Instagram Attitudinal Study
I set out to better understand the relationship young women have with Instagram and how it influences their beliefs, understandings, and daily life. I designed the research project, recruited and interviewed participants and analyzed data from start to finish.
Goal
Questions
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What is the Instagram experience like for female users?
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Does this platform influence their understanding of themselves and others around them?
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If so, how and why?
Methods
Participant Recruitment: I recruited participants through my advisor's Intro to Psychology class. I had interested recruits fill out a brief screener and then selected 6 participants that best matched the audience I was targeting, which was female college students, actively engaged in Instagram.
Focus Group: I was interested to first hear participants' initial thoughts and feelings about Instagram on a superficial level in front of their peers, which is why I started with a focus group of 6 participants. Some of the questions I asked were:
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What do you like about Instagram?
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What do you dislike about Instagram?
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How do you determine what content you post?
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What do you wish you could change about Instagram?
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How does Instagram help you?
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How does Instagram disservice you?
1-on-1 Interviews: After the hour-long focus group, I then met with each participant individually for any follow-up thoughts they had, after having time to process what was discussed in the group. I asked the participants if there was anything they agreed with, disagreed with, or if they felt differently about their relationship with Instagram.
Results
Data Analysis: After coding and analyzing data using the grounded theory, I looked for patterns and common themes throughout the discussions.
Common themes I found in the data were:
Ambivalence: Participants expressed a "love-hate" relationship with Instagram. They report that they don't care about the response they receive from others on Instagram and also acknowledge that it affects them more than they would like to admit or allow. They saw Instagram as a "necessary evil", meaning they found important social "benefits" to using it and also wishing that they didn't have to rely on it to stay connected to others.
Loss of Authenticity and Control: Related to ambivalence, participants discussed how they felt like they were in complete control of their feed and posts. They expressed how authenticity was a big priority and value to them when engaging with the app. However, participants also shared that they are willing to change their behavior on the app in a way that they believe will result in a higher, more favorable response from their audience based on the audience's "preferences".
Gendered Standards and Expectations: Participants brought up how they have different expectations and standards between men and women on the app. There was a consistent thought that since women are more appearance-focused, they will be more involved with Instagram. There seemed to be a consensus that men are "allowed to get away" with posting whatever they want but that women will be more scrutinized for how they behave on the app.
Below is the slide deck I put together with my findings and presented at various conferences, including the 2017 BYU-Hawaii Research Conference (where I won 1st place).
Impact
Although this project provided me with incredibly fascinating discussion topics and insight, I found that after completion, I had even more questions that I wanted answers to.
I would love the opportunity to conduct the same study again but with male participants to hear their thoughts and perspectives on gendered standards and expectations when it comes to social media.
Since completing this project, I've also learned how focus groups are not always the most reliable source for data. This is because they encourage bias and participants do not always share their honest thoughts in group settings. I would also reframe the questions I asked to reduce bias (ex. instead of asking "What do you like/dislike about Instagram?", I would instead ask "Tell me how you feel when you are using the Instagram app."
I would love to add some more quantitative data to this study, so that I could get gather more feedback from a wider variety of users and establish a baseline for user activity amongst female users. I would be really interested to analyze user's behavior on the app by conducting a moderated usability test so I can understand better how user's are feeling and thinking in the moment while using the app.
To know more, let's connect!