Which effect has Instagram on young girls’ self-identity? : A qualitative study of how social media affect young girls’ self-identity

The impact of technology through social media has contributed alot to the world, changing the way we live our lives. This is because individuals have a continuous flow of information through mass media. Today, the social forum, Instagram has a major impact on the everyday lives of young girls. Since many young girls are constantly connected to the Internet, this may result in certain criteria about how these girls should behave and how their lifestyles should look like. The purpose of the study is to get an understanding of how Instagram can affect young girls’ self-identities. A qualitative method is used in the study whereby six interviews are conducted with teenage girls. The data is analyzed mainly with the help of Giddens theory on reflexive identity in late modern age together with Cooley’s concept about ”looking-glass self”. In order to point out the gender aspect in self-identity constructions whereby teenage girls reproduce the normatively accepted femininity in Instagram, West & Zimmerman’s theory on ”doing gender” has been used. The aspects of consumer society whereby Instagram functions as a virtual platform and the ways in which demarcation between real and virtual becomes blurred in teenage girls’ identity constructions has been analyzed by the help of Baudrillard’s theory on consumer society. The results of the study show that Instagram has several significant effects interms of young girls’ self-identity constructions. The young girls do not present their true self-images on Instagram, they only show the "perfect" aspects of their daily lives. That means that they reshape and refine their appearances. The results also show that the experience for all interviewees is that they felt that there was a further norm for females on Instagram, like the importance of having an ideal body type. Instagram proved to be strongly linked to how young girls think about their bodies and looks