"If he loves me, why doesn't he post me more?" : an examination of the perceptions men and women have of Instagram's influence on romantic relationships
Abstract
Instagram has become a leader among social media platforms, garnering about 500 million users daily (Gotter, 2019; Pokrop, 2020). With this application being used frequently among users aged 18 to 29 (Pew Research Center, 2019), this study tackles how these individuals perceive Instagram to influence their romantic relationships. A qualitative approach, collecting data through 14 semi-structured interviews, allowed for recurring points of both romantic relationship satisfaction and contention to surface. Findings showed that most individuals find their current relationship satisfactory and use Instagram typically around 14 hours a week. Participants elaborated on their own perceptions and lived experiences with the application while being in a romantic relationship, explaining it brought positive and negative elements to their partnerships. Individual explanations ranged from sharing memes and videos with their partners to fights stemming from jealousy about whom their partner was following or viewing on the application. This study attempts to fill a literature gap due to most prior research being on Facebook's impact on romantic relationships, leaving this photo-sharing application out of consideration. This study focuses on individual perceptions of Instagram, to understand what kind of influence it has on romantic relationships shared by two people, and how those lived experiences, behaviors and feelings differ between two genders.
Degree
M.A.
Thesis Department
Rights
OpenAccess.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. Copyright held by author.