Teenagers as curators: digitally mediated curation of the self on Instagram

Abstract

In this paper we draw on the findings on teens’ transmedia practices from the research project Transmedia Literacy carried out in eight countries from Europe, Latin America and Australia between 2015 and 2018. An ethnographic approach that combined different research methods, including questionnaires, participatory-creative workshops, interviews, media diaries and online community observation, was used to explore what teens are doing with media. In this article we focus on how teens perform their digital identity on Instagram. This social network is notably popular among young people, and the practice of taking, editing, selecting, hiding and sharing photos and videos through it is part of teenagers’ everyday lives and online interactions. We argue that this curating process encompasses several aspects that are central to teenagers creating a digital persona on Instagram, including content creation, validation through ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ and socio-technical automation. This curation can lead in certain profiles to a professionalized use of the platform, so that the self becomes an object of marketing and promotion for career and business purposes.