Instagram In Fixing Our Everyday Life Experience

Proceedings of ‏The 4th International Conference on Social Science, Humanities and Education

Year: 2020

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/4th.icshe.2020.12.31

[Fulltext PDF]

Instagram In Fixing Our Everyday Life Experience

Desi Dwi Prianti

ABSTRACT: 

Bringing the brand promise ‘brings you closer to the people and things you love’. Instagram allows users to have the feeling of being connected to the world. In general, people use their Instagram account as a tool to show what is happening with their life. They consciously decide and choose information about their lives to be shared with significant other (Instagram’s friends). In doing so, they create self-presentation that leads to the creation of a self-made identity. Instagram itself is filled with users’ positive self- presentation. However, the trend nowadays, users have more than one Instagram account. Not only do they present themselves in a positive light or self-idealization, but at the same time, they also share their self-actualization. By self-actualization, it means to express not only their flattering side but also the ‘other’ side of one’s life. According to this research results, it can be defined as ones’ unattractiveness, humiliating moments, and embarrassing sides, ranging from facial imperfections, depression, and struggles. This research itself used a complementary combination of content analysis, in-depth interviews, and observation participatory. By posing the research question regarding how Instagram users use their Instagram account to fix their daily life experience and to what extent it relates to their Catharsis. This research gives an insight into the limitation and the boundaries of how social media entangles with an individual’s identity. While many studies on Instagram available discus the way Instagram activities work as simulacra, they do not consider Instagram itself as the simulacra and how it changes the way we live our everyday life.

Keywords: Instagram, self-made identity, Catharsis, self-presentation, simulacra.