Research Question: Does Instagram put pressure on young, British women aged 13-20 on wearing less, more revealing clothes for “likes”?
Aim:
The aim of this research is to find out if young British women wear less and more revealing clothes would they receive more “likes” and if so, whether they feel obliged and pressured into wearing these specific clothes to feel accepted and to boost their self-esteem.
Research Objectives
1. To compare user’s “likes” on posts - whether it differs when they post more ‘modest’ photos compared to revealing
2. To explore user’s intentions on why they post these photos
3. To identify if there is a pattern between the amount of revealing photos a user post as to
how many followers she has
Introduction
This study aimed to address the link between young British women wearing less and more revealing clothes and the amount of “likes” they receive on Instagram. This will be done using in-depth secondary research, critical theory and quantitative research.Women in western countries have felt dissatisfaction with their bodies and desire thinness (Swami et al., 2010). This behaviour is often associated with women who post and edit photos of themselves in sexual clothing as they are more likely to receive “likes” which boosts their self-esteem and confidence (Lee and Park, 2017).
Results and Discussion
Data was collected using Google Forms, an online survey maker which allows anyone to fill in the survey if they have access to the link. The link to this survey was posted on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram as 13-20 year olds are most likely to use these social media platforms than any other age range due to growing up with the development of social media. It is to no surprise that they are the most predominant users of Instagram (Statistica, 2018). The survey had a total of forty-four responses which was collected through the duration of 2nd December 2018 to the 1st January 2019.
How to get the most “likes”
When asked “How do you think you get the most likes”, the majority of the respondents replied with similar comments for example “by looking attractive” or “looking sexy”. A large amount of these comments were about physical appearance, whether it is wearing by a lot of makeup, showing more skin or by editing the photos and making them “cheesy”. Other respondents believed it depends on the time of day they post pictures, the people they are with or even by uploading photos frequently. As the majority of the respondents were women, this supports Bordo’s theory that “females are more likely than males to experience stress when endeavouring to meet unrealistic appearance goals” (2004). This may be due to being more involved on social media as men may have more of an interest in sports or gaming and are not as concerned about their appearance. Statistically there are more women than men on Instagram from January 2018 (Statistica, 2018) which shows how women may be more involved in social media due to their low-self esteem and body perception.
Have you ever felt the need to post pictures of yourself in minimal clothing for likes?
The respondents were asked if they had ever felt the need to post pictures of themselves in minimal clothing for likes.
The results in Figure 1 show that 75% of people declared they had never felt the need to post these types of pictures whereas 13.6% of respondents said yes, they have felt the need to post them. The remaining 11.4% of people remained partial by answering ‘sometimes’. After reviewing the surveys individually, it was discovered that eleven of these respondents who answered ‘no’ were males who wrongly answered the survey. After filtering the responses so it only included the female responses, the figures changed.
Although the majority had not changed, the percentage increased of those who answered yes and sometimes. Caspi (2000) suggests that girls are especially careful of what they look like and how beautiful they are compared to others which helps them develop their identities. This may be true for the respondents who answered no and sometimes, however this theory proves incorrect when applying it to this research as it does not apply to the majority of the respondents.
The respondents who answered yes then were required to answer a multiple choice question explaining the reasoning behind posting the picture of themselves in minimal clothing. The options were due to; pressure, trends, self-esteem, body confidence or they could write their own reason if they felt theirs didn’t match with any of those.
If yes, is it due to the following?
These results exhibit that the majority of people who posted pictures of themselves in minimal clothing was due to body confidence and self-esteem. With young women's Instagram timelines being full of pictures of their friends and their followers bodies, it is no surprise that women compare themselves to others. Research undertaken by (Leahey et al., 2001) had discovered that engaging with these appearance related comparisons leads to lower self-esteem which is reflected in the results.
Have you ever posted a picture of yourself in a bikini?
When asked “Have you ever posted a picture of yourself in your bikini” 34.1 % of respondents answered yes, leaving 65.9% saying no. Then once again, after viewing each individual response, I removed the male responses from this question. The results changed. The majority still answered no however the results were less varied. 54.5% of the respondents answered no, whereas 45.5% answered yes.
Those who said yes, were then asked if they had received more likes on this bikini picture compared to other pictures. 50% said yes, 25% said no and the remaining said about the same. McAndrew and Jeong (2012) believe that among adolescents and teenagers, females are more insecure about their appearance on social media. This could be an explanation as to why these participants uploaded a bikini picture in the first place and by receiving more likes on these posts it boosts their self-esteem and makes them want to carry on posting these images.
Do you feel others post pictures in minimal clothing for likes?
The results in Figure 4 show that 69.8% of respondents believe that other people post pictures of themselves in minimal clothing for likes. This may suggest that people may not admit to posting pictures of themselves for likes or believe that others are more into social media than they are. Other reasons may be due to the denial of feeling objectified by posting “sexual” images online. A study undertaken to understand the relationship between posting selfies in minimal clothing and self-objectification for “likes” showed that around a third of young women’s Instagram selfies met criteria for self-objectification (Bell, 2018). This may be a reason as to why respondents did not feel able to answer yes to the question.
Critical Reflection
Analysis of Approach The strengths of choosing the survey to collect data is that it can be filtered so it produces more accurate results. Ferwerda and Tkalcic’s (2018) surveys filtered out unwanted and fake entries through the use of control questions. This not only developed my knowledge on how to conduct a survey but also allowed me to filter out anyone who wanted to fill out my survey who didn’t have Instagram. I could have used this filter to stop people from answering my survey who didn’t fit the target for my research question which would have resulted in an overall more accurate response but then I wouldn’t have found patterns in my research. Due to the close ended and direct questions, the survey produced clear and definite answers. This proves Macnamara (2005) theory correct as he believes quantitative research can apply conform to the scientific method and produce reliable findings. My results were straight to the point and gave a clear answer to each of my questions. Also, the use of open ended questions allowed the respondent to give their own responses and their own opinion which allowed an insight into what the respondents think. Another strength included the efficiency of surveys. Kelley (2003) believes surveys can produce a large number of data in a short amount of time is relatable. I sent my survey out on the 2nd of December 2018 and within 24 hours I had already received 20 responses. I needed at least 40 to conclude my survey and get accurate results which was achieved shortly after a week. The weaknesses of using a survey is the participants may feel pressured to answer honestly and may feel pressured into answering questions which present them in an unfavorable manner. If I was to do this project again, I would hold interviews as well as creating surveys as it would encourage more explained answers and can ask more in depth questions. Being face to face with a respondent may create more trust and honesty, especially when they know that the results will be anonymous.
Personal Reflection
To address the research I have conducted, I will be referring to the Gibbs’ reflective cycle model (1988). My research project was solely looking at if people post pictures in minimal clothing on Instagram for likes and if yes, if it is because they feel pressured into posting these images. I am going to reflect on the outcomes of my research question and discuss whether using the quantitative method was an appropriate method to use and if it was beneficial to answer my question.
I specifically chose this question as I use Instagram as an everyday routine and could not help but notice an apparent pattern on people who post images of themselves in minimal clothing and the amount of likes they recieve. It seemed the less clothes they wore, the more likes they have on these posts. Throughout the research process, I felt that I have found patterns to other aspects of Instagram and successfully answered the questions I have been looking for.
When approaching the research method section, I struggled with getting the motivation to think about conducting the research. I felt lost as I did not know where to start nor how to conduct a survey. After seminars and lectures, I finally understood what was asked of me and made sure I was on the right tracks. I initially intended to use SurveyMonkey but the free subscription limited me to only publishing ten questions, therefore I had to move to Google Forms. Once I released the link to my survey, initially I had a great response. Every hour I was checking the amount of responses I had received and it kept increasing rapidly. I expected it to be very successful, however once looking at the results which were approaching, I realised that a fair amount of the respondents were not the ones which were appropriate to my assignment and the ones which were, were all of the same age range.
Once I finished the literature review, I couldn’t help but feel relieved. I found great difficulty to find academic resources relating to such a new media platform which is not seen as ‘scholarly’.
The data collection was more difficult than I entailed as getting the responses from all of the age groups across my target ages was proved difficult due to knowing more people aged 18-20 as it is close to my age. It was difficult getting children aged 13-17 to answer my survey as I did not really know anyone at this age range.
Due to a lack of creativeness and organisation, I only published the link to the survey to my friends and followers on ‘Facebook’, ‘Snapchat’ and ‘Instagram’ which made the results biased. This was a poor choice as my ‘Facebook’ friends are all either the same age as me or older as they consist of my close friends and family. I thought Snapchat and Instagram may of had a more diverse response as I have a larger amount of followers which vary with age, though it still didn’t create as much of a diverse response as I initially planned. In response to my literature review, it still made an impact and benefitted me as it allowed me to evaluate other research methods which proved not to be as successful as a survey.
The research project overall had its strengths and weaknesses. I should have been more organised and focused more on the downsides of the survey and the potential weaknesses before conducting the survey to eliminate any problematic results and inaccurate responses.. The lesson I have learnt from conducting a survey for this target age, is to use a more diverse range of social media, or to email parents who I know has young children fitting this age range and ask for their permission of having their children fill out this survey. This would then result in having a wider and more accurate range of results.
References
Bell, B. 2018. Selfie-objectification: Self-objectification and positive feedback ('likes') are associated with frequency of posting sexually objectifying self-images on social media. Body Image [online], 26, 83-89 Bordo, S., 2004. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body . Berkeley: University of California Press
Caspi, S., 2002. The child is father of the man: personality continuities from childhood to adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 78, 158-172. Crowther, J., Leahey, T., and Mickelson, K., 2007. The Frequency, Nature and Effects of Naturally Occurring Appearance-focused Social Comparisons. Behavioural Therapy [online], 38 (Issue 2), 132-143.
Ferwerda, B and Tkalcic, M., 2018. Predicting Users' Personality from Instagram Pictures: Using Visual and/or Content Features?. Proceedings of the 26th Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization , Anon. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Jeong, H., and McAndrew, F. 2012. Who does what on Facebook? Age, sex, and relationship status as predictors of Facebook use. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 2359-2365
Lee, J and Park, H., 2017. Do private and sexual pictures receive more likes on Instagram.
International Conference on Research and Innovation in Information Systems (ICRIIS),
Langkawi, Malaysia 16 July 2017
Macnamara, J., 2005. Media content analysis: Its uses; benefits and best practice methodology. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal , 6 (1), 1-34. Statistica, 2018. Distribution of Instagram users worldwide as from January 2018, by age group . Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-global-age-group [Accessed 7 December 2018]
Statistica, 2018. Percentage of U.S adults who use Instagram as of January 2018 (by gender) . Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/246195/share-of-us-internet-users-who-use-instagram-by-gen der/ [Accessed 7 December 2018].
Swami, V., 2010. The Attractive Female Body Weight and Female Dissatisfaction in 26 Countries Across 10 World Regions: Results of the International Body Project I. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin [online], 36 (Issue 3), 309-325.
Appendix
The Use of Instagram
Do you have Instagram?
Are you from the UK?
Which part of the UK are you from? (Country and County)
What is your gender?
What is your age?
On average, how often do you upload pictures on Instagram?
How many followers do you have on Instagram?
What gender is the majority of your followers?
Which gender is the majority of your followers who like your posts?
Do you feel the need to post pictures to show your identity to others?
If yes, why?
How do you think you get the most likes?
When wearing posting a full outfit picture, how often are you wearing minimal clothing? (Bikinis, Mini-dress, Low Cut Tops)
Are the majority of your full outfit posts of you wearing minimal or casual clothing?
Have you ever felt the need to post pictures of yourself in minimal clothing for likes?
If yes, is it due to the following:
If not, do you feel others post pictures in minimal clothing for likes?
Have you ever posted a picture of yourself in a bikini?
If yes, have you received more likes on this post than you have in casual clothing?
What are you wearing in your most liked selfie/full outfit post?
Do you feel your posts and body image is influenced by celebrities?
If yes, which celebrities?
