeiro de 2015 e julho de 2016 que nos permitiu identificar posições de sujeito da/à alimentação saudável presentes no processo de aconselhamento ali existente e nas formas de reconhecimento engendradas. Concluímos que as declarações produzidas por Bela Gil concebem a saúde, sobretudo, como responsabilidade individual e que sua autoridade é reconhecida mais pela identificação com sua (...) experiência e convicção pessoal do que com os conhecimentos científicos eventualmente mobilizados. (shrink)

En las últimas décadas, las redes sociales virtuales se han convertido en espacios centrales para los/as jóvenes. Allí comparten información, se comunican con amigos/as, conocen gente y muestran su vida cotidiana. El enfoque dramatúrgico de Goffman ha sido ampliamente retomado para estudiar las prácticas on line de los/as jóvenes. Sin embargo, han sido menos frecuentes las investigaciones orientadas a comprender las normas que organizan el comportamiento juvenil en los espacios virtuales. En este artículo, analizamos las prácticas de presentación del sí (...) mismo que realizan en Instagram jóvenes estudiantes secundarios de clases medias altas de La Plata (Buenos Aires, Argentina), con el objetivo de identificar las reglas y los significados detrás del uso de esta plataforma. A su vez, buscamos comprender de qué manera los/as jóvenes se relacionan con estas reglas de comportamiento y con la presión de los/as pares para formar parte de espacios de sociabilidad on line. Para esto, a partir de un enfoque metodológico cualitativo, que combinó entrevistas biográficas con observaciones virtuales de publicaciones de Instagram, indagamos en las prácticas para mostrarse e interactuar on line de 27 varones y mujeres de entre 15 y 18 años. A partir de nuestra investigación, identificamos dos regulaciones principales para mostrarse en Instagram, asentadas en la imagen corporal y el estilo de vida. En relación al tipo de imagen corporal que se debe mostrar, encontramos una tendencia a la reproducción de estereotipos de género, donde se destacan la importancia de la delgadez, principalmente entre las mujeres, y de la musculatura, entre los varones. Con respecto a los estilos de vida, las regulaciones identificadas se orientan a la imitación de la vida cotidiana de personas famosas, enfatizando la importancia del consumo, la belleza y el entretenimiento. (shrink)

Este artigo tem como objetivo promover uma reflexão sobre as potências de performances protagonizadas por mulheres gordas na rede social digital Instagram, a partir de pesquisas bibliográfica, documental e de campo. Faz-se uma leitura multidisciplinar de corpos gordos, particularmente o de mulheres, em imagens postadas por elas na rede, no sentido de pensarmos formas outras de representação e de re-existência daqueles corpos que são tratados como doentes, feios, fracassados e distantes do ideal de feminilidade, no seio social e propagado também (...) pela mídia hegemônica. Articulam-se saberes de forma transdisciplinar em prol da discussão sobre corpos, performances e problematizações do eu no espaço artístico e comunicacional, bem como refletindo acerca de caminhos possíveis na comunicação e cultura visual em perspectivas em gênero. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Social media has given way to information and prosumption-oriented discursive fields wherein individuals construct their own social identities. Although interactivity, multimodality, user-centeredness and accessibility are the unique aspects of digital media but the fact that digital media as effective spaces for representing extreme self/other representation while being anonymous and free from following social norms, can cause dysfunctional social behaviours such as cyber hate. Mirroring the normative notions of femininity, masculinity and gender stereotype allows groups and individuals to connect and (...) express similar manifestations of hate, which, often result in the emergence of a ‘discursive spiral of hate’, misogyny and sexism. This paper draws on the important caveats discussed around Social Media-Critical Discourse Studies understanding of the contemporary digital discourses to deconstruct the complex relations between gender, hate speech and celebrities’ discourses on social media. In particular, how Lena Dunham, American celebrity, portrays herself on her Instagram page by going against the hegemonic views and how the audiences, i.e. the digital prosumers perceive that portrayal. Analysing 2000 user-generated comments deconstruct how women are required to suppress their feeling and limit their authentic online presentation to maintain the outward countenance that matches the stereotypical gender roles in audiences’ state of mind. (shrink)

We examined the associations between the characteristics of Instagram users and the features of their photographs. Narcissism, life satisfaction, and loneliness were employed for user variables and the features at high- and low-levels were employed to analyze the Instagram photographs. An online survey was conducted with 179 university students, and their Instagram photographs, 25,394 in total, were collected and analyzed. High-level features were extracted using Computer Vision and Emotion Application Programming Interfaces in Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, and low-level features were (...) extracted utilizing the program written by the authors. The results of correlation analysis indicate that narcissism, life satisfaction, and loneliness were significantly associated with a part of photograph features at high- and low-levels. The results of the predictive analysis suggest that narcissism, loneliness in total, and social loneliness could be predicted with acceptable accuracy from Instagram photograph features, while characteristics such as life satisfaction, family loneliness, and romantic loneliness could not be predicted. Implications of this research and suggestions for further research were presented. (shrink)

For centuries, the British royal family has been the subject of books, articles, broadcast media, and digital communication. The addition of social media platforms has further increased the attention of the royals. Each of the family’s official social media sites have large numbers of followers around the world. The present study uses Goffman’s Presentation of Self to qualitatively examine how the current British royal family portrays itself visually via its official Instagram account. An analysis of two years of posts on (...) the social platform provides a glimpse of how the family works to maintain its image through a highly popular social media platform. Results indicated the presence of three main themes: Queen as the Head of the Monarchy, Honoring the Past, and The Working Royalty. This study offers a means of understanding the importance of visuals in conveying the royal family. (shrink)

Les poètes actifs sur Twitter, Instagram ou Wattpad proposent une nouvelle forme de poésie commune. À l’écart des pratiques avant-gardistes, ces amateurs reprennent des formes poétiques éprouvées (vers, rime, haïku) en les adaptant aux espaces d’écriture que les sites mettent à leur disposition. On assiste ainsi à une floraison de micropoésie sur Twitter, à un reformatage graphique et nostalgique du poème sur Instagram, et à une construction collective du lyrisme sur Wattpad. En enrichissant les textes de contenus multimédias, les amateurs (...) contribuent aussi à détacher la poésie de la textualité. En retour, le média numérique contribue à redéfinir le sujet poétique, entre affirmation et effacement de soi. (shrink)

This essay applies Peirce’s and Deleuze’s semiotics to “food porn” on Instagram, and this sign is an exemplar of the structure of all signs on this platform. Food porn is defined as triadic: th...

The present study explored motivations for lying self-presentation on Instagram as well as the mental and behavioral outcomes of this presentation. We also examined the differential mediational roles of perceived popularity in accounting for the association between lying self-presentation and depression. Our results showed that individuals with a strong need for approval reported higher levels of lying self-presentation. The results also revealed that lying self-presentation positively influenced depression, perceived popularity and deleting behaviors. Furthermore, we found that even if lying self-presentation (...) increased depression, perceived popularity served as a psychological buffer against depression. (shrink)

The purpose of this exploratory study is to determine whether the phenomenon of influencers has led to a shift towards the spectacularisation of politics on Instagram and its reach among young people. Sixty key political influencers in Spain were identified through social listening, influencer analysis tools, expert consultations and social media searches. A detailed profile analysis focusing on performance metrics and audience demographics was conducted and triangulated with content analysis of 600 posts. The results show that these political influencers have (...) a combined total of 6,287,149 followers, primarily under the age of 35, and have high interaction rates (3.9%). These influencers are also young, with 68% under 35, predominantly male (65%), and well educated. Their content is mainly political information blended with entertainment, addressing current political issues through the reel format. This study represents the first mapping of Spanish political influencers and highlights their potential impact on young people and deliberative democracy on social networks. (shrink)

This study makes an original contribution to knowledge by investigating the impact of Just-in-Time teaching and peer instruction strategies on the promotion of students’ achievement, interaction, and motivation in English language learning. Students were recruited from an undergraduate TESOL program in the first semester of 2019 at a University in Saudi Arabia. A multiple method research design was used to address the research questions robustly and rigorously. First, a two-group quasi-experimental design was implemented. In the first group, a lecture-based strategy (...) was used, while in the second group, JiT and PI strategies were used in English language lessons. An innovative research method was used in this study: a private Instagram account was created, serving as a platform through which teacher and students could communicate using interactive posts and comments. Second, students filled out a survey reflecting on this medium of language teaching and learning. Finally, focus group interviews were conducted to determine students’ views on the use of Instagram as an educational tool in terms of its flexibility and usefulness. The findings of the study suggest that JiT teaching, and PI promoted students’ achievement and enhanced students’ motivation, particularly in relation to fluency and novelty in the second language. Furthermore, students viewed Instagram as a successful educational tool that significantly facilitated their collaboration. Nevertheless, this study also highlights the challenges of using JiT teaching and PI to facilitate language learning. Suggestions for practitioners are specified; including providing adequate e-learning tools for students to enhance language learning motivation and achievement. (shrink)

In a previous article, we projected the future accumulation of profiles belonging to deceased users on Facebook. We concluded that a minimum of 1.4 billion users will pass away before 2100 if Facebook ceases to attract new users as of 2018. If the network continues expanding at current rates, on the other hand, this number will exceed 4.9 billion. Although these findings provided an important first step, one network alone remains insufficient to establish a quantitative foundation for further macro-level analysis (...) of the phenomenon of online death. Facebook is but one social media platform among many, and hardly the most representative in terms of their policy on deceased users. In this study, we use the same methodology to develop a complementary analysis of projected mortality on Instagram. Our models indicate that somewhere between 767 million and 4.2 billion Instagram users will die between 2019 and 2100, depending on the network’s future growth rate. Although the number of deceased Instagram profiles will likely be fewer than those on Facebook, we argue that they are nonetheless part of a shared digital cultural heritage, and should hence be curated with careful consideration. (shrink)

Este artigo tem como objetivo examinar os elementos componentes das performances sociais realizadas por adolescentes brasileiras obesas no Instagram, tomando como base reflexiva as regiões representacionais de frente/fundo, propostas por Erving Goffman. Os dados foram obtidos através da realização de entrevistas individuais semiestruturadas, analisados qualitativamente e agrupados em categorias que evidenciam os elementos performáticos que compõem estas regiões e as interações ator-plateia. Concluímos que o Instagram se configura em um espaço onde as adolescentes acessam e produzem conteúdos que lhes oferecem (...) segurança e motivação para realizarem apresentações de si mais positivas, o que promove, de certa maneira, uma atenuação dos efeitos inibidores derivados do estigma da obesidade em seus comportamentos sociais perante os públicos/plateias que compõem suas práticas sociais. (shrink)

Background and ObjectivesBecause of high skin cancer risks for young women, it is vital that effective interventions reach and influence this demographic. Visual social media platforms, like Instagram, are popular with young women and are an appropriate intervention site; yet, they also host competing images idealizing tan skin. The present study tested the ability of digital sun-safety interventions to affect self-control-related emotions and visual attention to subsequent tan-ideal images as well as sun-safety attitudes.MethodsWomen were recruited from a large public Mid-Atlantic (...) university in the United States. Participants were randomly assigned to view an appearance benefits intervention, a self-control emotions intervention, or a control message, each designed to look like an Instagram sponsored story. After self-reporting self-compassion and anticipated pride, participants then viewed seven pairs of Instagram posts featuring either tan or pale women while an eye tracker assessed visual attention. Finally, participants self-reported their responses to questions assessing sun-safety-related norms, efficacy, and attitudes.ResultsA mixed design analysis of covariance revealed that women who first viewed the appearance benefits intervention story spent less time visually fixated on Instagram images of tan women than did those who viewed the self-control emotions intervention or control message. Regressions also revealed interactions between the intervention conditions and feelings of anticipated pride on both visual attention and sun-safety attitudes.ConclusionSponsored stories on Instagram can promote sun-safety attitudes, depending on the emotional responses they generate. Additionally, sponsored interventions can affect subsequent visual attention. (shrink)

Studies of social media and its uses have focused on how it shapes behavior but less so with emotion. Overcoming this limitation, this article investigates the role of emotion in understanding and shaping actions online, and how, conversely, different uses of social media are leveraged to manage and express emotions, focusing on Facebook and Instagram. To this end, this article draws on 24 in-depth interviews with youth users in Hong Kong to excavate practices of emotional labor and management online, which (...) reveal (1) strategies to manage emotional reactions, centering on critical distance; (2) strategies to manage emotional conveyance by manipulating the temporality of the content they produce; and (3) the creation of a digital blasé that consisted of the atmosphere of Facebook and Instagram, sustained by general emotional detachment, the perceived need to detach, and a sense of “watchedness”. Throughout, emotional detachment was the default state that users entered into when using Facebook and Instagram, as an anticipatory reaction to the emotional exhaustion imposed by imagined content and into which they inevitably returned. (shrink)

Being enmeshed in a digital environment, we daily produce internet-mediated texts – encompassing several different semiotic codes – accessible on a global scale. Posts on different networks usually contain hashtags, which can be understood as affordances or behavior opportunities. These affordances allow specific actions both from the part of the writer and the reader. They can also be “behavior triggers,” which invite certain behavior online or offline. Digital fashion communication experts should take into consideration these affordances to pursue their goals (...) in the activities related to marketing, promoting, creating engagement and communicating either about a brand or a brand item. While there is general research on reasons to hashtag and on the functions they perform, there is a gap in what hashtags “mean” and “do” in the fashion domain. The objectives of this paper are threefold: 1) to give an overview of the history of hashtags; 2) to present the affordances of hashtags, while creating a general table of affordances from the addresser’s perspective, based on the literature overview; 3) to perform a qualitative analysis of hashtags on Gucci official Twitter and Instagram accounts during a given time span and on other Gucci-related hashtags posted by common users. The choice of the brand is due to Gucci’s focus on active digital communication practices. Results can be valuable for both researchers and industry professionals involved in digital fashion communication. (shrink)

Advancement of social media in the modern era provides a good incentive for researchers to unleash the potential of social networking tools in order to improve education. Despite the significant role of social media in affecting second/foreign language learning processes, few empirical studies have tried to find out how Instagram feed-based tasks affect learning grammar structure. To fill this lacuna of research, the current study set forth to delve into the influence of Instagram feed-based tasks on learning grammar among English (...) as a foreign language learners. In so doing, a sample of 84 intermediate EFL learners were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The learners in the control group received regular online instruction via webinar platforms. In contrast, the learners in the experimental group were exposed to Instagram feed-based tasks. Data inspection applying one-way ANCOVA indicated that the learners in the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group. The results highlighted the significant contributions of Instagram feed-based tasks in fostering learning grammar. Furthermore, EFL learners’ positive attitudes toward using Instagram Feed-based Tasks in Learning Grammar was concluded. The implications of this study may redound to the benefits of language learners, teachers, curriculum designers, as well as policy makers in providing opportunities for further practice of Instagram feed-based tasks in language learning and teaching. (shrink)

We combine philosophical theories with quantitative analyses of online data to propose a sophisticated approach to social media influencers. Identifying influencers as communication systems emerging from a dialectic interactional process between content creators and in-development audiences, we define them mainly using the composition of their audience and the type of publications they use to communicate. To examine these two parameters, we analyse the audiences of 619 Instagram accounts of French, English, and American influencers and 2,400 of their publications in light (...) of Girard’s mimetic theory and McLuhan’s media theory. We observe meaningful differences in influencers’ profiles, typical audiences, and content type across influencers’ classes, supporting the claim that such communication systems are articulated around ‘reading contracts’ upon which influencers’ image is based and from which their influence derives. While the upkeep of their influence relies on them sticking to this contract, we observe that successful influencers shift their content type when growing their audiences and explain the strategies they implement to address this double bind. Different types of contract breaches then lead to distinct outcomes, which we identify by analysing various types of followers’ feedback. In mediating social interactions, digital platforms reshape society in various ways; this interdisciplinary study helps understand how the digitalisation of social influencers affects reciprocity and mimetic behaviours. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This work aims to reflect on possible meanings for the evangelical faith based on utterances produced by three evangelical ministers in their social networks when they enunciate on themes that are linked, directly or indirectly, to political agendas. Based on the theoretical scope of studies in Applied Linguistics and on Bakhtinian conceptions of language, our analyzes point to three predominant meanings, which mean the evangelical faith as: i) reaffirmation of identity; ii) exercise of otherness and respect to the other; (...) and iii) political practice. Such meanings demonstrate that there are contradictions within the religious discursivity, which allows the beating between hate speeches and respect and empathy ones within the realm of the evangelical faith. Thus, looking for cracks in religious discourse that oppose fundamentalist and authoritarian discourses is an ethical duty of a religious leader who recognizes his social and discursive role as influential in taking positions and, therefore, in the lives of the members of their congregation. (shrink)

What kind of reading and viewing space is created within contemporary platforms? While existing research has explored the impact of surveillance, this article moves on to theoretically discuss the intersection of technosocial reading. It examines how algorithmic interpellation and profiling function as enunciative strategies, and how this is explored from a transgender perspective. The article raises theoretical questions about the flattening of enunciation and its implications for a critical reading and observation space. To further explore these concepts, it analyses Ada (...) Ada Ada’s year-long in transitu Instagram performance. Through this analysis, the challenges posed by fixed, binary gender categorisations prevalent on platforms like Instagram are unpacked. Ada Ada Ada’s performance serves as an imminent criticism of the enunciative, representational and gender policies of platforms, demonstrating their arbitrary and absurd nature. Ultimately, in transitu invites platform users to reconsider their roles as technosocial readers and observers. (shrink)

(The Kindle book can be ordered for $3.21 from Amazon) -/- Thinking is a fundamental activity of our species – those that give names to other creatures and call themselves humans. Textbooks tell us that there is about 1.2 kg of matter called the brain inside the human body. It sounds small but actually is proportionally the biggest among all animals on Earth. -/- I became more aware of thinking at around 5th grade upon hearing about an ancient paradox. It (...) can be summarized as follows. -/- ¤ -/- Once upon a time, there was a stupid king. In his kingdom lived a sage who was highly respected for his intelligence. The King did not appreciate this fact. Maybe the Sage made fun of the King’s intellect, but I am not so sure. Anyway, one day, the King summoned the Sage, intending to kill him. -/- The King said, “Wise man, I heard you earn a living by thinking and arguing. Now I give you two options to die.” -/- The Sage said, “Please tell me the choices, Your Majesty.” -/- The King continued, “You live by your tongue, so I will let you say one sentence before you die. If what you say is true, you will die by hanging. If what you say is false, you will die by beheading.” -/- Little did the King know that this was a stupid order. After a short while, the Sage confidently spoke his “last words”, which actually were what saved his life: -/- “Your Majesty, I am about to be beheaded!” -/- ¤ -/- As a “wild animal” going out into life from a young age, my brain spent a lot of time and energy looking for food. Now that I have become older, my body no longer needs so much sustenance. However, my mind craves a different type of nourishment: food for thought. -/- Food for thought can directly lead to food (on the table). My main job as a scientist exemplifies what I have just stated. Maybe we were wrong. Maybe it has been “thought for food” all along, like in such a sequence as TFFTTTFTFFTTFFFT... -/- In the hyper-chaotic infosphere today, we are surrounded by the noises of information, not only as wavy shores or waterfalls but also mega-tsunamis, through Twitter, Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, etc. More than ever, tranquility and calmness are necessary. Like what you have seen in wilderness video clips, predators such as lions, bears, and alligators act lightning-fast when catching prey. But when food is served, the natural world returns to its peaceful, soothing silence. -/- This short book is in its own tidy infosphere, where each little story is also brief and self-contained. Despite this small appearance, I hope the content inside carries the value of tranquility and life observation. The book is petite, but pretty sure not malnourished. A not-too-small detail is that the way the content was shaped and distilled reflects some innovations of mine and my research team: the mindsponge theory, a new theory of serendipity, the bayesvl R package, the BMF analytics, as well as other experiences from working in the field of science. After all, scientific works were my main source of food (before this book sells well – if it does). -/- Welcome to the priceless sober moments – with a chicken-burger price tag! -/- I hope this book will bring readers some moments of calmness, peaceful smiles, and maybe a couple of good laughs too. -/- ~~~ -/- *This update: December 12, 2023 (Third edition, with additions). (shrink)

Social media data hold considerable potential for predicting health-related conditions. Recent studies suggest that machine-learning models may accurately predict depression and other mental health-related conditions based on Instagram photos and Tweets. In this article, it is argued that individuals should have a sui generis right not to be subjected to AI profiling based on publicly available data without their explicit informed consent. The article (1) develops three basic arguments for a right to protection of personal data trading on the notions (...) of social control and stigmatization, (2) argues that a number of features of AI profiling make individuals more exposed to social control and stigmatization than other types of data processing (the exceptionalism of AI profiling), (3) considers a series of other reasons for and against protecting individuals against AI profiling based on publicly available data, and finally (4) argues that the EU General Data Protection Regulation does not ensure that individuals have a right not to be AI profiled based on publicly available data. (shrink)

Since the announcement and establishment of the Oversight Board (OB) by the technology company Meta as an independent institution reviewing Facebook and Instagram’s content moderation decisions, the OB has been subjected to scholarly scrutiny ranging from praise to criticism. However, there is currently no overarching framework for understanding the OB’s various strengths and weaknesses. Consequently, this article analyses, organises, and supplements academic literature, news articles, and Meta and OB documents to understand the OB’s strengths and weaknesses and how it can (...) be improved. Significant strengths include its ability to enhance the transparency of content moderation decisions and processes, to effect reform indirectly through policy recommendations, and its assertiveness in interpreting its jurisdiction and overruling Meta. Significant weaknesses include its limited jurisdiction, limited impact, Meta’s control over the OB’s precedent, and its lack of diversity. The analysis of a recent OB case in Ethiopia shows these strengths and weaknesses in practice. The OB’s relationship with Meta and governments will lead to challenges and opportunities shaping its future development. Reforms to the OB should improve the OB’s control over its precedent, apply OB precedent to currently disputed cases, and clarify the standards for invoking OB precedent. Finally, these reforms provide the foundation for an additional improvement to address the OB’s institutional weaknesses, by involving users in determining whether the OB’s precedent should be applied to decide current content moderation disputes. (shrink)

Unser aller Alltag ist in der Zwischenzeit stark von den Dienstleistungen und Plattformen der Technologiekonzerne durchdrungen. In der politischen Kommunikation sind Twitter, Facebook, Instagram und Konsorten nicht mehr wegzudenken. Die veränderten Bedingungen, unter denen politische Kommunikation stattfindet, haben nicht zu einer Machtnivellierung, sondern vielmehr zu einer verschiebung geführt. Politische Kommunikation ist für uns unentbehrlich, um unsere politischen Meinungen zu bilden, unsere Positionen zu artikulieren und politische Fragen zu diskutieren. Daraus ergeben sich zwei zentrale Fragen für die Politische Bildung: Welche Fähigkeiten (...) benötigen autonome und medienkundige Bürger*innen? Und wie erlernen wir diese Fähigkeiten? Dieser Beitrag skizziert eine mögliche Antwort darauf. (shrink)

Wenn man heute Instagram öffnet, begegnen vielfältige Beiträge zu Gendervielfalt, sexueller Aufklärung, Umweltengagement und Körperoptimierung. Auf Instagram gibt es Queerness ebenso wie neue Lebensformen, ein neues Verhältnis zur Umwelt, veränderte Selbstverständnisse, eine breite Varianz von Formen der Selbstdarstellung und Körperinszenierung. Die hier gezeigten veränderten Lebenswirklichkeiten und Selbstverständnisse der Menschen legen nahe, dass diese neuen Entwicklungen in eine zeitgenössische Anthropologie, die sich mit dem menschlichen Selbstverständnis wissenschaftlich auseinandersetzt, aufgenommen werden müssen. Der Aufsatz nimmt die Social-Media-Plattform Instagram als Anlass, um Perspektiven für (...) eine zeitgenössische Anthropologie aufzuzeigen. Dazu wird untersucht, durch welche Perspektiven die Anthropologie ergänzt werden muss und wie die theoretischen Ansätze des Neuen Materialismus dafür fruchtbar gemacht werden können. Im ersten Schritt wird in die Themen auf Instagram sowie den Zusammenhang von Instagram und Anthropologie eingeführt (2). Davon ausgehend werden drei Themen für eine zeitgemäße Anthropologieuntersucht: Technik (Technikanthropologie), Körper und Körperoptimierung sowie Umwelt und die Beziehungen zu nichtmenschlichen Entitäten (3). Anschließend werden der Neue Materialismus (4) vorgestellt und dazu die Ansätze von Donna Haraway und Karen Barad skizziert, sodass daraus Schlüsse für eine zeitgemäße Anthropologie gezogen werden können (5). Dies mündet in einen Ausblick auf die weitere anthropologische Forschung (6). (shrink)

The paper problematises the reliability and ethics of using social media data, such as sourced from Twitter or Instagram, to carry out health-related research. As in many other domains, the opportunity to mine social media for information has been hailed as transformative for research on well-being and disease. Considerations around the fairness, responsibilities and accountabilities relating to using such data have often been set aside, on the understanding that as long as data were anonymised, no real ethical or scientific issue (...) would arise. We first counter this perception by emphasising that the use of social media data in health research can yield problematic and unethical results. We then provide a conceptualisation of methodological data fairness that can complement data management principles such as FAIR by enhancing the actionability of social media data for future research. We highlight the forms that methodological data fairness can take at different stages of the research process and identify practical steps through which researchers can ensure that their practices and outcomes are scientifically sound as well as fair to society at large. We conclude that making research data fair as well as FAIR is inextricably linked to concerns around the adequacy of data practices. The failure to act on those concerns raises serious ethical, methodological and epistemic issues with the knowledge and evidence that are being produced. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper scrutinizes the nature and scope of deleterious consequences arising from the pursuit of unattainable pedagogical exemplars on social media. We cash out this phenomenon using exemplarist theory to emphasize the fact that social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) are platforms in which the vast majority of users present idealized and curated versions of themselves. We focus specifically on educational practitioners and show that attempting to emulate unattainable pedagogical exemplars has negative impacts on agents’ emotional well-being: It can (...) cause burnout and self-conflict, decrease motivation, and also inflict detrimental outcomes on agents’ self-esteem. We conclude that attainable, relevant, relatable, and authentic exemplars are key to a successful exemplarist approach and that safeguarding against unattainable pedagogical exemplars is of paramount importance for the wellbeing of pedagogues, and by extension, the success of educational systems. (shrink)