Private to some, public to others: How Australian youth segment their identities on Instagram

Intimacy and privacy are inextricable, as the former requires vulnerability that is not always possible, legal, or advisable in public settings. Within a social media context, where cultural practices are displayed, recognised, and archived, the lines between public and private are increasingly being crossed and blurred. Considering that digital media have come to “serve as records of young people’s lives and as archives of their personal histories,” it is worthwhile exploring who is privileged to access, view, and interact with these records and histories. Considering also that “young people are highly strategic in managing privacy in digital social spaces,” this research seeks to 1) examine young Australian Instagram users’ motivations for setting their profiles to private, 2) identify the imagined audiences that spark this motivation, 3) articulate how they determine who to let follow them, and 4) uncover users’ perceptions of the affordances and constraints of their accounts’ privacy settings. It does so through an in-depth interview and image elicitation approach with Australian youth aged 15-24 (as these are the individuals most likely to use the internet for social media purposes). Beyond illuminating how Australian youth enact audience control strategies, the findings also have implications for platform-dependent identity performance, decision intentionality, and comfort in digital spaces