There are many consequences Instagram have on society. The main being mental health. Based of a survey conducted throughout all the social media apps Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube; Instagram was rated the worst social media app. Instagram received poor marks for cyber bullying, body image, and FOMO. The most harmful being body image. Instagram was created for the purpose of sharing images and communicating with friends and family. Instagram influencers are basically attractive social media celebrities. Not all influencers are making a positive mark. People are constantly comparing themselves to these Instagram models who are photoshopping their pictures and portraying themselves as having “perfect’ bodies. This creates unrealistic beauty standards and creates feelings of low self esteem and anxiety. Although social actions are being taken like #mentalawarness and #loveyourbody there are thousands of hashtags including #proanorexia. These posts are giving women the idea that they should become anorexic to be more beautiful.
Another major consequence of Instagram is cyber bullying. Information spreads fast on social media networks, allowing rude comments and harassing images to go viral within hours. Instagram also makes it easy to set anonymous profiles, which can be used for trolling. It is very easy for users to post pictures of others without their permission. A trend that has been going around Instagram is a ‘finsta’ is a secret or fake Instagram account that people to post content that is different to the real Instagram account. A ‘finsta’ can also be used to cyberbully others. Users make an account using the victims name and their pictures to make it seem like it’s their account. They are basically acting as that person, whatever they so, do, or post people will believe is the person that are posing as. Instagram gives users the opportunity to post malicious and embarrassing photos. As well as commenting mean and threatening messages on other peoples posts.
However Instagram does have some positive effects. The primary one being activism campaigns. Instagram’s ability to spread information faster has completely changed the way we receive and share information. One of the ways information is spread quickly is by using hashtags. This boosts the amount of people that are likely to see the post.
Two Social Actions that have had a huge effect is #mentalhealthawareness and #lovemybody. Mental health awareness weeks helps raise the awareness of serious mental health problems and how they are affecting millions of people. Mental health awareness week has been around for many years but has only been widely recognized because of the attention from media. Love my body campaign is a huge campaign set up to show women that is alright not to have the perfect body and its normal for women not to look like models. Many brands have participated in the campaign by advertising photoshop using models with all different body types. It has been posted all over Instagram which has capture women of all different ages. With so many photos being posted daily using these hashtags reaches a wider audience. Entire communities have adapted and grown together over social media. This has strengthened many activism campaigns and encouraged supporter to take action. Instagram allows people to organize events which is accessible to everyone. This increase the amount of people that reach the campaigns. This increases the possible effect the campaigns can have.
Another way Instagram promotes positivity is self expression. Social media provides a space to be whoever you want. When struggling with your own identity sometimes experimenting with different looks or personality on Instagram can improve mental health.It can also be a way to seek online support not available offline. It gives individuals a place to express their identity with billions of others. It can be a testing ground for people to explore their identities. In the process it can also create online friendships by finding people who are interested in the same things as you.
Nowadays the usage of digital technology is always increasing and almost everyone is aware of what social media is. The social media gives people the ability to share their lives, interact with other people, like and comment at any time and place. January 2019 data shows that 45% of the total population is active social media users. One of the most popular social media platforms is Instagram. But does Instagram have a positive or negative impact on social media users? Why we hear so much about the reasons why Instagram lowers down our self – esteem?
But first – what is Instagram? It is a social platform mainly used for sharing and looking at other people photos and posts. Instagram can be a very fun way to interact with people and share your life with friends and family. Also, it allows users to stay up to date with everything their friends and family are going through. As it sounds all positive and fun, this platform also has a lot of disadvantages. Scrolling down the app you can see thousands of other people’s pictures and much has been made over the years about how social media presents unrealistic beauty standards. It is like years back girls and women would go through magazines looking at beautiful models with perfect features and bodies thinking this is how the perfect women should look like. These days unrealistic beauty standards almost always come from Instagram as it is a really popular app for photo sharing. Instagram celebrities often post photos with bikinis, flawless makeup, “perfect” body shape. These posts create “perfect body” image everyone tries to follow. People, who do not have skinny legs, fit body or flat stomach often come to a conclusion that something is wrong with them. But some of the big companies try to change the perspective of a perfect body image.
The “Dove” is a worldwide company which wants to inspire women to feel comfortable in their own body. This company’s global research discovered that only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. And this is the point where self-discrepancy theory should be explained. This theory states that individuals have their “ideal” self image in their head which they compare to “actual” self. This is not only really bad for mental health but also to physical, since sometimes it can lead to eating disorders, depression or other illness. The self-discrepancy can begin at a very young age, when someone starts seeing photos of those called “beautiful people”. It can be seen that the mechanism of this theory where body image is affected negatively is Instagram photos, which show what “perfect” body should look like (Guitton, M., 2017). Actually, in 2017 BBC poll Instagram was regarded as the worst social media platform when it comes to mental health. And the reasons behind this statement are pretty reasonable. But not many of the whole audience stop for a minute to think that these pictures they see on Instagram could be affected by surgeries or hard diets and generous amount of retouching. False representations and unrealistic standards have people wondering how they achieved such a result and it can sometimes lead to some serious unhealthy habits.In kickback on some serious Instagram beauty standards a lot of accounts showing the truth behind these “perfect” pictures were created.
One of the accounts is called “celebface”. In this account bio you can see the text which says “Welcome to reality”. This account helps people realize that not everything we see in Instagram is truth. In picture number 2 you can see reference between Khloe Kardashians Instagram photo and the one captured in person by paparazzi. This page could make a lot people feel better about themselves and realize that celebrities are not perfect and just like everyone else. The Instagram also stepped up on trying to regulate the platform. In 2019 the trend of plastic surgery filters became really popular. Augmented reality filters could change your face and make it look like you had face surgery (lips and cheek fillers, nose surgery, unrealistic cheekbones). There were even filters that drew lines over your face like cosmetic surgeon would do. From 2019 October 26 Instagram is banning all filters that represents cosmetic surgeries. To sum up, Instagram photos set a lot of beauty standarts on what being beautiful means. Girls’, women’s, boys’ and men’s beauty image is out of control, even though Instagram is moving in the right direction by banning harmful filters.
Another topic I would like to touch while talking about Instagram is marketing. It is no secret that nowadays Instagram is one of the best ways to advertise products or services. This kind of advertising is called influencer marketing. Influencers are people who built a large community and have an audience which respect their opinion. This type of marketing changed the game because real people are more relatable. It is easier to trust the person that shows you everyday life and communicates with you than advertisement on TV. This type of marketing got a 520% return on investment, according to 2018 data. While scrolling through Instagram you can see many ads in the posts, and that’s because the brands go where the audience is. And those called influencers have audience, so why do not use it as an advantage? In exchange for taking picture and writing the post about the product influencers can get free products, or if they have a lot of followers even money.
According to a study by Dana Rebecca Designs 72% of Instagram users that filled the survey have made purchase after seeing a post or photo about it on Instagram. The most purchased categories are mostly clothing, beauty products or jewellery. As there are a lot of influencers who has millions of followers companies are focusing on micro influencers since they engage more with audience and cost much less. “It’s about finding opportunities to build relationships with people who touch your potential customers in some way. These are the people who will help you achieve more, with less. If you earn their trust, you will be invited into those new audiences you crave.” (Wilkens E., 2013). That means that instead of one big celebrity a company can collaborate with hundreds of influencers around the world for the same price as working with a really popular celebrity. Today the most popular person on Instagram is football player Cristiano Ronaldo with over 190 million followers (picture 3). His one advertised post can cost almost 1 million dollars as he has insanely big reach. Study by social media firm Hopper HQ on Buzz Bingo shows that Cristiano earned 47.8 million dollars from paid Instagram posts (49 ad posts). All of these statistics show that Instagram influence over the people is huge. The return of investment for the brands which used this platform for marketing proves that influencers have a power over the audience they gathered. People are trusting their beloved influencers over the products they advertise. But the things I talked about is just a positive outcome of this new marketing strategy and there is also a negative side.
There are millions of companies all around the world and of course a lot of them produce harmful products. At the beginning I talked about Instagram influence over body image and influencer marketing can also add to this problem. There were enormous amounts of ads over the platform which encourage you to buy products which supposedly help you lose weight. Those products such as “detox teas”, “appetite suppressant lollipops” and many others make people feel the need of losing weight, which can lead to mental and physical illness. Tea company “teami” that promises weight loss was advertised by one of the most famous Instagram star Kylie Jenner (picture 4). This toxic culture of people advertising weight loss and making their audience feel conscious about their body was recognised by Instagram. That is why from 2019 September Instagram is banning ads that promote certain types of weight loss products and cosmetic procedures for people under 18 years old. Needless to say, Instagram is a great platform for companies. We understand power as a relationship and this exact relationship is seen between influencers and their audience which they can easily influence over buying products.
The popularity of social media is growing every day. I believe we all have a different opinion about social platforms and their influence over people. As Instagram is the most popular social media platform, its influence on body dissatisfaction is proved by many sources and researches. Its power of marketing has changed the advertisement industry. Nowadays the best option for successful bussines is to put your production on social media to gain a return on investment since the main audience is there. The platform itself is going in the right direction introducing positive changes to make the experience on the application more satisfying to users. However, it’s our choice whether to use it or not and what content we want to reach to.
The ongoing debate over whether Instagram provides more benefits than harms is a controversial topic that is important to our society due to the public’s excessive use and over-reliance on social media. One of the most popular Social Networking Sites (SNS) named Instagram was first released in October of 2010, featuring an innovative approach that focuses on visual content, unlike other SNS like Facebook or Twitter which focuses on the textual content (Lee et al. 2). Instagram is a photo sharing app that allows users to upload photos and view likes or comments on their photos by other Instagram users (Ridgway and Clayton 2). Although Instagram gained its popularity among various age ranges, the mean age of Instagram users is young adults in their 20s, with 44.3% of Instagram users spending more than thirty minutes per day on Instagram (Ahadzadeh et al. 10-11; Lee et al. 3; Ridgway and Clayton 3). Today, people utilize SNSs like Instagram to gather or share information, giving individuals the opportunity to build connections with others. Therefore, more research on the positive impacts of Instagram could guide those individuals who are currently not an Instagram user to create an Instagram account and benefit from it. Indeed, academic studies on the issue show that Instagram plays a positive role in society because Instagram is beneficial in marketing and providing social support for cancer patients.
Conversely, some critics oppose the use of Instagram on the grounds that it would be destructive to the users’ body satisfaction. For instance, researchers Ahadzadeh and others discuss how individuals’ body satisfaction decreases as they become increasingly aware of the unrealistic body standards Instagram promotes. As Instagram advertises such unrealistic body images on the newsfeed, Ahadzadeh and others write that Instagram, “cause individuals to frequently engage in social comparisons related to physical appearances, thus leading to negative feeling towards their body” (8). The authors’ opinion is a typical one that aims to demonstrate evident harm on the users’ body satisfaction that can be attained from using Instagram. Similarly, in their article, “Instagram Unfiltered: Exploring Associations of Body Image Satisfaction, Instagram #Selfie Posting, and Negative Romantic Relationship Outcomes,” Ridgway and Clayton also display an interchangeable position on the issue. They illustrate that SNSs like Instagram is “culturally and socially constructed” for it to be “used to monitor their appearances through comparison to others’ physiques” (3). Although the impeccable body images of people displayed on Instagram negatively influences the users’ body satisfaction, what many critics often overlook are the countless benefits Instagram can contribute to society through Instagram use.
One of the leading benefits that could be attained through marketing on Instagram is the improved advertisement strategies in society. According to economic researchers Khoirina and Sisprasodjo, Instagram is one of the most effective social media marketing tools for advertising due to its diverse online community. The authors point out that Instagram’s “function known as the hashtag (#) for the convenience of showing photos and videos that are relevant to the products of business,” will be the key to success in today’s business world (134). As Khoirina and Sisprasodjo mentioned, utilizing hashtags can help publicize certain contents by grouping related posts that are accessible through the search engine on Instagram. Hashtag use will not only promote specific contents but will also attract potential consumers. A similar perspective on the issue can be observed in Latiff and Safiee’s article, “New Business Set Up for Branding Strategies on Social Media – Instagram,” where unlimited marketing potential is displayed. Latiff and Safiee note that “simply tag[ging] the username for the Instagram business allow[s] other potential consumers to browse through that Instagram account” (18). When the Instagram users click on the tagged username on a photo, individuals will be placed on that account’s page, and solely clicking on the username allows the consumers to go through other posts by that account, which encourages the consumers to become potential customers. Where some critics like Ahadzadeh and others see the harm in interacting with other users on Instagram, the commentator Achen eliminate those concerns. According to the author, when Instagram allows the users to “connect with one another, share information, and express opinions,” consumers are engaging in promoting, resulting in effective advertisement (38). Consumer engagement might be important in Instagram advertisements because it may provide an environment for consumers to communicate with other potential consumers, who then communicate with another potential consumer, reaching more and more potential consumers by increasing awareness of the advertised content. In addition, examining consumer discussions and recommendations on Instagram may help provide a sense of success in marketing because those with active consumer engagement are more likely to be in the centre of controversy. Indeed, using hashtags, tagging usernames and encouraging engagement among consumers are some of the apparent benefits of marketing through Instagram that is decisively a positive force in society.
That marketing on Instagram carries demonstrable benefit to society is also illustrated through the positive effect it has on the enhanced relationships with customers. Achen addresses that geography is not a barrier when connecting with customers on Instagram. She writes, “companies can consistently communicate with customers without geographical boundaries or time limits” (38). The author’s position can be seen as supportable because Instagram allows users to interact with anyone from everywhere in the world, given that there is an online connection. Without being physically present, customers can ask questions and gain information in a timely manner, which may increase customer satisfaction. Consequentially, customer satisfaction may result in loyal customers, directing toward a developed relationship with the customer. Similarly, Khoirina and Sisprasodjo assert that Instagram has a beneficial impact in strengthening customer relationships because “Instagram ha[s] clear response feature to customers via mentions and replies with controlled message contents” (138). Today, customers on Instagram express their opinions by commenting or “liking” a post. Living in the 21st century, SNSs like Instagram is a vital tool in society because the customers expect to get an answer to their inquiries as soon as possible. Fortunately, Instagram has a feature that enables the company to promptly respond by commenting or direct messaging to the customers. Furthermore, a researcher of management and economics Venciūtė claims that social media “allows firms to recognize and solve potential customer problems,” which “helps improve customer relationship management” (133). Clearly, Instagram is a social media that provides an opportunity for a company to apologize for their fault and come up with a solution to a problem. A customer’s complaint might be indicating that the customer was involved with the company, somehow displaying company loyalty. Therefore, when this complaint is dealt adequately, the unsatisfied customers may be able to build greater trust with the company. Thus, Instagram usage demonstrates that Instagram is a positive force in society because it carries distinct benefits on maintaining satisfying relationships with the customers.
Research demonstrates that Instagram’s benefit is plainly visible in its valuable platform in society on the cancer patients’ mental health support; particularly, with regard to informational support. For instance, in their article “Social Media Use Among Parents of Young Childhood Cancer Survivors,” Wilford and others describe “social media platforms as good for sharing preventive health information” (14). Likewise, the health services researchers Gentile and others also point out that the “brief nature of most SM (social media) posts [make it] possible to consume information quickly on many topics” (732). These authors all agree on the fact that social media like Instagram provides individuals with the ability to gather information rapidly, giving them the opportunity to obtain information from those who share similar concerns. Such information is not simply limited to sharing general information but also includes cautioning and giving tips to avoid any repetitive misjudgments. In their article, “The Effect of Social Network Site Use on the Psychological Well-Being of Cancer Patients,” Seyedezahra Shadi and others state, “informational support refers to guidance, advice, facts, stories of personal experience, opinions, and referrals to other sources of data and information that aim to eliminate or solve support seekers’ problems or help in evaluating situations” (311). Sharing health-related information can terminate predictable harms when dealt effectively and it is also a productive way for social media such as Instagram to provide accurate information to other patients. Certainly, providing informational support for cancer patients’ mental health proves that Instagram is overwhelmingly a beneficial tool for society.
Beyond informational support, however, Instagram’s beneficial influence on the cancer patients’ mental health support is also clearly visible in that platform’s connection to the emotional support it provides. Although Instagram proves destructive to society due to its negative influence on individuals’ body satisfaction, Instagram demonstrates clear benefits that can outweigh the harms. According to the clinical researchers Walton and others, social media may help patients “feel less socially isolated and more empowered to engage in the management of their illness” (537). Expressing themselves by connecting with other patients on Instagram provides emotional support because Instagram not only allows the patients to relieve loneliness but may also motivate them to accomplish particular health-related goals, positively affecting those patients to get through such health-related concerns. In addition, Gentile and others also point out the importance of alleviating loneliness by communicating on social media with other patients. They write, “social isolation is associated with higher all-cause mortality,” while “social support is correlated with better physical and mental health-related quality of life” (732). When the patients are mentally struggling, they may try to distance themselves from everyone and everywhere, because they may be fatigued to express their emotions and explain why they feel a certain way. Yet, interacting on Instagram with those who share the same concerns is a different story; those patients are in a similar situation, experiencing similar feelings. Being able to converse among those patients can be emotionally supportive because they can be more understanding. Similarly, Seyedezahra Shadi and others also indicate that “emotional support refers to expressions of caring, sympathy, listening, understanding, empathy, and encouragement” (1311). Such emotional support is irreplaceable because communicating on Instagram with others who share the same struggles can be greatly reassuring. Thus, Instagram is instrumental to society on the grounds that it facilities emotional support for cancer patients.
Viewed collectively, scholarly research on Instagram usage proves that the app is an indispensable, valuable tool in today’s modern society due to its clear importance in business promotion and providing public assistance for cancer patients. Proof of Instagram’s value as a social media platform in society can be seen in the opportunities it creates for business, especially in the improved advertising strategies and an enhanced customer-company relationship. Similarly, that Instagram is clearly an asset in contemporary life can also be seen by its ability to provide both informational and emotional support. Indeed, the benefits of Instagram distinctly outweigh the harms.
The internet is increasingly relevant in the modern technology world as there are more and more users of all ages. With the advancement in technology, people nowadays are able to access various platforms anywhere and anytime. Social media is very important in our life as it brings the world closer to you by reading the news posted on social media and so on. Social media is a platform that allows people to create comments, posts, pictures, or videos and share the content with social networking. According to Jones (2009), social media is the category of online media which is the platform where people are talking, participating, sharing, networking, and bookmarking. However, social media is a very broad term which included variety of media, and therefore this paper will look into social networking, whereby the platform that all users are allowed to construct profile within a confined system, be it public or semi-public, to communicate with other users who are connected to them, and to view and traverse different list of connections made by either themselves or other users (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). For instance, social networking can include Facebook, Instagram or Twitter which people are able to access at their fingertips. By using the social networking, any content that the users wish to share with other users can be uploaded through words, videos, picture and so on.
It is known that there is a lot of networking platform but this study only aims at Instagram. According to Instagram (2018), Instagram is a home for storytelling for everyone from celebrities, news of the days, brands, teens, musicians and anyone with a creative passion. It is important to understand the impact of Instagram usage on teenagers in Malaysia as, according to The Star online (2016), a global research firm, Malaysians are the most active Instagram users in the Asia Pacific. Besides, another research showed that there are 13.74million of Instagram users in Malaysia which is around 56% of the population in Malaysia (Ahmad, 2017).
The widely use of social networking prompts the researchers to investigate the impact of this social networking on its users. Social networking can benefit the users by enabling the users to enjoy the sense of freedom and identity, increase their self-esteem level as well as spreading positivity (Jan, Soomro, & Ahmad, 2017, p.331). However, according to the Royal Society of Public Health [RSPH] (2017), Instagram is reported as the most detrimental to adolescents’’ psychological health. “Social media has been described as more addictive than cigarettes or alcohol, and young people nowadays are no longer to ignore it when talking about the mental health issues”, said the Chief Executive of RSPH. Besides, according to RSPH (2017), there is a relationship between Instagram usage and depression or anxiety, as well as the decline in subjective well-being. This may be due to the Instagram posts that can result in the Instagram users to compare among themselves, on the quality of pictures, lifestyle of other users, and especially the ‘followers’ might cause some influencing. This comparison could reduce one’s self-esteem when someone has a bad evaluation. Therefore, the use of Instagram can lead the users more vulnerable to have some mental health problems and low self-esteem when having a comparison with others.
However, according to Blascovich & Tomaka (1993), self-esteem is defined as an individual’s sense of his or her value worth, and also the extent to which a person values, approves of, appreciates, prizes, or likes him or herself. Self-esteem affect the way people make decisions to a great extent as it serves as a motivational function which either increase or decrease one’s will to take care of oneself and explore one’s full potential (Oswalt, n.d.). For instance, there was a research done by distributing 90000 questionnaires to grades 7-12 students found that self-esteem is helpful in dealing emotional stress in adolescents, which correlates with good grades and confidence in teens, allowing them to go for scholarships and other opportunities (Pickhardt,2010). People with high self-esteem are more confident, motivated to achieve their goal and so on whereas people with low self-esteem will think that they are worthless and not confident in themselves at all. Therefore, self-esteem is an important and crucial factor which can alter one’s decision making that will may lead to significantly difference in one’s life.
To sum up, due to many researchers suggested that Instagram usage would lead to social comparison between users, and thereby decreasing in self-esteem might influence a person’s life significantly, and majority of Malaysians are currently using Instagram, there is a need to understand how Instagram would affect our life. This paper is interested to look into whether there is a relationship between the amount of time spent on Instagram and self-esteem of the users among adolescence in Malaysia. The independent variable in this research will be the amount of time spent on Instagram and the dependent variable will be the self-esteem of Instagram users. Besides, it is hypothesized that there is a relationship between two variables. In this research, the researchers only focus on the adolescents in Malaysia, as it was believed that they have a great time spent on social media.
Research Question
There are a few of the research questions in this paper. Firstly, this research wants to figure out is there a relationship exist between time spent on Instagram and self-esteem of individuals. For example, would the independent variable affect the dependent variable and to what extent of this independent variable, which is time spent on Instagram, affect the self-esteem of the Instagram users. Besides, this research also interested to figure out how does the intensity of Instagram usage impact users’ self-esteem. In other word, how long the time spending on Instagram can impact the users positively or negatively.
Literature review
The trend of using of social networking sites has growing significantly in the past decade. According to Anderson & Jiang (2018), Instagram is one of the fastest growing among the social networking platform. However, since Instagram is considered new, and therefore, there is a need to further investigate the impact of Instagram on users because there are only limited research conducted before. In fact, Instagram is significantly different from other social networking especially Facebook because Instagram is focus on images sharing and this feature had set it apart from other social media that included text-based platform ( DeVries, Moller, Wieringa, Eigenraam & Hamelik, 2017). In addition, according to Johnson & Knobloch-Westerwick (2016), different effects will caused by text-based posts and images-based platform on users’ mood.
Based on our research, the first research question was the is there a relationship between Instagram and self-esteem. The existing literature reported that social media use has the potential to impact social networking platform users. According to Ellison et al (2017), the intensity of social media usage has been correlated with increased level of social capital. Besides, Park & Lee (2014) also reported that the usage of social media can heightened the sense of belonging and life satisfaction among the users. This is because social media can help the users to build the sense of community together. Therefore, the existing reported that social media can heightened the social capital level of the users and in other word, higher self-esteem level. However, only Facebook was focused by the existing literature, as opposed to Instagram, the Image-based platform.
Due to the existing literature suggested that the intensity of usage play an important role in determine the impact on users, the second research was “how does the intensity of Instagram affect the users’ self-esteem level?” According to Ellison et al (2017), intensity is defined as emotional connectedness to social networking site and its integration into individuals’ daily lives. To identify the intensity, a scale called Instagram Identity Scale was created to measure Instagram usage beyond simple measurement of frequency and duration, incorporating emotional connectedness to the site and its integration into individuals’ daily activities. According to Ellison et al (2007), there is an increasing trend in self-esteem level if partner and boding with an online friend, as the user will feel they are part of the community. This statement showed that there is some significant positive impact on the user by the usage intensity on social media. Besides, another research showed that Facebook intensity was correlated with increased levels of sense of social capital among users. According to Putnam (2000), the increasing levels of social capital have been correlated to higher level of self-esteem. Therefore, it is important to know that how does the intensity of Instagram, a image-based platform, affect the users’ self-esteem level.
In summary, the existing literature have reported that the intensity of using social media has the potential to impact the users positively. However, these study only focused on Facebook, which is a text-based platform, as opposed to Instagram, an image-based platform. Therefore, the current study interested to figure out and make a better understanding would Instagram usage affect the users on self-esteem level and how intensely using Instagram may impact the users’ self-esteem.
Methodology
Due to this research only focus among adolescence, which is defined as an adolescent as any person between ages 10 and 24 by WHO (Csikszentmihalyi, 2020, March 20), unusable data was prevented with the use of random sampling method, whereby only adolescents between age 10 and 24 years old and have an Instagram account will be randomly approached for this research. It is estimate that around 100 participants will be participated in this research.
Firstly, participants will be given information sheet and the researcher will brief the on the research. In order to participate in this research, consent form will be required to sign by the participants and two questionnaires will be given to complete. After that, participants will be interview individually by the researcher. After all tasks are completed, a debriefing sheet will be given and the research come to an end.
The information sheet used in this research is to provide the participants some brief idea in this research, which can also helped them to decide whether to participate in this research. It will consists of the background of the research, the purpose, the requirements of participants and also how the research will be conducted. There are two parts in the questionnaire. The participants need to answer their age and gender in the on top of the questionnaire. In the first part, the participants are required to answer the time spent on Instagram within a week. This data can be found in the “setting” app in their phone. In the second part, a Rosenberg self-esteem scale will be used to measure the self-esteem level of the participants. This scale consists of 10 statements and for each statement, participants are required to tick if they strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree with it. For statements 1, 2, 4, 6 & 7, the options scored 3, 2, 1 and 0 score(s) respectively while for the remaining statements, strongly agree scored 0 scores, agree scored 1 score, disagree scored 2 scores and strongly disagree scored 3 scores. In the second questionnaire, a scale called Instagram Intensity Scale will be used to measure Instagram usage beyond simple measures of frequency and duration, incorporating emotional connectedness to the site and its integration into individuals’ daily activities.
After this, the participants conduct the next section, which is interview. In this section, several questions focused on specific themes such as the purpose of using Instagram, how they affected by the “likes” number and the number of followers physically and emotionally, and question about following someone will be asked. Questions are open-ended question and will be used for grounded theory approach.
The last part will be the debriefing part. In this part, the debriefing sheet stated the purpose of the research, and how different trends of self-esteem score and Instagram usage would affect the relationship between two variables differently. If self-esteem level is affected by time spent on Instagram, is will be reported that there is a relationship between time spent on Instagram and self-esteem level. However, is the self-esteem level score did not alter by time spent on Instagram, then there is no relationship between Instagram usage and self-esteem.
Data collection and data analysis
For the first questionnaire, a Pearson bivariate correlation will be used to analyse the relationship between mean Instagram usage and Rosenberg self-esteem score, the relationship between male Rosenberg self-esteem score and mean Instagram usage in males, and the relationship between female Rosenberg self-esteem score and mean Instagram usage in female.
Grounded theory was used to do the concurrent data collection and data analysis. In the interview section, the whole conversation will be transcript for verification and accuracy purposes. This step play an important role to minimize the error when encoding the data. According to Strauss & Corbin (1990), open coding is a process with identifying, naming, categorizing, and describing the phenomena found in the text. Axial coding is the process of relating codes, through a combination of inductive and deductive thinking (Strauss & Corbin,1990). In this part, causal relationships, and fit things into a basic frame of generic relationships was suggested in grounded theory. Selective coding is defined as the process of one category would be chosen as the main core, and relating that category to others categories (Strauss & Corbin,1990). Once all the data are collected, common themes shared by the participants will be constructed.
Working Thesis
Based on this research, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Instagram usage and self-esteem among adolescence in Malaysia. The study will expect to give the result according to the literature review and reveal the best solution on how can the independent variable, which is time spent on Instagram, affect the dependent variable, which is self-esteem level. As mentioned in the literature review section, the existing literature reported that social media use has the potential to impact social networking platform users. According to Ellison et al (2017), the intensity of social media usage has been correlated with increased level of social capital. Besides, Park & Lee (2014) also reported that the usage of social media can heightened the sense of belonging and life satisfaction among the users. However, the study is only focused on text-based social networking platform such as Facebook. Therefore, it is hypothesized that there is a relationship between Instagram usage and self-esteem level among adolescence in Malaysia but it is further interested in to how does the intensity of Instagram, a image-based platform, affect the users’ self-esteem level.
Time Framework (Gantt Chart)
Limitation
The limitation of this research might be small sample size could not generalise the whole population. Besides, participants might brief by different researchers in the team and it may brief differently. The time spent on Instagram of the participants must be collected from their phones. Due to the privacy problem, some of the participants might not feel comfortable to provide the data. Therefore, a consent form and debriefing form are needed to distribute to the participant before the start of the research. Besides, the purpose of the study will be explained by the investigator before starting the research. Self-esteem depends on personality and can be affected by different family backgrounds. Due to embarrassment or other social factors, the participants might not be truthful in the answer.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this paper is interested in investigate the impact of time spent on Instagram and self-esteem level among adolescence in Malaysia. The strength of the current study is it studies the images-based social networking platform, Instagram, which is only limited research looked into. Besides, the use of Rosenberg self-esteem scale and time spent on Instagram data collected from phone “setting” can decrease the dishonest or the possibility of make-up data. It is hope that this research can bring some advantages to the new generation by understanding the relationship between these two variables. Besides, we also hope that people can learn and get some idea and knowledge related to this topic.
Last but not least, we hope that by doing this research, we can accomplish successfully in the cooperation with peoples directly involved or indirectly during the research process.
Works cited
Ja.M. , Soomro.S.A., & Ahmad.N. (2017). Impact of Social Media on Self-Esteem. European Scientific Journal, 13(23), 329-337. doi: 10.19044/esj.2017.v13n23p329
Teledo.S.M. (2015). A measurement of self-esteem and social comparison among Facebook users.
University of the Pacific, Thesis-Pacific Access Restricted. Retrieved from https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/203
Social media is a fast-growing marketing tool. Social media as a marketing tool to enhance our ability to collaborate, share and take collective action outside the traditional institutional and organizational framework. Nowadays, many companies tend to attract and communicate with consumers by using social media. Social media is largely considered an effective mechanism to help companies to set marketing goals and strategies related to customer engagement, customer relationship management and communication. (Filo,2015). Many social media, such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and others are used by marketers. Instagram is one of the most popular and fast-growing social media platforms used by marketers.
Instagram is a video and photo sharing social media and it was created in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. It is a mobile application for smartphones available for free in the App Store and Google Play. Instagram become the popular social media with one billion monthly active users. The most frequently used age group of Instagram is young adults. Instagram is a place where young adults go to discover what is new and what is next. The platform is uniquely appealing because it captures the immediacy of the moment, igniting creative expression and providing connections to like-minded communities. As a photo and video sharing application, Instagram has become a communication and marketing tool to display products with visual descriptions. So, if companies apply the right strategy for their products to increase the consumer buying behavior, Instagram can be a profitable social media. One of the advertising strategy is Instagram micro-celebrity endorsement.
Instagram has created a new kind of celebrity landscape called ‘micro-celebrities.’ Micro-celebrities are neither traditional celebrities, like famous actors or athletes, nor are their posts the traditional advertisements (Abidin, 2016). Strong social relationships have been formed between users and followers through social media such as Instagram (Wilcox & Stephen, 2014). Micro-celebrities are not famous in common way but use social media to create follower bases, attract the followers out of their friends and acquaintances. Micro-celebrities have been recognized as individuals with perceived social influence owing to their large number of followers (Jin & Phua, 2014). They build a group of powerful followers by sharing their interesting, entertains and educates to attract others users with same interests.
Companies can use Instagram micro-celebrity endorsement to promote their product. They can recruit some well-known micro-celebrities to show their products on their personal Instagram and display the advantages of the products and persuade their followers to buy. Through the Instagram micro-celebrities, companies can establish a direct relationship with consumers in their daily lives. Therefore, interacting with Instagram micro-celebrities can help to build a more realistic relationship with target customers. So, the number of followers that the product message delivered by Instagram micro-celebrities are very high which are thousands or millions.
Traditional advertising may shift to social media advertising and micro-celebrity endorsement rather than traditional celebrity endorsement. Even though there is a noticeable trend of micro-celebrity endorsement but it is still not clear how efficient this way of promoting products. Many companies still confuse whether the micro-celebrity endorsement can be an effective advertising strategy and can affect the buying behavior of young adult or not.
Instagram is one of the successfully growing online photo social networking services where users share their lives with other users, but academic research related to this media is limited (Sheldon & Bryant, 2016). So, there are limited reported on customer buying behavior toward this micro-celebrity endorsement. Most of the social media advertising research is focused on Facebook and Twitter, but there is no significant research on the impact of use Instagram as a marketing tool, especially for micro-celebrity endorsement.
However, due to the lack of research in this area, it is difficult for companies to explicitly decide whether Instagram micro-celebrity endorsement has impact on young adult’s buying behavior. Therefore, there is a gap in understanding the effective of Instagram micro-celebrity endorsements in advertising and must be better understood.
In the past, companies mainly used traditional celebrities to support products or services, but nowadays companies are more inclined to choose ‘micro-celebrities’. Using micro-celebrity endorsement is a new trend in the advertising industry. It may different from traditional celebrity endorsement in some respects.
In recent years, Instagram micro-celebrity endorsement become popular, but many companies still do not know is it really helpful use to effect buying behavior of young adult. So, the objective of this research is to determine the effectiveness of using Instagram micro celebrity endorsements as an advertising strategy and to identify the effect of Instagram micro-celebrities on young adult’s buying behavior.
Nowadays, Instagram has become one of the social media that modern young adult must use every day. Companies wants to use this kind of trend to promote their products by finding micro-celebrities on Instagram. This study contributed to the companies who are planning to implement Instagram-celebrity endorsement. It can help the companies to explore whether Instagram micro-celebrity endorsement is an effective advertising strategy to enhance young adult’s buying behavior. Assessing the effective of Instagram micro-celebrity endorsement on the buying behavior of young adult will help to determine it is an effective and beneficial advertising strategy for the companies to use.
Companies now tend to use social media as a marketing tools to attract and communicate with customers. Instagram has created a new type of celebrity called Instagram micro-celebrities. Instagram micro-celebrities are defined as a person who is famous on social media and have some followers. So, this research is tending to use the theory of planned behavior to explore about the impact of Instagram micro-celebrity endorsement on young adult’s buying behavior.
In order to study the impact of Instagram micro-celebrity advertisement towards young adult’s buying behavior, theory of planned behavior (TPB) is adopted for this research. TPB was proposed by Icek Ajzen in 1985 through his article ‘From Intention to Action: Theory of Planned Behavior.’ The theory evolved from the theory of rational action (TRA), which was proposed by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen in 1980. Theory of planned behavior and theory of rational action have been used to successfully plan and evaluate interventions for many different behaviors. TPB can be described as a social-psychological model for understanding and predicting human behavior (Ajzen, 2015).
According TPB, planned behavior is preceded by a behavioral intention, which is determined by three predictor constructs which are attitudes, norms and behavioral control. First, behavioral beliefs refer to self-perception and positive or positive evaluation. The negative consequences of performing this behavior. They come from consumer’s memory and experience lead to attitudes towards behavior. Second consideration, normative beliefs, involving perceived expectations and consumers refer to group behavior, as well as consumer incentives meet the expectations and behavior of this reference group. Consumer memory and experience of social pressure. Third, control beliefs refer to factors that influence consumers’ ability to implement beyond. The greater those three beliefs are, the more likely the consumer will take on the behavior (Ajzen, 2015).
According to a previous study in 2017, the researchers use theory of planned behavior (TPB) to study about the effect of celebrity endorsement on 15-34-year-old consumer’s buying behavior. The study investigated the relationship between key attributes of celebrity spokespersons and consumer buying behavior and their overall experience with celebrity endorsement. The study adopted a quantitative approach using a structured online questionnaire with a final sample of 23 respondents. The result showed that celebrity endorsement had effect on consumer behavior.
Then, the other previous study in 2016 which researches use theory of reasoned action (TRA) to do research about the attitudes towards Instagram micro-celebrities and their influence on consumer’s purchasing decisions. This research was collecting secondary data on Instagram, micro celebrities, celebrity endorsements and gym Sweden industry. They use qualitative research and four focus groups with 24 participants were conducted. Participants were selected by using a convenient sampling method and the discuss the guidelines were based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA). So, the research found that positive relationship between attitude and consumer behavior.
In order to understand the impact of Instagram micro-celebrity endorsements on young adult’s buying behavior, it must to understand the process behind consumer purchases. It can help to define the stages of Instagram micro-celebrity endorsement in the young adult purchase decision process recognition of the brand is more effective, what factors contribute to the realization young adult buying decisions.
The study used the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen,1991) to research the Instagram micro-celebrity endorsement impact on young adult’s buying behavior. According to the theory of planned behavior (TPB), planned behavior is preceded by a behavioral intention, which, in turn, is determined by three predictor constructs: attitudes towards the behavior, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. So, in this research, young adult’ attitudes toward Instagram micro-celebrity endorsement, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control will impact their consumer buying behavior. In TPB, the performance of a behavior is driven by the intentions and perceived behavioral control as shown in Figure 1 below.
According to Kotler (2012) research design is an important step in marketing research. The research design of this study is an exploratory study. Exploratory research is conducted when marketers had little knowledge and lack of information about research issues. This research is considered to be the most effective way to get information that researchers have not fully understood. Then, it provides an opportunity to determine the new terms and existing concepts to define attitudes, norms and behavioral controls about issue. As mentioned earlier, there are some companies that use micro-celebrities to promote their products and services, but it is still unclear how effective about micro-celebrity endorsements and it is really influence young adults to purchase certain products. The number of studies on this particular issue is also very limited. This particular study uses qualitative research methods.
Focus group is going to uses in this data collection. It will be divided into 4 groups. Each groups will conduct 7 participants. The reasons for using focus group is because the ability to compare experiences, views and perspectives. Interaction and group dynamics are also important, it expands response range, activation of potential details and focus group release to suppress participants (Malhotra & Birks, 2007). Then, each focus group will be asking 10 questions for 1 hour. The questions based on combination of TPB. For example, background questions, attitude, norms and behavioral control towards product and service which is promoted by micro-celebrities, information gathering and recall, intention to buy product and service. After that, use the dual host focus group type in this particular case engage with a leader and an assistant host. One person is smooth the meeting process and another person is responsible for ensuring that all issues are covered.
Sampling process is the important part in any research. According to Malhotra and Birks (2007), target population is a specific group with certain characteristics of interest to the researcher. Total amount of target audience is 28 participants from 18-24 years old. The most frequently used age group of Instagram is young adults. Instagram is a place where young adults go to discover the new and interesting things. Then, participants will also select based on judgment and they are asked some pre-questions before they join the research to ensure they are Instagram users and they have follow Instagram micro-celebrities.
Four focus group will conduct during 18th,19th,20th,21th of June 2019. 14 participants will recruit from Sunway University. Another 14 participants from Inti University. The reason for choosing these two private universities is because this research is study about 18-24 year olds. Because of private university students are financially capable, so they are most likely to influence their buying behavior because of Instagram celebrity-endorsement. After that, to make sure that the content provided during the focus group meeting is easy comprehensive. So, it conducts the same language(English) to the focus groups.
Data analysis includes systematic and objective identification of characteristics or messages (Shields & Twycross, 2008). The audio recordings are collected during the interviews and type down after collecting empirical data. Attitudes, norms and behavior control towards buying behavior related to Instagram micro-celebrities are identifying during data analysis process. In order to understand the data collection, it will summarize each focus group conversations. Through the validation procedures, it will give participants to check to accurate the data. Lastly, it will conduct triangulation which double check the final data by two researchers.
Human behavior describes the way in which human beings act and interact; and it is influenced by several factors including genetic makeup and sociocultural factors. The influence of technology, especially social media on human life has brought about tremendous changes in human behavior. These changes cut across several areas of human interaction, affecting the way we work, play, learn, communicate and do business. Social networks hold great implications for radical changes in the future in terms of human behavior. We now live in an era of hyperconnectivity; hyperconnectivity is the phenomenon of society always connected through networks, readily accessible, interactive and information-rich. Social media is transforming human life, social interaction and communication bringing about changes in all aspects of human behavior and introducing new ways of doing almost everything.
There are various implications social networking has for human behavior. In the area of Mental Development, Learning and Cognition, with the use of social networks and internet media, young people (and human beings in general) have been given the ability to broaden their mental scope, increase their mental ability and develop the skill of multitasking. Previously, humans mainly used memorization for learning but these days in the era of social networking, we learn more as we deal with processing a high level of simultaneous information. Looking to the future, one of the major impacts of social networks will be the way we learn. Learning which was mainly by reading and memorization will evolve and hence will entail the ability to collaborate, search and extract knowledge.
The way humans relate with one another and with the events that occur around them is another facet of our living that has been greatly affected by social networks. The concepts of “family” and “friends” are being redefined. Nowadays, we have the opportunity to connect with people that we have little or no knowledge of who they are in real life. These days, the start of a friendship can be as simple as sending a direct message to a random person we fancy on Twitter or Instagram. This is a great advancement on how things were before where friendship was limited to family ties and social gatherings. Social networking has created a platform that brings together people who share the same personal interests and these people form groups where they share their ideas, thoughts and insights amongst themselves.
Communication amongst humans is another facet of our living that has been greatly affected by social network. Social networking sites have done a lot to evolve the way we communicate. If individuals were capable of close interaction with roughly 100 people previously, mostly family members, work colleagues, religious body members and club partners, in the age of social networking we have the ability to reach thousands of people through the links established with acquaintances made on sites like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and many others.
As seen above, social networks have completely revolutionized every single facet of our living; including our way of thinking and how we react to the events that occur around us. Twitter and Instagram are two social networks that have absolutely taken the world by storm. Almost everything can be done on these two apps; from posting pictures and videos to advertising business incentives to even just posting your random thoughts and opinions on any subject matter. These two apps have an active user count of 1.3 Billion with Instagram having 1 Billion and Twitter 321 Million. There is such a large difference between their individual user counts and the major factor in this is the way the apps are used. Instagram is limited to multimedia posts i.e. pictures and videos but on Twitter, a user is able to post text posts as well as pictures and videos. These days, people tend to copy a lot from what they see and watch on social media, and then an interface like Instagram filled with an array of pictures and videos will tend to attract more users than Twitter because it looks and feels more vibrant than all other networks. People also tend to see Twitter as a boring and “too mature” app because it is mostly used by older people. But then on Twitter, a user has unbelievable reach. Your posts, called tweets, can be seen by any and almost every user on the app and this is why business organizations tend to advertise more on Twitter than any other network. As much good as these networks have done in our world today, they have done some bad as well; people tend to have unrealistic expectations about themselves and others around them. They develop a form of anxiety known as FOMO which means Fear of Missing Out which basically implies that they want to experience the thrills and fun they see people having on social media too. And the worst of them all, general addiction. This is very bad because when this begins to develop, people begin to think that all their happiness and joy stems from what people think about them and then they feel rejection and get sad and depressed over something as little as a person unfollowing them. A good way to combat all these negative effects would be trying to limit how much of our lives is invested in our social network accounts.
In spite of all the negative effects social networking has had on human living and behavior, it has still done some unbelievable good and it pretty much balances it all out. It all depends on how an individual makes use of it. Also, we should never forget that social networking is not real life and that a clear boundary should be set on how much of our lives are showcased on our different accounts. Social networking is redefining human living and we all must try to embrace it rather than shun it because it is doing great wonders.
The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the burning issues for today’s society, and people develop their opinions and positions regarding the situation. In their article “‘Immune Boosting’ in the time of COVID: Selling immunity on Instagram,” Wagner et al. (2020) analyze posts in social media during the pandemic and reveal their influence on people’s health. Authors touch upon the trend of “immune-boosting” promoted on Instagram posts during the coronavirus, which promotes different means and products to improve immune and protect the body from the disease.
The authors’ point is that the spread of the virus requires additional improvements and stabilization of the immune system, and ordinary people without specialized knowledge like to share their recommendations and experiences online. However, this information is not always scientifically correct, and social media users have to be careful while recognizing the purposes of #immunebooster posts. Instagram search for “#immunebooster” shows that many posts lack true science but are characterized by commercial content. Thus, the authors conclude that it is crucial to promote immune-boosting and help the population improve their health and avoid COVID-19 complications, but Instagram is not the best place for getting professional advice.
Paraphrasing
The one-week observation of Instagram content proved immune-boosting as a beneficial trend. People explained that it was possible to straighten their immunity and improve mood, eating habits, and digestion, avoid infections and perfect the condition of the skin. The main recommendations included appropriate diets, the use of supplements and probiotics, physical exercises, and other healthy lifestyle trends. Although no information could be defined as scientifically verified, only a few posts contained cautions. What is more important, the developers of Instagram posts used biomedical terms and health concepts to advertise their services and products. Therefore, it is expected to question the credibility of social media data in terms of immune-boosting during the coronavirus.
A Quotation and a Point
Millions of social media users want to believe in high-quality online information and use hashtags to find quick answers. However, the survey by Wagner et al. (2020) explains, “the harms of the immune-boosting trends on Instagram might not be immediately apparent or quantifiable” (p. 4). In many cases, these concepts are developed for commercial purposes only. There are no scientifically proven health and immunological benefits from the recommendations under #immunebooster posts. This authors’ statement demonstrates that people use immune-boosting products and means that they do not have scientific evidence, and the consequences of such a trend can appear in the future. For example, a person who is confident in his or her immunity after using a product from Instagram can neglect to wear a mask or avoid public places, which increases the risk of contracting coronavirus.
Definition
In the article under analysis, the authors demonstrate an extensive use of the term “#immunebooster”. The genus-differentia definition, which consists of two parts, will be used to explain the meaning of “#immunebooster”, but it is necessary to define the term “genus-differentia definition” first. This term characterizes the approach to interpret concepts by highlighting a basic definition uniting all elements of the same category, or “genius”, and a distinguishing definition for a specific phenomenon or object, or “differentia”.
Therefore, the concept of “#immunebooster” has two parts that need to be identified and understood. First, there is a sing “#” (hashtag) that is common for Instagram (a popular online service to share photos and videos) users to create categories for their information and facilitate a search process. Hashtags have already become a popular trend in modern society as a means to drive narratives and enhance perspectives (Wagner et al., 2020). “Immune boosting” is another trending topic during the coronavirus crisis because people want to avoid health complications and believe that boosting their immunity could help. In general, the term “#immuneboosting” may be explained as an online search trend to gather information about boosting someone’s immunity.
Fact
The authors use a variety of facts in their article to discuss the theme of immune-boosting on Instagram posts. For example, they used Marwick’s study to describe Instagram “as a key player in the attention economy” (Wagner et al., 2020, p. 1). The attention economy is a management approach to attract people’s attention and increase online popularity using economic terms and theories. Thus, this fact demonstrates that users and companies use the most common economic approaches to gain the public’s attention and keep them online for selling products or content. This statement supports the idea that most of the immune-boosting posts are the results of business companies’ commercial efforts.
This statement is a fact since it is proven by multiple examples of sellers on Instagram and the very algorithm of the social network. In addition, this fact can be independently verifiable by searching works of other scholars and comparing features of the attention economy and Instagram’s work. In a larger discussion, the connection between Instagram and the economy is evident because Wagner et al. (2020) prove that Instagram posts about “immune-boosting” are characterized by science-free content and effective commercial purposes. The chosen fact plays a vital role in understanding the main topic of the article and achieving its research purposes.
Reference
Wagner, D. N., Marcon, A. R., & Caulfield, T. (2020). “Immune boosting” in the time of COVID: Selling immunity on Instagram.”Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology, 16. Web.
Generation Z becomes a prominent factor in the world market. Born between 1995 and 2013, these individuals are expected to comprise a third of the world’s total population by the end of the decade. According to the report by the OC&C (2018), members of Generation Z wield over 44 billion dollars in purchasing power. These individuals represent a lucrative market for new and old luxury brands, as the generation as a whole has been exposed to luxury throughout their entire lifetime.
At the same time, Generation Z is one of the most frequent users of social media and the Internet. In developed countries like the US, Europe, or wealthy countries of the Persian Gulf, the number of individuals with social media accounts varies from 80% to 95%. One of the most popular social media outlets for sharing images is Instagram. According to Lee et al. (2015), the total number of unique users of Instagram exceeds 300 million, with over 70 million photos being shared on a daily basis. This platform has immense potential for luxury brands to advance their products to the new generation of customers.
The aim of this study is to discover the ways luxury brands can maximize the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns using Instagram. A better understanding of their customers’ preferences, underlying motives, and Instagram advertising techniques would lead to a successful brand expansion and substantial increases in sales as Generation Z takes over. New luxury brands would find the results of the research useful for establishing themselves in the changing realities of the market.
The methodology of the study includes three self-administered questionnaires to be distributed on paper and online to individuals between 13 – 23 years of age in schools, colleges, and universities across the US. To statistically analyze the data, a generalized linear model would be employed.
The structure of this dissertation is as follows:
Introduction section: Outlines the background and rationale for the study, briefly describe aims and objectives, methodology, and other structural parts of the work.
Scholarly evidence: Provides the most recent insights of other research done on the subject of Generation Z in relation to marketing, luxury brands, and the use of social media.
Methodology: Describes the means of determining and selecting the sample, the means of acquiring quantitative data, and the means of data dissemination as well as statistical analysis.
Findings: Describes the results of the study after the data is statistically analyzed.
Research implications and limitations: Synthesizes the data and provides an analysis of how it could improve the pool of existing knowledge. The limitations of the study could also be found here.
Practical implications: Covers the ways the data could be used by luxury brands to advance their products on social media.
Conclusions: A short summary of findings, implications, and analysis.
Scholarly Evidence
Generation Z has a greater potential for brand exposure than any other previous generation, due to the widespread use of the Internet and general attunement to high-tech communication technology. American Academy of Pediatrics ([AAP] 2013) provides data on recent developments in Generation Z. According to their article, adolescents and teenagers between 13-18 years of age spend over 11 hours exposed to various forms of social media. In the US, 88% of the adolescent population has access to high-speed internet, and over 75% own smartphones with Internet access. This data can be used to form the backbone for the rationalization of the proposed study, as it means luxury brands have the potential for 11 hours of daily brand exposure in most teens using social media outlets.
Generation Z is stated to have positive reactions towards social media advertising, preferring it to standard marketing exposure mechanisms, such as television, radio, or paperback advertisements. According to Duffett (2017), this trend is closely associated with several factors, such as the widespread use of smartphones for accessing the internet and the interactivity of connection between the customers and the sellers. While television and radio present the product in the form of one-way communication, social media allows potential customers to interact with the brands and extract the information that informs their desire to make a purchase. However, the same study also notes the effects of a purchase funnel, meaning that each individual attitude component becomes increasingly harder to achieve. This, despite the interactivity of the system, Generation Z still follows the communications effects pyramid.
The users of popular media services, such as Instagram, can be roughly divided into 3 groups, based on the reachability potential for luxury brands. The first group includes the fans of a particular brand or product (Lipsman et al., 2012). These individuals are the easiest to reach and the most likely to respond positively to an advertisement. The second group is much larger and involves friends of fans. These people are less likely to be interested in purchasing any luxury brand products than the first group, but are still more likely to respond, because of their affiliation with their friends (Lipsman et al., 2012). The last group includes random users with a general interest in products that the brand is positioned in. They are the largest and most randomized group in terms of advertising appeal.
Instagram is used, primarily, as a picture-sharing social media service. Due to the affiliation between Facebook and Instagram, the latter often finds exposure alongside text-based information provided by the former (Lee et al. 2015). The primary motivations for using Instagram differ. The primary five reasons, as indicated by Lee et al. (2015), are social interaction (14.14%), archiving (14.07%), self-expression (13.58%), escapism (11.03%), and peeking (9.40%). While escapism and archiving are not marketable motivations for luxury brands, it is possible to exploit social interaction and self-expression for advertising purposes. Peeking can be used to provide spoilers, insides, and previews of upcoming products, generating additional interest and exposure. Lee et al. (2015) state that age and gender do not have a direct correlation to the reasons cited above, meaning that they could be applied for Generation Z as well as other generations. This lack of variance can be explained by the fact that the majority of Instagram’s users are comprised of Gen Z and Gen X.
While Instagram offers ample opportunities for presenting luxury products in the form of photos and images, it is important to recognize the factors that make certain photos more popular than others. According to Jang et al. (2015), two primary factors motivate the exposure of images on Instagram. The first factor is the appropriate tagging. Using large numbers of popular tags is likely to get more exposure, but less feedback. At the same time, popular and appropriate tags are associated with a greater number of likes, comments, and shares (Jang et al., 2015). The second factor is the presence of a person in the photo. Luxury items are associated not only with high quality, beauty, and expensive materials but also with self-expression. This is particularly true for daily items, such as clothes, shoes, makeup, watches, and smartphones. The presence of a genuine user (as opposed to a paid actor or a model) might generate more genuine feedback, exposure, and interest in the product.
However, simple tagging and honesty of the images are not enough. According to Marwick (2013), a big factor in the promotion of photos with luxury brands are the persona and the timeliness of the photos. Instagram is full of the so-called micro-celebrities, which have substantial numbers of followers based on their image, presentation, and personalities alone. While conventional celebrities like actors, sportspersons, musical idols, and others have more viewers per capita, the total number of followers for micro-celebrities far exceeds them. The concept of timeliness is also a very important one. As described by Marwick (2013), specially-prepared photos that are posted on a later date (latergram) make many viewers feel like they missed out on important events in a person’s life. Spontaneity is a major contributing factor to both popularity and exposure, which rules out the use of studio models and pre-planned photo shoots.
Customer engagement in Instagram, however, differentiates from one brand to another. Different brands might find social media more or less attractive, depending on what kind of sector they occupy in the luxury industry. Erkan (2015) reports different percentages for customer connection with brands, based on what kinds of products they serve. The highest exposure was found in the electronics market (8.39 ratio compared to the apparel section), followed by media, cars, and sports products (Erkan 2015). Based on likes and comments sections, the apparel section had the lowest engagement out of all major segments. Based on this factor, it could be said that Instagram yields the least results in customer attraction and engagement in the entire luxury sector, which is something that luxury providers should keep in mind. The high popularity of electronics products is likely motivated by the fact that Gen Z users are utilizing the gadgets in question to access social media services, thus making the fire fuel itself.
Numerous luxury brands have already begun adopting social media advertising strategies in order to increase their brand equity and improve their relationships with customers. The study by Godey et al. (2016) explores the relationship between brand equity and various efforts conducted in social media. According to the researchers, one of the most potent and prominent effects of social media is discussion generation. It is highly associated with the concept of word-of-mouth, meaning personal communications between different users about the benefits and merits of certain products over others. Godey et al. (2016) note that customers perceive brands with large followings and discussions in a more favorable way, as they associate word-of-mouth with objectivity and honesty. The reasons for such perceptions are simple – while promotional videos and advertisements can be bought (thus losing their objectivity and credibility), individual experiences are not.
However, other researchers have questioned the effectiveness of word-of-mouth as a means of value perception. Apiraksattayakul, Papagiannidis, and Alamanos (2017) claim that the four primary factors influencing purchase intent in Generation Z customers are perceived social value, perceived price value, perceived benefits, and perceived quality. Risk perceptions, on the other hand, affected sales in a negative manner. Emotional value and word-of-mouth conversations had no significant impact on increasing or reducing sales. While the value of the word-of-mouth aspect remains in question, the results suggest that luxury brands should not try forming emotional relationships with their customers in order to retain their brand image and save money and effort on doing so.
In terms of catering to the demands of the customers, Generation Z is possibly one of the most demanding generations in terms of both appearance and functionality of various designs. According to Varsha, Reshma, and Khyati (2014), the capabilities of Gen Z users to navigate the web in search of information about the product makes it very hard to sell products based on brand name alone. Generation Z is very self-conscious about fashion and public opinion, and purchasing a trendy, yet subpar product may label them as foolish in the eyes of their peers. One of the reasons why Apple Smartphones remain one of the primary luxury brands among all contemporary generations is because of their high-tech functionality and excellent brand status. In addition, Generation Z customers value customizability in their choices of luxury brands, as it enables them to express themselves in a number of different ways.
Dion and Borraz (2017) support this statement and provide additional nuance towards the perceptions of quality in Gen Z users. The focus of their studies lies in user-designed vs. company-designed fashion brands. According to the research, user-designed clothes and items as perceived as lower quality than company-designed products. Dion and Borraz (2017) state that user-accentuated brands fail to deliver agentic feelings for the consumer, which results in lower sales. These facts must be kept in mind when using Instagram to promote user-centered fashion brands, as the researchers suggest that overexposure might actually backfire on the product.
There is additional support to the fact that overexposure to social media could actually harm certain luxury brands. Athwal, Istanbulluoglu, and McCormack (2018) state that one of the main points of appeal in luxury brands for Generation Z and Millenials alike remains the aloofness of brands. Luxury brands present themselves as distant and not at all customer-centered, which creates an air of exclusivity around them. Entering social media en-masse and using Instagram to display images of products in day-to-day activities might remove the air of exclusivity and affect sales in a negative way. The psychological selling point of luxury brands is in delivering a unique experience, whereas overexposure would make a product seem mainstream. These findings indirectly correlate with those of Apiraksattayakul, Papagiannidis, and Alamanos (2017) in regards to the perceived emotional value of the products.
Although Instagram photos can increase sales and brand exposure, they also might alienate some of the customers. Levecq (2016) states that a portion of Generation Z users does not trust products that they could not physically touch or see, before buying. Instagram, in that regard, offers risks and benefits at the same time. Real-life photos of clothes and items in day-to-day use may ease some of these customers into committing an online purchase, while generating a mundane backlash from other customers, as mentioned by Athwal, Istanbulluoglu, and McCormack (2018). At the same time, Levecq (2018) puts forth the idea that the use of social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others is no longer a means of generating greater sales but rather a means of brand survival. Social media presence is no longer a brave new strategy but rather a standard for the majority of the industries. This notion could explain why certain companies do not see stark revenue growth from entering social media for the first time, as most customers are already used to it.
The existing body of literature seems to show a lack of research dedicated to social media marketing tools specifically for the luxury segment. Instead, all products, no matter the price and status value for the customer, are using the same tools in order to grab attention, increase sales, and achieve higher brand recognition. Woolley (2015) states that the primary marketing techniques used for Instagram are celebrities endorsing specific products and services followed by users demonstrating recent purchases on Instagram photos. Lastly, companies often use repost lotteries to gain exposure and attention. In order to win a prize, participants are asked to share a photo or an advertisement for a number of users. Woolley (2015) states that the advertisement lottery generates more exposure than sales, as the majority of the participants are interested in free rewards rather than actually buying the product.
Fong and Yazdanird (2014) highlight two more methods of social media marketing often implemented by companies to facilitate e-commerce. Viral marketing is similar in concept to Instagram lotteries, as it involves the spreading of information by users with the help of social media platforms. As indicated in the article, this type of marketing is not particularly effective, as most companies and products implementing it usually do not achieve the desired results. This can be explained by the fact that viral marketing is not target marketing and often finds a way towards individuals who do not seek to buy a particular product. It generates annoyance and harms the brand rather than promotes it. In addition, it is often seen as a tool of scammers and companies with a poor reputation, making it unsuitable for luxury brands (Fong and Yazdanird 2014).
Another form of marketing is guerrilla marketing, which utilizes unconventional means of advertising products. Typically, these strategies are aimed at small companies due to relatively low costs. However, the term guerrilla stands for unique and inventive advertising applications. Instagram could be used as a medium for sharing these types of messages. Fong and Yazdanird (2014) give an example of a large brand, such as Red Bull, engaging in guerrilla marketing by sponsoring Felix Baumgartner (a famous skydiver) in his record-breaking jump from over 128,100 feet high.
It is possible for luxury brands to engage in similar feats and use Instagram as a medium to spread the word. However, the choice of unconventional tactics must be in line with the product. Otherwise, it might damage the company’s reputation in the long run. Customers associate luxury brands with a certain seriousness and class, which these are supposed to represent. Using cheap alternatives for advertising could be perceived as an attempt to get on the same level with the majority rather than remaining a distant and desired brand (Athwal, Istanbulluoglu, and McCormack 2018).
Reference List
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To test the relationship between social media Instagram addiction and self-esteem in American high school students, a descriptive survey where students will be enrolled in an online, blinded survey will apply. The survey will consist of the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, Instagram intensity scale, eating attitude test-26, and the body esteem scale (Buran Köse & Doğan, 2019, 175). First, the study will test the hypothesis that there is a difference between social media usage and self-esteem among high school students. Second, the study will test how social media addiction influences the number of Instagram followers or friends. The research design is appropriate because a more significant proportion of college students have smartphones and access Instagram for an average of two hours daily.
Sampling Plan
A random sampling plan is appropriate for the survey because it captures the desired population and others. Besides, surveys indicate a positive correlation between the time spent on social media and a reduction in self-esteem and vice versa. Similarly, 90% of the students have social media accounts, making random sampling valid and giving the exact representation of the population (Buran Köse & Doğan, 2019, 176). Data will be collected from students who correctly fill the survey forms to evaluate The three hypotheses.
Sample Size Estimate
Sample size calculation will depend on the accuracy of the measure rates in the target population. For instance, this study will estimate the proportion (p) of the students within the university population. If the calculated ratio is 80%, the estimate will be +/- 1% as an actual value, making the proportion fall between 79%-81% with 95% confidence (Hawi & Samaha, 2016, 577). From the above statistics of 80% proportion and a population accuracy of +/- 1% sample size will be about 600 respondents out of a sample population of 800 people within the campus (Buran Köse & Doğan, 2019, 175). However, a larger sample size will be better for higher accuracy, and a deviation of the expected prevalence requires a smaller sample size.
In the modern world, social networks have integrated firmly into people’s everyday life. Various research estimates the impact of websites and online communities on human self-esteem and well-being. According to some opinions, social networks develop pessimism and lower confidence; others claim online platforms positively affect users’ characters. According to Verduyn et al. (2017), intensive Facebook use is often associated with greater degrees of retained social capital to users. As a result, users who are more committed to a platform increase their social capital and feel more connected with others (Verduyn et al., 2017). Furthermore, different types of using social networking services (SNS), notably passive and active, impact humans differently. Passive consumption is mostly leading to unfavorable outcomes such as distress, while dynamic usage has had a positive impact on users.
Uploading an Instagram photo, “liking” other people’s content, or adding comments to other users’ posts are all instances of dynamic social media habits. This sort of contact leads to social connectedness, which is sometimes a unique opportunity to make new acquaintances and build a relationship with others. Such activity is positive for individuals and positively affects their well-being and self-esteem. On the other hand, passive usage was proven to correlate with social comparison and jealousy (Verduyn et al., 2017). In the other study by Trifiro and Prena (2021), two hypotheses are used to evaluate the influence of Instagram usage and its outcomes for users. This study will survey the connection between aggressive social media engagement, self-esteem, and the well-being of users, obtaining data from a poll of undergraduate college students in the United States.
Hypothesis One
The first hypothesis claims that top-level use of Instagram is highly related to greater self-esteem levels. This hypothesis predicts a favorable connection between conscientious Instagram use and self-esteem levels influenced by intensity. First, the active users and self-esteem will be associated using Pearson’s product-moment correlation. Secondly, this Instagram-self-esteem connection will use the least-squares route analysis during the study. The analysis may find that the intensity of using social media has a substantial and indirect influence on users’ self-esteem (Trifiro & Prena, 2021). Those who were more involved in social media platforms will be more likely to have a higher sense of self-worth.
Hypothesis Two
The second hypothesis anticipates a strong relationship between active Instagram engagement and consumer satisfaction, with intensity acting as a mediator between the well-being of users and Instagram involvement. The results of this investigation will reveal that, overall, the result of intense social media usage on the well-being and self-esteem of users are substantial. Nevertheless, no statistically significant correlation will be found between active usage and users’ contentment (Trifiro & Prena, 2021). According to these findings, the intensity may mediate between active social media usage and users’ self-esteem.
Procedure and Sample
The Snowball sampling approach acquired 359 students from colleges around the United States as the sample in the study. This survey was based on Facebook and Instagram posts from undergraduate students in these institutions. To be deemed relevant in the research, every respondent was an ongoing undergraduate student at college during the first six months of 2018. Using the 359 respondents used in the research, these respondents completed the 411 questionnaires administered to them. Due to insufficient data, some respondents were removed from the study.
Active Use Measure
In this procedure, this study used both passive and active usage measurement methodologies. Active usage scores from these methodologies ranged from 5 to 25 respondents (Gerson et al., 2017). While the study’s questionnaire acquired information on passive usage, the findings were unconnected to the objectives of the research and thus did not aid in explaining the research hypotheses.
Instagram Intensity
The capabilities of using Instagram were measured using both the Intensity Scale and analysis of the student’s engagement on Facebook. The survey developed a score based on the notion that higher levels of reported social capital were associated with increasing Facebook usage. To examine how emotionally linked respondents were to Instagram, self-reported ratings of Instagram habits were obtained using Likert scale attitudinal questions. A significant number of respondents reported that Instagram was a part of their daily life and that they were happy to tell others that they were on Instagram. Others said that they felt disconnected from the world when they were not on Instagram for an extended period (Gerson et al., 2017). The research used these sample responses to assess the connection between the well-being of Instagram users and their participation on this platform.
Well-Being
Instagram’s ability to increase respondents’ happiness and contentment was tested using a Life Scale. The accuracy with which this scale examined the two components of subjective well-being established its validity. Respondents’ attitudes regarding their personal lives were also assessed using five Likert scale measures. Some of these attitudes stated that, courtesy of Instagram, their lives were incredible, and if they were given an opportunity to change anything concerning the impacts of Instagram in their lives, they would not change a thing.
Self-Esteem
Aiming at testing the self-esteem of Instagram users, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was utilized. According to the results of the test, many respondents replied that Instagram increased their confidence and popularity in society. However, few participants believed that they had little or nothing to be proud of from using Instagram.
Data Analysis
The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) will be used to manage the data cleaning and analyzing procedure. This research will also use the macro technique to analyze the results obtained from Instagram usage results on user self-esteem and their well-being. According to the research, the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) across predictor variables has to be less than five. This variance will aid in avoiding various correlation difficulties throughout the study.
To answer the questions posed in the study, I plan to use the method of summarizing and grouping statistical observation materials. To answer the first research question, “Is the use of Instagram associated with an increase in self-esteem?” the grouping feature will be the respondents’ self-esteem levels; the order of formation of groups will be determined by an increase in self-esteem. To answer the second research question, “What is the relationship between active use of Instagram and customer satisfaction?” the statistical summary will be based on a system of satisfaction indicators of respondents.
The statistical assumption for answering the first question is higher self-esteem among Instagram users compared to respondents who do not use this social network. For the assessment, I will use an assessment of the level of self-esteem of respondents using a psychological survey, where it will be necessary to assess the correctness of statements on a scale from 1 to 10. The statistical assumption for answering the second question is higher life satisfaction among respondents who spend more time on Instagram, sharing posts or stories. For evaluation, I will use account statistics and a psychological test with one-word answers.
After the analysis, I used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to clean and analyze the data. I have successfully prepared a database matrix, performed initial calculations and obtained descriptive statistics. Based on the prepared matrices, I performed operations with multiple questions and then built conjugacy tables, calculating the coefficients of statistical connection. Then I used macro technology to analyze the results obtained from using Instagram on users’ self-esteem and well-being; both of my assumptions were met. The coefficient of variance inflation (VIF) for predictor variables indeed had a value of less than five.
Results
There were 122 male students (34 percent) and 236 females among the 359 authorized responders (65.7 percent). Although one respondent did not want their gender revealed, the average age utilized in the study was 20 years (0.3 percent). The majority of users reported having at least 801 Instagram followers and spent at least 31 minutes each day on the platform. As a result, an insignificant connection was established between the level of self-esteem of respondents and their activity in this social network.
In conclusion, the findings of this study indicated that user intensity contributed to the connection between social media usage and outcomes for users. The more excessively people use social networks, the more negative effects they receive. Major unpleasant outcomes lead to social comparison, jealousy, and pessimism. However, active usage of social networks proved to have positive effects, such as improving social skills, increasing self-esteem, and general well-being. Consequently, the amount of time spent on social networks significantly influences the outcomes.