Forever Ephemeral? – An Exploratory Analysis of Youth Self-presentation with Instagram Stories in the Context of Visual Mobile Communication [védés előtt]

Kivonat, rövid leírás

The general objective of this dissertation can be summarized as follows: To analyze, within visual mobile communication, the influence of ephemeral images from Instagram Stories in the self-presentation of the youth born in the 21st century (aged 18-22 years old). A more focused set of specific objectives, also directly connected to the previous RQs, reflects on the contribution to theory, analyzes the ephemeral images, and describes the characteristics of those studied online experiences: • Theory: To provide a theoretical basis on how social media applications with ephemeral content intersect with visual mobile communication. • Images: To typify the visual self-presentation strategies mediated by ephemeral content of Instagram Stories among the youth. • Experiences: To investigate the characteristics that distinguish the use of ephemeral images as a communication practice among the youth on visual social media. To answer these questions and meet these objectives, the research draws on three main lines of knowledge: Visual mobile communication, visual social media studies, and self-presentation on social media. The popularization of smartphones has transformed visual communication as a practice, reshaping how people create, share, and consume visual content (Ling & Horst, 2011; Hand, 2020). While mobile communication began in the 1990s, it was the widespread adoption of smartphones in the early 21st century that made visual mobile communication a pervasive part of daily life. By early 2023, an estimated 5.44 billion people globally owned mobile phones (Kemp, 2023). Technological advancements such as GSM, WAP, and mobile broadband were important in enhancing the functionality of these devices, making mobile communication more accessible and immediate (Ling & Horst, 2011).