Anxiety as a cultural paradigm of social media: Instagram as an example
Abstract
Social media are one of the principal characteristics of contemporary, digital era. They have multiple roles – they are simultaneously a communication tool, communication space and a field for socialization and creation of meaning and value. The main hypothesis of this paper is that anxiety, although a term originating from philosophy, psychiatry, psychoanalysis and psychology, can be transposed into the domain of culturology and analyzed as a cultural topos. The second hypothesis is that anxiety understood as a cultural topos represents a cultural paradigm of social media. One of the most popular and widespread social media now is Instagram. Because of this, but also due to its specific functions and ideological background, we chose and analyzed this social network so as to demonstrate the workings of the culture of anxiety. We are of the opinion that such a view of anxiety could open up new perspectives on different aspects of the digital age we live in and point to the importance of developing critical apparatus and media literacy in users of new digital platforms.
References
Black, T. (2019). Autonomy and the Birth of Authenticity. In A. Kennedy & J. Panton (eds.), From Self to Selfie. A Critique of Contemporary Forms of Alienation (pp. 105-128). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
boyd, d. (2014). It’s complicated: the social lives of networked teens. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
De Boton, A. (2005). Statusna zebnja. Beograd: Zavet.
Đorđević, M. M., Stanojević D. Ž., Đorđević T. S. (2021). Tragedija selfija. Filozofija Medija: Mediji i usamljenost, 26: 63-70. UDK: 77.041.5-026.87:316.472.4.
Đurđević, M. (2018). Instaself: Kreiranje identiteta na društvenim mrežama, slučaj Instagrama. U Zbornik radova sa 11. Naučno-stručne konferencije Studenti u susret nauci – StES 2018, Humanističke nauke: postidentiteti (str. 122-135). Banja Luka: Univerzitet u Banjoj Luci. DOI: 10.7251/ZSSN1811122D.
Ercegovac, I. (2017). Influenseri kao vođe mnjenja u primarnim grupama na društvenim mrežama i njihova uloga u novoj medijskoj sferi. Godišnjak Fakulteta za kulturu i medije, 14(IX): 251-268.
Erić, Lj. (1972). Strah, anksioznost i anksiozna stanja. Beograd: Institut za stručno usavršavanje i specijalizaciju zdravstvenih radnika.
From, E. (1980). Zdravo društvo. Beograd: Rad.
Fuchs, C. (2014). Social Media: A Critical Introduction. London [etc.]: Sage.
Furedi, F. (2019). New Forms of Alienation. In A. Kennedy & J. Panton (eds.), From Self to Selfie. A Critique of Contemporary Forms of Alienation (pp. 193-206). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Inicijativa za novu digitalnu i medijsku pismenost (2020). Mladi i influenseri: simbioza modernog društva. Beograd: CeSID. URL: http://www.cesid.rs/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Mladi-i-influenseri-izves%cc%8ctaj-2020.pdf.
Keen, A. (2017). Internet nije odgovor. Zagreb: Ljevak.
Kemp, S. (2023). Instagram Users, Stats, Data & Trends. Pristupljeno 14. oktobra 2024. URL: https://datareportal.com/essential-instagram-stats.
Kemp, S. (2024). Digital 2024 Global Overview Report. Pristupljeno 14. oktobra 2024. URL: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-global-news-report.
Komatina, S., Antović, T. (2021). Građani i mediji: izveštaj iz istraživanja javnog mnjenja. Beograd: CeSID. URL: http://www.cesid.rs/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Ciklus-III-GRADANI-I-MEDIJI.pdf.
Kovačević, M, Šutić, V., Rajčević, U.. Minaeva, I. (2023). Upotreba informaciono-komunikacionih tehnologija u Republici Srbiji, 2023. Beograd: Republički zavod za statistiku.
Lasch, C. (1986). Narcistička kultura: američki život u doba smanjenih očekivanja. Zagreb: Naprijed.
Lipovecki, Ž, Seroa, Ž. (2013). Globalni ekran: od filma do smartfona. Novi Sad: Akademska knjiga.
Lipovecki, Ž. (1987). Doba praznine: ogledi o savremenom individualizmu. Novi Sad: Književna zajednica Novog Sada.
Liu, C, Ma, J. (2020). Social media addiction and burnout: The mediating roles of envy and social media use anxiety. Current Psychology, 39: 1883–1891. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9998-0.
Manovich, L. (2017). Instagram and Contemporary Image. URL: http://manovich.net/content/04-projects/162-instagram-and-contemporary image/instagram_book_manovich_2017.pdf.
Miladinović, S. (2014). Deca na internetu i onlajn društvenim mrežama. U D. Todorović, D. Petrović i D. Prlja (ur.), Internet i društvo: međunardni tematski zbornik radova (str. 443-457). Beograd i Niš: Srpsko sociološko društvo; Univerzitet u Nišu – Filozofski fakultet; Institut za uporedno pravo, Beograd.
Milošević, S., Milošević, D. (2022). Uticaj društvenih mreža na mentalno zdravlje. Zbornik Instituta za kriminološka i sociološka istraživanja, XLI/1: 27-40. DOI: 10.47152/ziksi2022012.
Newton, C. (2021). What Instagram really learned from hiding like count. Pristupljeno 15. maja 2023. URL: https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/27/22456206/instagram-hiding-likes-experiment-results-platformer.
Oxford Learners Dictionaries (2022). Selfie. Pristupljeno 24. avgusta 2022. URL: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/selfie.
Petrović, D. (2022). Sociologija e-komunikacija. Beograd: Saobraćajni fakultet.
Salecl, R. (2004). On Anxiety. London & New York: Routledge.
Salecl, R. (2014). Tiranija izbora. Beograd: Arhipelag.
Smith, S., Watson, J. (2014). Virtually Me: A Toolbox about Online Self-Presentation. In A. Poletti & J. Rak (eds.), Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online (pp. 70-95). Madison: The University of Winsconsin Press.
Terkl, Š. (2011). Sami zajedno: zašto očekujemo više od tehnologije nego jedni od drugih. Beograd: Clio.
Tifentale, A., Manovich, L. (2018). Competitive Photography and the Presentation of the Self. In J. Eckel, J. Ruchatz & S. Wirth (eds.), Exploring the Selfie. Historical, Theoretical, and Analytical Approaches to Digital Self-Photography (pp. 167-187). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Turkle, S. (1997). Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Touchstone.
Tvengi, Dž. M. (2019). Internet generacija: dezorijntisanost dece u digitalnom dobu. Novi Sad: Psihopolis institut.
Vaidhyanathan, S. (2018). The incomplete political economy of social media. In J. Burgess, A. Marwick & T. Poell (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Social Media (pp. 213-230). London: Sage.
Vajdijanatan, S. (2018). Antidruštvene mreže: kako nas Fejsbuk razdvaja i urušava demokratiju. Beograd: Clio.
Wikipedia (2024). List of most-followed Instagtam accounts. Pristupljeno 14. oktobra 2024. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-followed_Instagram_accounts.
Copyright
Authors retain copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the non-exclusive right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media.
Licensing
The published articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA). It is allowed to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and remix, transform, and build upon it for any purpose, even commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), a link to the license is provided, it is indicated if changes were made and the new work is distributed under the same license as the original.
Users are required to provide full bibliographic description of the original publication (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages), as well as its DOI code. In electronic publishing, users are also required to link the content with both the original article published in CM: Communication and Media and the licence used.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Self-archiving policy
Authors are permitted to deposit author’s publisher's version (PDF) of their work in an institutional repository, subject-based repository, author's personal website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.), at any time after publication.
Full bibliographic information (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages) about the original publication must be provided and links must be made to the article's DOI and the license.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in the published works do not express the views of the Editors and the Editorial Staff. The authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in the articles. Publisher shall have no liability in the event of issuance of any claims for damages. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.