RT journal article
T1 Playing to be influencers: A comparative study on Spanish and Colombian young people on Instagram
A1 Caro Castaño, Lucía
A2 Marketing y Comunicación
K1 Social media
K1 identity
K1 influencers
K1 aspirational work
K1 self-surveillance
K1 selfpromotion
K1 creative industries
AB This paper explores and describes how Colombian and Spanishyoung people present themselves on Instagram according to thesocial game and the symbolic capital that they infer as normativefrom influencers. The methodology used combines the focusgroup technique (seven groups) with a content analysis of theprofiles of the informants (N = 651). In total, 53 first-year creativeindustries university students participated. The results show thatthe work developed by the influencers has given rise to anaspirational narrative genre that young people tend to emulateaccording to the Instagram habitus in order to be recognised asleading players. Their self-presentation has three main features:a) a preference for showing ‘in-classifying’ practices such asleisure and tastes for freedom; b) the predominance of a specifictype of profile and gestures that avoids self-production markersand aspires towards a global audience; and c) the normalisation ofself-promotional discourse. Most informants experienceInstagram as a game in which they compete to accumulate visibility conceived asrelational validation, although in the case of Colombian informants there is a moreprofessional outlook towards the platform. Finally, for all of them, Instagramconstitutes a serious game, and many of them admit to feeling too exposed. As aresult, they have implemented self-surveillance practices, such as consulting withpeers before posting photographs, using secondary accounts and deleting posts.
PB UNIV NAVARRA, SERV PUBLICACIONES
SN 2386-7876
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/26483
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/26483
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 21-sep-2026