Instagram and the Curated Self

Mariam Aliyu
Professor Manivannan
Social Media and Culture
May 11, 2015
Instagram and the Curated Self:
What the Pictures Dont Show Us

I. Introduction
Social media has gained widespread popularity over the years, and has helped people create connections with others in ways that would not have been possible in the past. However, one
potential consequence of partaking in social media is the often false perception of perfection and
reality that it portrays. From expensive restaurants to elegant vacations to the selfie with perfect
lighting; Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are filled with glamorized versions of ourselves and
our lives. While we see all these seemingly exciting moments online, in reality it cannot be taken
as the whole story just a fragment of the truth. The impersonal nature of communication from
behind a computer screen or phone allows people to create an entirely new persona, or act out a
personality that they wish for. As we are given the freedom to extend, exaggerate, add to or
change our personalities online, social media platforms can interfere with how we form our identities. Due to this, how people construct their identities on social media cannot be taken as an accurate representation of who they are. In my analysis, I will explore how the social networking
site Instagram influences the formation of offline identities. Through our online endeavors, it is
necessary to ask ourselves if we are really presenting who we are or just an overly idealistic version of ourselves.
Instagram is a photo-sharing network where a user can upload and share images with oth-

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er members.The photos posted on Instagram can be anything from an event that was attended to
a book being read to a delicious meal. These images give us an inside look into anothers life and
allow us to comment or like the image. The egocentric nature of the network allows users to
focus heavily on him or herself and post what they deem as important. An Instagram page, also
known as profile is supposed to be a visual representation of who we are, and serves as a development of ourselves. In Social Network Sites as Social as Networked Publics, Boyd notes
that profiles are central to social network sites. Profiles both represent the individual and serve
as the locus of interaction. Because of the public nature of profiles, participants actively and consciously craft their profiles to be seen by others (Boyd 40). These participants of social media
can therefore determine how they would like to present themselves to those who view their selfrepresentation (Boyd 40). I find that the world of Instagram is similar to that of an advertisement it can often be misleading. Like advertisements, Instagram photos are carefully catered
to a certain audience and may not tell the whole truth in the image. People filter their pictures to
make them look more aesthetically pleasing and seek to post what will create a positive reaction
from their viewers. People actively work to create an maintain an online presence, yet this is all
passed off as real life.

II. Acting on Social Media

In the article, Spectacle 2.0? authors Vejby and Wittkower make the claim that what we
do online is a charade, or a spectacle. The authors define spectacle as a mass of superficial
relations between people mediated by commodities and images (Vejby 98). We all have an ideal
self a more enhanced version of ourselves. This idea of displaying our ideal selves on social

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media platforms as opposed to our real selves has become more common, as the use of social
media continues to grow. Instagram, like much of social media, is about presenting the ideal version of yourself. While its not not yourself, it is just all the more positive parts that are shown to
the world, excluding the negative parts. Social media in turn becomes a tool where people substitute their true selves with what they believe will be highly regarded by others. With Instagram,
we are allowed to pick what pictures we want to share with an audience, so most people post the
things that are going to reflect the best aspects of their personalities, and represent themselves to
have a fulfilled life, be attractive etc. People attempt to guide and create certain images for other
people to obtain information about them in an attempt to highlight positive aspects. This gives
off a skewed vision of someones life and plays into what Vejby and Wittkower describes as a
spectacle. The authors claim that with social media comes superficiality, and this is reiterated
through the actions described. In Branding the Post-Feminist Self Weiser highlights the term
project of self. This is where the crafting of ones self is a constant dynamicand where individuals have to create a biographical narratives that will explain themselves to themselves, and
hence sustain a coherent an consistent identity (Weiser 8). This project of self that Weiser describes occurs when people set out to present an idealistic version of themselves, like Vejby and
Wittkower described. By doing this, we are essentially selling ourselves in a particular way as
we try to be as appealing as we can to an audience, we are selling our ideal selves.
The whole idea of social media pages being carefully constructed only further plays
into the idea that people may create a separate identity online than the one they have in real life.
In To Be and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter Marwick discusses the idea of how the
idea of practicing celebrity online is a performative practice. That idea of performative practice

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can be simply traced back to how people interact on social media and present themselves in a
positive light to others. Users can then be seen as actors in the interaction and are able to create
these ideal scenes for a specific audience. It is all a performance.
Sarachan, in Profile Picture, Right Here, Right Now, talks about the influence that images can have on a viewer. He does so by discussing the Latin term punctum as a means to understand a picture when it is first viewed. According to him, punctum is more immediate: what
strikes you about the photo at first glance, what emotional impact it makes or what sticks with
you (Sarachan 54). This punctum is what Instagram is all about. By seeing the images presented on the screen, it creates an immediate reaction to an image, sometimes positive and sometimes negative. Ill be the first to admit, its hard not to feel a slight tinge of jealously (for lack of
better word) after scrolling through Instagram and seeing all of the fabulous things that some of
my favorite YouTubers or bloggers are doing. From going to a concert, to a night out with
friends, to a flawless outfit post or even to a simple lunch date with a boyfriend, I have an immediate emotional reaction, or punctum, to these images, which is exactly what the user is hoping
for. Before I snap back to reality, I might even have a quick thought of Wow that looks perfect.
Since that reaction is so immediate, I always have to remind myself that I dont know whats going on behind the scenes, and that these images were carefully crafted, selected and edited. I
know first-hand that just because something may look picture perfect does not mean that it is. I
can take a picture showing my full teeth with my lips curled upwards to post on social media but
that does not mean that I am happy. It all goes back to the words of Vejby and Wittkower: It is a
spectacle (Vejby 100).

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All of this constructing online provides people with a false sense of self as well as an inflated sense of who they really are. Vejby and Wittkower affirm that the spectacle destroys dialogue and transform the real world into images. This eventually restricts us from experiencing
anything real and forces us to believe in the images imposed by the spectacle (Vejby 106).

III. Instagram Conceals Depression

If you scroll through the 154 posts on Litzas Instagram page youll be met with images of
a strikingly tall, blonde girl. A quick look through and youll be met with images of her in glamorous dresses inside fancy looking venues, or lounging on the beach weekly. Fashionista? Check.
Biology major? Check. Living in Miami? Check. Boyfriend? Check. On Instagram, her life looks
picture perfect. However, the identity that she had created throughout Instagram posts greatly
masked the truth about what was going on behind closed doors.
Just a few months ago, my childhood best friend Litza was admitted to a facility after a
long battle with severe depression, extreme suicidal thoughts and an almost suicide attempt. Her
Instagram page showed the complete opposite of a girl who was plagued with a crippling sadness. Through the careful construction of her social media page to represent her perfect idealized
self, she began to try to incorporate the popular aspects of her online self to her offline self, leading to more pressure when she couldnt always be that happy girl that her profile painted her to
be as. Weiser talks about the notion of living online and crafting an online identity (Weiser 4).
By being so adamant on having a perfect profile, it ultimately lacked authenticity, but her audience did not realize this. She was still flooded with comments on her pictures about how perfect her life was. Litza was able to scale quite a large following on the network and at over
6,000 followers, she was able to achieve what resembled micro-celebrity. Marwick defines mi-

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cro celebrity as a mindset through ongoing fan management; and self presentation is carefully
constructed (Marwick 140). While Litza had over 6,000 so-called friends or followers, on
Instagram, that number did not accurately represent how many people she felt that she could
count on during the day. This really reiterates the points that Deresiwicz makes in his article
Faux Friendship: Are our friendships now anything more than a form of distraction? If we
have 768 friends in what sense do we have any? (Deresiwicz 142). Lewis and West in Friending also went over this point when they discussed how people may request to be someones
friend without any actual intentions of being a friend. In our current day and age it really
seems like social media can sometimes widen the gap of friendship because you realize that your
friends or followers are not really friends.
Over a phone interview, Litza and I discussed her experiences with social media. She started by saying, My posts are not an accurate reflection of who I am. My Instagram only shows
the positive aspects of my life. It in no way exposes the down sides of my life and thats where
some people may get the wrong idea. This all relates back to the idea of an online life being a
spectacle. By viewing her Instagram, people may superficially come to a conclusion about who
she is and what her life is like. Litza described to me a recent comment that she had gotten on a
picture of her in front of palm trees, from a stranger that said Your life is too fab. Her response
to me: I spend so much time studying and this past year I probably got to go out once every few
weeks, so to just conclude that my whole life is fab from just a picture is..I dont know. You
can say that picture is fab but not my life as a whole, its two separate things. Its not the truth.
That wasnt the best of nightsI had a panic attack and had to go home early. But I just posted
that picture because I really liked my dress. In their article, Vejby and Wittkower emphasize the

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difference between our online experiences and our real life experiences: Even when we do
things we are always on the outside of them, performing that spectacle ourselves and never
living (Vejby 104). While in this situation Litza was in fact having a night out, her experience
that was shown in the images online told a different story than the reality she was living.
In Just Emotional People Emo Culture and the Anxieties of Disclosure Phillipov talks
about emo kids and their interactions online. Phillipov defines emo as emotionally hardcore.
Regarding the emo culture online, Phillipov writes that it is a teenagers secret worldin which
introspective, lonely, misunderstood, and depressed young people seek solace in communities of
emo and MySpace (Phillipov 2). What I found very interesting is that instead of seeking communities of emo, Litza took to Instagram when she felt lonely, misunderstood and depressed.
In his article,Transmedia Teens, Marten describes what people gain from producing content
online. In Litzas case, the social media served as a distraction from real life. The difference here
between her and the people characterized as emo is that if you were to look at Litzas social
media page you could not tell any of these signs of depression or sadness, as Instagram masked
her pain. This is very opposite to MySpace or SuicideGirls.com, where the idea of suicide or emo
culture could be evident and spoken about publicly.
Adolescents who grow up on Instagram end up spending a significant amount of their days
soaking up each others filtered images while existing in their own unfiltered worlds. The life
that Litza and so many young people live online are distinctly different from the one that they are
actually living, which makes it difficult to really have a set, sure identity. Litza further reflected
on what shes gained and lost from participating on Instagram: On Instagram, Ive gained connections with people but the thing that Ive got out of it the most is that Ive been able to get

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ideas and inspiration from others for things that I like. I can get inspiration for books to read, a
restaurant to try out, a clothing item I like, a movie to watchanything. But the downside would
be that Ive spent so much time on it rather than doing something better with my time. It can be
toxic. Since Ive spent so much time with it, I feel that Ive had to juggle multiple sides of myself. My Instagram shows a life where I am happy all the time, and thats not always the reality. I
post the best parts of my life only, and even those can be exaggerated I think its like this for
many people, they just want to show the good times, no one wants to show the hard days. Being
vulnerable in front of many peoplethat takes courage.

IV. Gains and losses from online participation

Social media can act as a shield for those who struggle with issues expressing their
thoughts and feelings in person-to-person contact, such as in the case of Litza. Many people may
spend so much time on social media because it can be an also act to boost self-esteem. After
posting an image on Instagram, it can be a satisfactory feeling to see like after like or comment after comment. However, people need to keep in mind that their self worth is not measured by how many likes they can get on their Instagram selfie. Instagram creates an identity
simply based on getting outside approval from others, and then taking the comments and likes
from a post and internalizing it. Users can then choose how to present themselves based on the
feedback the get by others and even carry this to their offline identities. If a person gets the most
likes on outfit pictures, and the least on pictures of nature, they may opt to taking more outfit pictures just because of the popularity that it garners.
Since users can select the best information to put forth to their audience, some people may
take the time to figure out certain strategies on how to represent themselves in order to gain sta-

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tus whether this be on attaining micro-celebrity status or just getting a larger audience (Boyd).
Since users may often seek approval from their followers, they can work on their online identity
and strategically create an identity that falls under what is popular among peers. This requires
quite a lot of work and effort to create such an identity. Building an audience is not always easy,
as it is about working on your personality and having something worth peoples attention,
whether it be attractiveness, talent, humor, or fashion. However, because the online representation of self is popular among peers, a user may continue to present this self in person as a way to
convey that certain image of themselves to the public. While Instagram may be a way for people
to express themselves, it can become a challenge of having to balance a variety of selves.

V. Removing the masks

In their article, Boyd and Marwick discuss the terms backstage and front stage performance. They clarified the meaning of the terms by saying, Intimate details about ones life are
understood as part of the backstage while professional communications can be seen as a front
stage performance (Boyd 145). This was a very interesting situation because while the social
media user is creating this performance of themselves in order to mold how others view them,
there is this offline or backstage time where the user is no longer performing this elaborate
role, and can actually be their real selves, not their curated selves. Vejby argues that the spectacle
alienates people which I find to be very true. While pretending, there is a fine line between the
person you are and the persona that you are pretending to be. When commenting on her Instagram profile, Litza said to me, Thats me, but thats not really me. That affirms the idea of
backstage performance because when she is not pretending, she proves to be a different personal-

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ity than the girl online. This can lead to feelings of being unauthentic and can negatively affect
how the user views themselves and their identity.
Online personalities who are honest about their lives not being cut out to be as glamorous
as it seems online are often very much respected by their viewers and seen as one of us. I am a
big fan of the beauty/fashion aspect of Instagram and YouTube but it is a well known fact that in
the community, many of the girls put on false personas in their social media pages and clearly
portray their lives in ways that make them look at a higher standing. This lack of authenticity can
be a turn off for many viewers including myself. Boyd and Marwick discuss how authenticity is
a key factor to succeeding online, if the user is also able to maintain a fan-base and have a consumable persona (Boyd 143). When people show their shortcomings, it can allow users to feel
more connected to them. Perfection is just not the reality of life. I really commend blogger Emily
June, who often takes breaks from her social media websites such as Instagram because she admits that she is having bad days and it is hard to be upbeat when that is not the case. By being
honest and candid, she gains a lot of respect from her viewers.
Lange continues this point in his article The Vulnerable Video Blogger: Promoting
Change Through Intimacy. Here, she talks about how video bloggers are being authentic by
sharing intimate moments of their lives which includes the good times as well as the bad times.
While video blogging is open and already an intimate thing, this intimacy is what can often be
hidden on Instagram. With videos, the tone of voice and attitude can really give away emotions
from the get go. Lange writes, Intimate moments are more personal and involve experiences not
ordinarily seen outside a persons small circle of friends and acquaintances (Lange 4). These
bloggers make themselves vulnerable (something that Litza mentioned was courageous) in order
to raise awareness to certain issues and create social change. Blogger Zoella is a key example

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of this. Popular on multiple forms of social media such as Instagram and YouTube, the beauty
blogger has publicly discussed her struggles with anxiety and panic attacks to raise awareness
and help others. Scroll through her Instagram and youll occasionally find inspirational quotes or
images with captions telling her followers to keep pushing. While she is a beauty blogger and her
business is to sell herself and have a consumable personality, people also know another side to
her which allows them to empathize and understand her more. She even posts pictures once in a
while of her with no make-up, which is a big thing in the world of Instagram where everything is
expected to be perfect and filtered. No longer is she this unattainable girl with no flaws, but a
person like you and me who has struggles too. Zoella is an example of someone who found success by tying together both sides of her personality rather than eliminating what she saw as
bad. She was able to take the negative aspects of her life and turn them into a positive one by
helping others.

VI. CONCLUSION
The social media network, Instagram, gives users the freedom to post what ever they want,
which can lead to images that do not necessarily represent who they are. Social media allows us
to create online identities, but often times these identities may be an exaggeration of our actual
identities. Networks like Instagram can hinder the way we see ourselves and can interfere with
how we form our offline identities. A picture online does not tell the whole story, as it can easily
mask the realities and hardships that a person may face. Authenticity is a very important thing,
and it is important for people to stay true to their real self instead of creating an unrealistic version of themselves. An online persona should be able to clearly reflect who you are offline.

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Works Cited

Boyd, D. and Marwick, A. (2011). To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter. In
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (pp.
140-156). Sage Publications.
Boyd, D (2011). Social Network Sites as Networked Publics. Affordances, Dynamics and Impli
cations. (pp. 39-49)
Deresiewicz, W. (2009). Faux Friendship. The Chronicle Review.
Lange, P. (2007). The Vulnerable Video Blogger: Promoting Social Change Through Intimacy.
Blogging Feminism: (Web)Sites of Resistance. (pp.1-14). The Barnard Center for Re
search on Women.
Lewis, J. and West, A. (2009). Friending: London-based Undergraduates Experience on Face
book. New Media and Society. (pp. 1-22) Sage Publications.
Martens, M. (2011). Transmedia Teens: Affect. Immaterial Labor, and User-Generated Content.
Phillipov. (2007). Just Emotional People Emo Culture and the Anxities of Disclosure. (pp. 1-9).
Sarachan, J. Profile Picture, Right Here, Right Now. Image, Music and Text. (pp. 52-64).
Vejby R. and Wittkower D. Spectacle 2.0? (pp. 97-108).
Weiser, S. Branding the Post-Feminist Self: Girls Video Production and YouTube. Mediated
Girlhoods: New Explorations of Girls Media Culture. (pp. 1-11).