Instagram Influencers Impact on Self-esteem of High School and College Students

Društvene mreže imaju veliki utjecaj na korisnike, a pojavom novih društvenih mreža trendovi se mijenjaju te ta tematika postaje sve zanimljivijaza istraživanje. Instagram je trenutno jedna od najpopularnijih društvenih mreža, posebice među mladima. Stoga je važno ispitati utjecaj Instagrama na njegove korisnike. Na Instagramu važnu ulogu imaju influenceri. To su osobe s većim brojem pratitelja, koje svojim objavama mogu utjecati na njih. Instagram influenceri skloni su objavljivati nerealne fotografije sebe i svojega života. Oni na fotografijama uvijek izgledaju lijepo i privlačno, stalno se zabavljaju i druže sa svojim prijateljima te imaju novu odjeću, stvari, automobile i slično. Na taj način, stvaraju privid savršenog života, za kojeg korisnici često nisu svjesni da u stvarnosti nije takav. Oni postavljaju visoku ljesticu korisnicima, koji mogu pomisliti kako bi i njihov život trebao tako izgledati, te se kao posljedica toga kod njih može stvoriti osjećaj nezadovoljstva vlastitim izgledom i životom. Mladi ljudi su posebno ranjiva skupina, jer oni još nemaju izgrađeno svoje ja, teže ralikuju lažno od stvarnog te su skloni pasti pod utjecaj drugih. Zbog toga su u fokus ovog istraživanja stvaljeni upravo mladi, točnije srednjoškolci i studenti. Cilj ovoga istraživanja je utvrditi percepciju utjecaja Instagram influencera na samopouzdanje srednjoškolaca i studenata. Istraživanje je podijeljeno na tri glavna dijela pomoću kojeg se utvrđivao utjecaj na samopouzdanje, a to su utjecaj na zadovoljstvo fizičkim izgledom, društvenim životom i materijalnim stanjem. Podaci su se prikupljali pomoću online anketnog upitnika.Social networks have a great impact on users, and with new social networks, trends are changing and this topic is becoming more interesting for research. Nowadays, Instagram is one of the most popular social networks, especially among young people. Therefore, it is important to examine the impact of Instagram on its users. Influencers play an important role on Instagram. These are people with a large number of followers, who can make influence on their followers. Instagram influencers tend to post unrealistic photos of themselves and their lives. They always look beautiful and attractive, they are constantly having fun and hanging out with their friends, and they have new clothes, things, cars in their posts. In this way, they create the illusion of a perfect life and user are often unware that it is not reality. They set a high scale for users, who may think that their life should look like that. As a result, users may feel dissatisfied with their own appearance and life. Young people are a particularly vulnerable group, because they have not yet built their selves, find it harder to distinguish fake from the real, and tend to fall under the influence of others. Therefore, the focus of this research are young people, more precisely, high school and university students. The aim of this research is to determine the perception of the influence that Instagram influencers have on the self-comfidence of high school and university students. The research was divided into three main parts, which were used to determine the impact on self-confidence. These are; satisfaction with physical appearance, social life and material condition. An online survey questionnaire was used to collect the data