Hiding Traces of Status Seeking

Contradictory Tagging Strategies on Instagram

Bibliographic Data

ID2414172
AuthorsFiers Floor (0000-0002-4261-7725, Northwestern University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume6
Issue2
Publication date2020-04-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Media + Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2056-3051 • E-ISSN: 2056-3051
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2056305120937318
OpenAlexW3039124957
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited35

The prevailing presence of social media in the twenty-first century has changed processes of self-presentation. This study questions how Instagram users employ the platform's tagging features to claim and seek status. Content analysis on a random sample of 787 posts carrying the hashtag 'instagood' revealed that they utilize the tagging affordances to make their audience aware of their capital. In addition to displaying their capital through tags, however, users employ hashtags and account tags to increase their visibility on the platform. Interestingly, analysis shows the prevalence of attempts to conceal these obvious paratextual status-seeking strategies. Over half of the Instagram posts in the sample showed traces of the creators taking active steps to hide their use of like-hunter hashtags, through which users explicitly ask other Instagrammers for likes and follows. This finding builds upon Marwick's concept of aspirational production: The perfecting of one's online presentation does not only happen by producing a high-status image, but also by concealing the 'inauthentic' nature of this production. Furthermore, the fact that traces of obvious status seeking can be found online implies that the lines between Goffman's front- and backstage are blurred in the digital age

Advertising · Affordance · Business · Human–computer interaction · Internet privacy · Media studies · Social media · Sociology · Visibility · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Media and Politics

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