On Display: Instagram, the Self, and the City(Computational Social Science)

Two billion people around the world use Instagram, but so far social scientists have done little research on the platform. Despite Instagram's reputation for shallowness, the ongoing self-presentation it demands confronts users with profound dilemmas. Who are we? What do we want to show of ourselves? What do we aspire to be?On Display is a book about how people remake their worlds through social media. John D. Boy and Justus Uitermark provide an encompassing account of how a platform that is unfailingly polished and ruthlessly judgmental shapes us and our environments. They examine how personalities, relations, social movements, urban subcultures, and city streets change as they are represented on Instagram. Interviews and ethnographic vignettes render an intimate account of the desires and anxieties that animate the platform. Just as importantly, Boy and Uitermark reveal how Instagram is implicated in social inequalities.While previous accounts have argued that social media promote polarization, On Display shows that this is not the case for Instagram where users belong to large and diverse networks, compelling them to take many, often contradictory expectations into account. This means users shy away from producing statements or images that may cause offense as a way to preserve their public image and their social connections. Drawing on sociological theory, long-term qualitative inquiry in Amsterdam, and computational analyses, Boy and Uitermark argue that grasping the power of Instagram--and other social media platforms--requires seeing them not as digital networks of communication and sharing, but as a stage for the expression and affirmation of social status.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Status and Social Media Chapter 3: Selves and Others Chapter 4: Curating Contention Chapter 5: Integration and Conformity Chapter 6: Staging Status Chapter 7: Conclusion Appendix: A Note on Methods Notes References Index

About the Author :
John D. Boy is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Leiden University, where he coordinates the d12n Research Cluster. Justus Uitermark is Professor of Urban Geography at the University of Amsterdam. He also serves as Academic Director for the Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research.

Review :
By drawing together granular stories of everyday life and extrapolating visual trends via computational data, Boy and Uitermark uncover how users navigate their social status, social lives, and social spaces through the delicate inter-weaving of social ties on Instagram. On Display's focus on Amsterdam on Instagram is central reading for understanding how digital life worlds, mediatized realities, and networked socio-geographies become integral for reflexive contradictions and productive tensions arising from life on the 'gram.' This fascinating book takes a snapshot of how Amsterdam is represented on Instagram to explore provocative questions of class, status, and hierarchy. Rather than functioning as a public square or fostering activism, Boy and Uitermark find that Instagram encourages feel-good aesthetics and conformity, privileging the viewpoints of the city's most privileged residents. Meticulously researched and full of lively accounts from a range of Instagram users, On Display asks us to consider how our social lives and very sense of self are impacted by the social platforms we use. In this groundbreaking study, Boy and Uitermark focus on Instagram as a mediator of everyday life. Their emphasis on the importance of social status in social media is especially productive, and so too are the connections they make to a specific urban context. All this makes the book essential reading for anyone interested in cities, digital media, and social life. Boy and Uitermark offer a remarkably innovative interrogation of Instagram's everyday users that underlines the perplexing ambiguity of all visual social media. Their nuanced interpretation reveals Instagram's confounding capacity to enable both the competitive display of social status and the sincere performance of the authentic self. This book deserves our deep attention. They acknowledge that Instagram's cultural significance is transforming in light of TikTok and that their findings do not necessarily generalize to other platforms. Excellent for mental health professionals. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.