Instagram is a Stage
February 2020
Kelly Brennan
In 1956, Erving Goffman compared social interaction to a theatre performance in his book The Presentation of Self in Our Everyday Lives. This premise has been explored by many scholars including Abigail De Kosnik and Marshall McLuhan -- whose ideas will be explored in this paper -- and applied to the new age of social media. Essentially, one could argue that through our use of social media, we are ‘putting up a front’ or performing our “best idealized selves.” This essay will explore this idea of performance and ‘putting up a front’ on social media by looking at the platform of Instagram as a reference and exploring what we as users put into our profile pages.
Goffman writes in his book The Presentation of Self in Our Everyday Life that we all make “impressions” and have “parts” that we play. In explaining this concept and applying it to modern media, De Kosnik writes:
The “impressions” (that we make) or the “parts” (that we play) described by Goffman are, in a social media setting, our online identities. The continuity of our performances—the fact that, as Goffman tells us, we perform our parts consistently over time (though we typically play different parts to different audiences)—translates to social media in our constant uploading of new content and our continually posting updates to our accounts (21).
She further explains Goffman’s various examples of performance preparation “‘that [he] claims we all employ on a daily basis, such as ‘dramaturgy,’ ‘stagecraft,’ and ‘stage management,’” (De Kosnik 21) and states that these are also present in the usage of our social media platforms. She gives examples of how we strategize our posts with the timing and impact of our post, how we prepare our posts in advance with filters, captions, and hashtags, and how we yearn for clicks, likes, and views (De Kosnik 21).
In Tatiana Mazali’s article "Social Media as a New Public Sphere," she expands on the ideas of Goffman and De Kosnik by writing:
Individuals and groups ‘perform’ using social network sites. Their profiles provide these subjects to put their own identity, representations and ‘friends’ to the test. But social network spaces are not simply representational spaces: they are performance spaces. They are constructed social and relational spaces where identity is created, and where, above all, ‘we act’ (290).
She agrees with the previous scholars about how we perform and “act” on social media to put forth a presentation of ourselves that might not be the whole reality or might be an idealized version of the self. Furthermore, De Kosnik, in explaining Goffman’s ideas, explains that identity is performance: “the idea that who we are is the persona(e) we perform, day to day, with repetition and continuity” (21).
In her essay “Is Twitter a Stage,” De Kosnik explores Marshall McLuhan’s ideas of performativity and theatre around the idea of social media. Although McLuhan and Goffman’s ideas are very similar, unlike Goffman, McLuhan argues that performance can come from many different people rather than just one individual and we can all participate in a social or “global theatre”. Even though McLuhan came up with many of these ideas before the internet was even relevant, his ideas are very profound even today. De Kosnik explains that McLuhan incorporates the idea of the “mask” into his essay “At the Moment of Sputnik the Planet Became a Global Theater in Which There Are No Spectators but Only Actors.” She explains that:
McLuhan employs this metaphor seven times in describing the operations of media production and reception, arguing that a medium is “put on” by its users like a mask so that they can extend their perceptions, and the users are “put on” by the maker so that the maker can anticipate their reaction and give them what they want (De Kosnik 29).
Following this idea of the “mask,” Erika Pearson expands, writing that, “online, users can claim to be whoever they wish. Like actors playing a role, they can deliberately choose to put forth identity cues or claims of self that can closely resemble or wildly differ from reality.”
The repeating theme here to note is that you are putting on a “performance” on social media by only posting your best moments. If you look at the platform Instagram as an example, we can see how this proves true. On Instagram, you will find in your home screen feed pictures of friends, family, and pets that reflect the best moments in people’s lives. All users of Instagram put out content with witty or heartfelt captions that reflect their best moments. It is obvious that no user would post the moment after their boyfriend broke up with them, but rather a picture of them with their girlfriends saying as a caption “Who needs boys anyway?”
Gerald Kane explains through his research on social media networks that:
[his] updated definition of social media networks possesses four essential features [...], such that users (1) have a unique user profile that is constructed by the user, by members of their network, and by the platform; (2) access digital content through, and protect it from, various search mechanisms provided by the platform; (3) can articulate a list of other users with whom they share a relational connection; and (4) view and traverse their connections and those made by others on the platform. (Kane 279)
We can apply these four essential features of social media networks to Instagram:
Users have a unique user profile that is constructed by the user, by members of their network, and by the platform: The content that is put out on the users Instagram feed is catered to their personal preferences, the people who follow them, and the way that the network is laid out. For example, the Instagram layout is a grid, so many users choose to use that to their advantage by posting a similar color scheme in all of their photos so that it is aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, users can choose to post their content in a specific way to reflect their interests and relationships. For example, the user may have one post with their friends, another of their makeup collection, and another of their pets, in order to reflect what the user feels represents them.
Users access digital content through, and protect it from, various search mechanisms provided by the platform: The user can follow other accounts that are pleasing to them because you can search any profile on Instagram. Or, the user can follow hashtags to keep up with the latest trends. On the other hand, the user can protect it from various search mechanisms by making their account private and only accepting those who they want.
Users can articulate a list of other users with whom they share a relational connection: The user can create a following/followers list of people who they choose. The user can accept a follow request, deny a follow request, or block/remove any follower at any time.
Users can view and traverse their connections and those made by others on the platform: The Instagram platform is interactive. There are like buttons, comment buttons, and share buttons that the user can interact with on other profile pages and followers can interact with on the user’s profile page. Not only this, but the user can also be tagged in photos by other users, and can view other users' followers list. This makes it so that other users can find them through a different user, and the user can find others on the platform through this feature; essentially it is so that the user can connect with friends of friends.
As shown, the platform of Instagram is a place where the user can perform, put on a mask, and choose carefully what kind of content they put out. Because of all of this, the user is “acting” and putting on a persona that they repeat day after day with every interaction they have on the platform.
The new world of social media is something that we as humans are learning the ins and outs of every day. One of the most interesting things about social media is that we do not even realize that we are putting up a front or performance; we assume that we are being most our authentic selves by maybe not photo-shopping our photos or using a filter, but the problem is that we are not being totally true. Every user is posting their best moments and most flattering angles on platforms like Instagram; every user is using their best knowledge to skillfully craft a post with a witty or thoughtful caption with a time in mind of when to post; every user is hoping for a certain amount of likes and comments for validation of their “best self.” Instagram is a stage, and any user who actively participates in the site is putting on a performance through acting.
Work Cited
De Kosnik, Abigail. “Is Twitter a Stage?: Theories of Social Media Platforms as Performance Spaces.” #Identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation, University of Michigan Press, 2019, pp. 20–32.
Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. University of Edinburgh Social Sciences Research Centre, 1956.
Kane, Gerald C., et al. “What’s Different About Social Media Networks? A Framework and Research Agenda.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 1, 2014, pp. 275–304. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26554878. Accessed 11 Feb. 2020.
McLuhan, Marshall. 1974a. “At the Moment of Sputnik the Planet Became a Global Theater in Which There Are No Spectators but Only Actors.” Journal of Communication 24, no. 1: 48–58. DOI: 10.1111/j.1460–2466.1974.tb00354.x
Mazali, Tatiana. "Social Media as a New Public Sphere." Leonardo, vol. 44 no. 3, 2011, p. 290-291. Project MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/431894.
Pearson, Erika. “All the World Wide Web’s a Stage: The Performance of Identity in Online Social Networks.” First Monday, vol. 14, Mar. 2009.
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