Performing the Self on Instagram: Authenticity, Identity and Multiplicity

Abstract

Instagram is one of the largest social networking sites to have developed in the last ten years. It provides a platform for individuals to perform their identity and explore different methods of self-representation, by offering the ability to post images or videos to one or many curated profile pages or a temporary ‘story.’ In this thesis, I explore the relationship between selfpresentation and mediated authenticity across multiple accounts on Instagram. Enli’s definition of an authenticity contract, as an expression of mediated authenticity, is used primarily to consider how users conceptualise a display of authenticity. To explore this, I conducted semi-structured focus groups with participants between the ages of 18-25, who all had multiple accounts on Instagram. These focus groups facilitated an understanding the complexity of performing the self on Instagram and the difficulty of maintaining an authenticity contract while navigating different performances to different audiences. Participants expressed the need to split their self-presentation into multiple accounts, to avoid accidentally presenting themselves to the wrong person and allow them an avenue to present their best self. Nevertheless, users must navigate these split self-presentations in a flattened temporality, where the audience can view their past concurrently with their present. Again, users face the difficulty of this past reaching the wrong audience, and breaking the authenticity contract. Furthermore, while other features on the platform do not necessarily archive the self, such as Instagram Stories, participants indicated they still presented their identity with their audience, and their authenticity, in mind. Finally, this research considers the impact of editing and filtering on a user’s self-presentation and authenticity contract. While participants expressed it was normal to filter your images, if these alterations were too different, or obvious, the authenticity contract could be broken. While participants expressed ways to maintain this, through irony, humour or otherwise acknowledging the alteration, the consequences of a broken contract could still result in a loss of friends, employment and reputation offline. As such, despite the constructed and flexible nature of authenticity on Instagram, it remains a central element to presenting the self online.