Effects of Instagram Usage on Self Representation among the Gen-Z

A Case Study of Punjab University Jhelum Campus & Mirpur University of Science and Technology Students

Abstract

Instagram has become entrenched in the ways young adults share, think about, and build their people identities. Instagram was founded in 2010 and has experienced incredible growth making it a next big thing platform with currently over 2 billion active users as of January 2023 (Statista, 2023). This research tries to study on how the use of Instagram affects self-representation among Gen-Z. Instagram is interactive in the sense that photo and video sharing with filters, editing tools, likes, comments and reels, encourages the building of a digital environment that enables the construction of idealized versions of life to be curated and shared. These dynamics matter greatly when young adults think about and portray who they are. This study illuminates self-representation as a continuous process of sociably shaped development by cultural norms and feedback mechanisms in the invasive company that keeps us consistently turning over new leaves on our feeds. It operationalizes key variables like self-representation, self-identity and self-concept while focusing on how the Instagram's curated content and validation systems affect these constructs. In this regard, I explore self-representation as the deliberate adoption of an online persona through strategically chosen pieces of content. I then examine self-identity and self-concept in alignment or divergence between users' offline and online selves influenced by their use of Instagram's feedback loops, i.e. likes and comments and how it affects their self-image.

The research draws attention to the ability of Instagram to be positive or negative nursing implication. One side of Instagram provides space for self-expression, social support and identity exploration, community and validation. In itself, it also encourages unachievable beauty standards, form of lifestyle comparison, and self-seeking validation, which may bring guilt, anxiety, and lowered self-esteem. These effects are greatest, however, during the most formative years of young adulthood which is a time of identity exploration and self-definition. Drawing on theoretical frameworks such as Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective and Festinger’s social comparison theory, we offer a way to think through how Instagram enables both constructive and harmful ways of representing the self.