Social Media and the Spectacle of the Maternal Identity: a Research on Instagram

Abstract

Social roles and judgements influence the way people perceive and spectacle their identities. Social media is a digital space for people's identity spectacle. Instagram is a platform for sharing images more than text sharing. For this reason, Instagram is a convenient platform to examine identity spectacles in the context of the theory of the society of spectacle. Some of the high follower Instagramers represent themselves with maternal identity. In addition, mothers also interact with each other on Instagram. This interaction creates an area for social roles and judgments. Instagram user are women who have children; while spectacle their maternal identity, they can be influenced by accounts with high followers or each other. This research investigated these reflections in the following problematics: whether the identity of maternity is instrumentalized as a spectacle; or provides a field where women can express themselves digitally. This research aims to contribute to the literature and raise awareness about the use of social media. The problem of the research is "How does following maternity-related Instagram accounts influence how women with children perceive and spectacle their identities as mothers?". The study targets Instagram user women with at least one child – children must be under 18 years of age -. The data were obtained from the survey results conducted with random sampling and the in-depth interview with snowball sampling. The data obtained from the in-depth interviews were interpreted with content analysis in the results section. According to the research, it has been determined that social judgments reflected on Instagram create ideal and acceptable mother patterns. As a result, the way mothers perceive and spectacle their maternal identity is shaped in this context. It has been determined that this situation creates a difference between appearance and what is actually experienced, and the maternal identity is instrumentalized as a spectacle.