SELFIESTEEM
ABSTRACT
Mallonga, S.G.T. (2015). Selfiesteem: Filipino Instagram Users’ Identification and Self Esteem. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis. University of the Philippines, Diliman, College of Mass Communication.
Instagram, being one of the most widespread photo sharing medium with Filipino adolescents, has served as a relevant sphere that fosters their identities. The self-other interaction permeates the emergence of the Self in cyberspace. Using Jonathan Cohen’s dimensions of Identification, Laura Robinson’s Symbolic Interaction in the digital age, and Semiotics, the researcher will study the Instagram user as a follower and participant of the photo sharing cycle.
It is the aim of the study is to prove that Instagram influences the assessment of adolescent’s individuality through their identification with the images that they see on the social media platform and the way they package the self in cyber space as a result of online interaction.
Through semi-structured interviews, the study aims to find out the relation between identity negotiation through identification and symbolic interaction on Instagram and its influence on one’s self-worth. Positive and negative emotions evoked by the exposure to the medium will predict the next behavioral turn that the user will take with regards the presentation of an identity. Textual analysis was also utilized by the researcher, in order to analyze the presentations of the self of through the interviewees’ photos in their Instagram accounts.
Keywords: Self-esteem, Identity, Identification, Symbolic Interaction