Instagram and the self : exploitation or empowerment?

Abstract

This academic research aims to explore and identify the online and offline interlinkage regarding the psychological, emotional and physical influence of semi-nude and nude selfies pertaining to women on Instagram as content creators on women in everyday life, and to seek if the chosen social media platform, Instagram, is exploiting or empowering women in today’s world.

The type of research conducted is important to women’s studies and online research. What needs to be considered when conducting this kind of academic study is that data can change within a matter of years. Whereas the key question remains static whether or not women are empowered or exploited by social media, contrarily, the data collected from different generations is unpredictable. What is certain is that ethical and appropriate measures always need to be taken into consideration from the data that suffices.

The methodological techniques used in order to conduct the empirical research are as follows: qualitative research, inductive method, descriptive design, primary data, Braun’s and Clarke’s thematic analysis and semantic approach. The analysis of the research was based on visual content analysis of semi-nude and nude selfies pertaining to ten women chosen randomly on Instagram, questionnaires given to ten female participants in order to address the psychological, emotional and physical influence derived from the selfies and focus groups created from the same participants.

Two major issues sufficed regarding women’s body image and social media impact - the ‘idealisation’ of how a woman’s physique should look - slim, tall, long straight hair, small waist, large breasts and big buttocks; and the reduction of women’s self-esteem regarding her own body image due to comparison. The concluding factor is that what is deemed by women as the ‘perfect’ body type is none other than a creation of society, social media, traditional media and advertising.