Me, my selfie and I
PAPER WITHIN Informatics
AUTHOR: Jenny Lindberg & Alexandra Rebecca Ses TUTOR: Ida Serneberg
JÖNKÖPING May 2020
A qualitative study of reasons, experiences and
beliefs connected to human computer interaction
in the context of selfie culture.
Postadress: Besöksadress: Telefon:
Box 1026 Gjuterigatan 5 036-10 10 00 (vx)
This exam work has been carried out at the School of Engineering in Jönköping in the subject area of Informatics. The work is a part of the three-year Bachelor of Informatics in Engineering programme New Media Design. The authors take full responsibility for opinions, conclusions and findings presented.
Examiner: Vladimir Tarasov Supervisor: Ida Serneberg Scope: 15 credits (first cycle) Date: May 2020
Abstract
This research paper illustrates the social effects of social media and selfie posting on older age generations. These generational groups are called “Baby-boomers” and “Baby-busts” and are born before the existence of Internet and social media and therefore have had to adapt to the online context. The goal of this study is to make comparison between younger and older generations in terms of experiences, beliefs and feelings they encounter when posting and observing self-photos.
By using Semi-structured Qualitative interviews, which is set up as an interview guide based on questions designed to give open ended answers, we had the possibility to obtain a deeper understanding of the topic studied. This study has shown different perspectives of how generations born before the Internet era have adapted to social platforms and how they understood the selfie culture. Results identified have proven older age generations have higher level of self-esteem and prefer posting real and honest selfies, whereas the younger ones are interested in their looks and appearance on social media and they value their popularity by the number of likes received for their self-photos. As we discovered that likes and followers have no value for participants in our study, we concluded there is no reason like popularity seeking beneath their selfie posting habits. The target group in this study is instead using social media accounts as a source of inspiration, communication channel or a marketing tool for their professional life.
1.1.1 Keywords
Contents
Abstract ... 2
1
Introduction ... 5
1.1 Background ... 5
1.2 Purpose and research questions ... 6
1.3 Delimitations ... 7
1.4 Outline ... 7
2
Theoretical background ... 8
2.1 Generational groups ... 8
2.2 Development of Self-esteem within the life cycle ... 8
2.3 Social comparison theory and cognitive dissonance ... 9
2.4 Relevant studies from the past ... 9
2.4.1 2.4.1 Rina Ghazale and Moa Pareigis - “A selfie a day keeps insecurities away. En kvalitativ studie om unga vuxnas behov och upplevelse av att ladda upp selfies på Instagram” ... 9
2.4.2 2.4.2 Wang et al. – “Let me take a selfie: Exploring the psychological effects of posting and viewing selfies and groupies on social media” (Wang et al., 2017) ... 10
3
Method and implementation ... 12
3.1 Suitable research method ... 12
3.2 Semi-structured Qualitative interview ... 12
3.3 Participants and the selection ... 13
3.4 Interview manual ... 13
3.5 Approach and implementation... 14
3.6 Ethical implication ... 16
3.7 Research validity, reliability and Generalization ... 16
3.7.1 Research validity... 16
3.7.2 Reliability... 16
3.7.3 Generalizability... 17
3.8 Method of comparison... 17
4
Findings and analysis ... 18
4.2 Editing photos... 18
4.2.1 Comparison, editing photos ... 19
4.3 Selfies ... 19
4.3.1 Comparison, selfies ... 19
4.4 Likes and followers ... 19
4.4.1 Comparison, likes and followers ... 20
4.5 Needs ... 20
4.5.1 Comparison, needs ... 21
4.6 Selfie culture ... 21
4.6.1 Comparison, selfie culture ... 21
4.7 Difference in generations within selfie culture context... 22
5
Discussion and conclusions ... 23
5.1 Discussion of method ... 23
5.2 Discussion of findings ... 23
5.3 Conclusions ... 25
6
References ... 27
Introduction
1
Introduction
This research paper represents the final project of the bachelor’s degree for New Media Design Program with Major in Informatics, studied at Jonkoping University. The work process for this thesis has been sustained during Spring 2020 and it values 15 ECTS.
This chapter will introduce the reading audience to the background information regarding our research topic and will present the connection to the study field. Research questions have the role to illustrate answers for the identified research gap, while delimitations are clearly stated. The outline contains an overview for the following chapters.
1.1 Background
The lifestyle and human interaction have been permanently changed and influenced since the beginning of the online media and up to this day. In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee creates a
revolutionary space: World Wide Web, an informational system which allows the users to access data by navigating the Internet. One year later, the same creator launches the first web browser (Pew Research Center, 2014). The new online space becomes a mutual world for people who are now exchanging information like pictures, texts or videos. More and more web applications have been developed, making the human way of living impossible to be without technology, stating the fact that 55 million people were navigating on the Internet from their workplaces in 2002. One student from Harvard University, Mark Zuckerberg, launches in 2004 the social platform “thefacebook.com”, the social network service that replaces the site called Friendster.com created two years before and will later become the most popular networking site globally, with more than a billion international users (Pew Research Center, 2014). Nowadays, on this platform the users are able to post audio, video or text-based content, they can exchange likes and comments, share locations, create events and get connected to worldwide information in real time.
Three years later, Apple launches in 2007 the very first version of the smart phone series of iPhone (Pew Research Center, 2014). This event marks a new era: the ability to have access to applications and digital tools from one single portable piece of technology. With a small device right in their pockets every day, the population has now strengthened a new relationship: human computer interaction. The interconnection is not only from one person to his/her device, retrieving and sending out information from the artificial brain, but there is as well a link from a smartphone to its user, and technology creates experiences for humans. People learn to express their feelings and beliefs within the online world via a virtual account, on distinct types of social media channels. In 2010, the photo-sharing platform known as Instagram is available for the iOS users (and two years later the Android version is launched as well), encouraging the users to share photographs with others and to exchange comments and likes (Pew Research Center, 2014). The users can utilize the “hashtag” feature by adding tag names to their pictures in order to appear in tag searches on Instagram. This globally known app is the creator of a new trend: selfie posting. In 2013, “selfie” has been declared the “word of the year” and it is the meaning of “a photo of yourself that you take, typically with a smartphone or webcam, and usually put on social media” (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013).
The presence of selfies in humans’ lives has convinced them to follow new habits: taking pictures with themselves or in groups, in different contexts and from different places and posting them on platforms like Facebook and Instagram in exchange of appreciations. It is reported that users take 93 billion selfies daily using their smartphones (Brandt, 2014), pictures which end up posted
Introduction
online in social media. According to Omnicore Agency (2020), 83% female and 75% male persons are Facebook users. On the same social platform, 88% of users are aged between 18-29 and 84% are between 30 and 49 years old. The same source states that 62% of older users aged over 65 years have Facebook accounts and 72% represents the number of social media users aged between 50-64. The same agency provides Instagram statistics as well: globally, the
application users are 56.3% females and 43.7% males and 6 out of 10 online adults use Instagram (Omnicore Agency, 2020).
The intriguing fact consists of the differences in generations of users that access the same online channels. It is noticeable that each generation has been influenced by internet and social media in distinct manners, depending on the time technology appeared in their lives. A person born in the internet era can act differently than the person “forced” to adapt to it. How does social media affect different generations? In the past decades, researchers have found what influence a smart device can have on the emotional state of the human. Previous studies demonstrated how selfie posting is connected to personality traits (Qiu et al., 2015, Kim and Chock, 2017, Sorokowski et al., 2016), whereas other studies have found gender differences in selfie sharing (Sorokowska et al., 2016, Dhir et al., 2016). Researchers found elements of narcissism visible in selfie posting users (Kim and Chock, 2017, Sorokowski et al., 2015, Halpern et al., 2016). Several studies have shown how posting selfies can influence the individual’s experiences and beliefs and it can impact their self-esteem (Wang et al., 2016, Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017, Shin et al., 2017). The majority of the previous studies are conducted on young participants who are part of the modern generations growing up with technology in their hands. We identified a research gap in this field when concluding there were too few studies that included the mature generations in the research work. The most intriguing part about it is that the older age category of audience had an extra challenge compared to the younger generation to learn what internet is, how to use it and how to adapt to the online world. The aged public had no previous knowledge regarding social media before and we believe it made a huge impact on their lives and personalities. Our study is aiming to identify the social effects (feelings, thoughts, experiences) that social media can cause to its older users when posting and viewing selfies.
1.2 Purpose and research questions
The purpose of this study is to contrast and compare the experiences of older generations to the younger ones in the context of selfie culture. What can be the differences between these 2 types of generations? Apart from other relevant studies, we will reproduce the research conducted by Rina Ghazale and Moa Pareigis in their writing “A selfie a day keeps insecurities away” (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017). In their study, the authors are analysing the social effects of selfies upon teenage users and the audience’s opinion regarding selfie trend. We are aiming to recreate their study on a different target group: the older generations born before the social media era, who faced the challenge of adapting to online media. Based on literature review, we identified that older generations have a higher level of self-esteem, factor we believe it can influence their view over social media and selfies (Orth et al., 2010, Orth et al., 2018). This paper aims to study if selfies can influence the specific target group chosen and if so, in what manners. The results and discussion will create connections between this actual study and the research of Ghazale and Pareigis. Overall, this paper should fill in the research gap by providing specific results for this particular target group and it should become an academic aid for future researchers in this field.
Introduction
The research questions are: RQ1:
What can be the underlying social needs behind selfie posts for the chosen target group? RQ2:
When uploading selfies, what can be the possible further consequences and experiences the target group encounters?
RQ3:
What overall opinion does the target group have regarding the selfie trend?
1.3 Delimitations
Due to the fact that the limited target group consists of Facebook and Instagram users, our study is focusing exclusively on these mentioned platforms and the results cannot be applied to other social media channels.
The target audience has strict constraints. The study focuses only on individuals aged between 45 and 62 years old who are Facebook and Instagram users and post selfies regularly. The research is conducted exclusively towards it and will not analyse or influence any other type of target
audience apart from the one described in this study.
This investigation follows the effects of social media towards its users that are only influenced by posting and observing self-pictures. There is no aim to analyse or visualize the content of the selfies posted, the purpose is to identify any social patterns that participants may have when encountering selfies in social media by using the limited number of tools stated in the “Methods and implementation” chapter.
1.4 Outline
In the upcoming chapters, the research for this study will be presented in the following order: In the chapter named "Introduction" it is presented the background information for this study, introducing the audience to the concepts and the context, the research questions that are meant to fill in the research gap and the overall purpose of this research. In the second chapter “Theoretical background” the information illustrates theories and reference materials on which our study is based on. The key elements that are important factors in our study are described and explained for the reader. The third chapter contains a detail explanation of the method and how valid information will be collected and used in this document. The next section “Findings and Analysis” covers the process of converting data into valuable results. The final chapter
“Discussions and conclusions” creates connection from the collected data and its results to the relevance and importance for the research questions that have been chosen.
Theoretical background
2
Theoretical background
In this chapter we present the divisions of generations and the reasons we chose a specific target group for this study. The following paragraph explains the definition of self-esteem and how it is manifested during the life cycle of the individual. Further on, two theories of psychologist Leon Festinger are highlighted, and we describe their relevance for this study. In the final part of this chapter we mention and describe previous research documents who represent reference elements for the current study work.
2.1 Generational groups
Pew Research Center described in two articles the characteristics of each generational level and the differences between them (Pew Research Center, 2015, 2019). According to their studies, the primary classes are known as Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z. A person is considered a Boomer if he/she is born between 1946 and 1964 (meaning the same person can be between 56 and 74 years old in 2020), during the post-war times and within economic flourishing context. This generation is considered demographically dense due to the high rate in fertility began in 1946 (Pew Research Center, 2015). The following age group is called Generation X, the Gen Xers or “Baby Bust”, representing the generation born between 1965 and 1980 (meaning a range between 44 and 55 years old). Generation X means the class of individuals whom number was diminished as a consequence of birth control pills invention. The following group is known as Millennials or Generation Y, referring to people born between 1981 and 1996. The last age group is known as Generation Z and it represents individuals born after 1996, the most diverse adult group in terms of ethnicity and race (Pew Research Center 2019). In 2013, when “Selfie” was the word of the year, the Millennials were young people between 15 and 35 years old. The development of digital culture makes a great impact on this generation, who already socialize, play, learn, communicate and work in distinct manners compared to their parents. The Generation Z is evolving at the same time with social media which makes them capable to keep up with the fasten pace of technology. On the other side, the previous
generations, like Baby-Boomers and Baby-Busts, are unprepared for entering a digitalized era and might have difficult times adapting to it.
2.2 Development of Self-esteem within the life cycle
Self-esteem is a feeling of being happy with your own character and abilities (Oxford
Dictionaries, 2013). Several studies have analysed the possible connections between self-esteem and life cycle, aiming to find any correlations between age stages and development of this personality value. Orth et al. (2010) worked on a study which conducted research on participants aged between 25 and 104 years, in 4 waves. The target group was asked to use the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE, Rosenberg, 1965) for scoring several statements according to life correspondence. As a result, the study demonstrated that self-esteem rises from teenage to middle maturity and peaks at around 50 to 60 years, decreasing into senior years (Orth et al., 2010). The authors consider self-esteem to be consistent, meaning that one highly (or slightly) confident person in adolescence tends to maintain the same confidence level throughout the life. The last conclusion stated is that high self-esteem positively impacts one’s personal and
professional life, as well as its health status throughout the years (Orth et al., 2010). In order to deepen the knowledge, a meta-analysis has been conducted in 2018 (Orth et al., 2018). The research illustrated a more detailed trajectory of self-esteem across the human’s life span. The results showed how self-esteem increased until the age of 11 and kept the same level until 15, highly increased until 30 and further on increasing until reaching the peak at 60. Afterwards, the
Theoretical background
level of self-esteem stayed constant until 70 and easily decreased until the age of 90 (Orth et al., 2018). This trajectory has been proven consistent across factors like nationality, ethnicity, gender or birth date. These previous results strengthen our belief that older people tend to have a different behaviour when posting selfies on social media compared to teenagers doing the same on the similar social platforms, due to higher level of self-esteem and influenced by life
experience.
2.3 Social comparison theory and cognitive dissonance
The social psychologist Leon Festinger developed the social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954). He shared the following statement: the human being has an inner desire for evaluating his own skills and beliefs and influenced by the lack of objective references, the individual compares his abilities with other people’s. Festinger presented two sides of the same theory: upward and downward social comparison. Upward comparison happens when people compare themselves to others with better skills, as a wish of developing their own abilities to a higher level. Downward comparison is the case when a person compares himself to someone having weaker skills and therefore, he feels superior to that person. (Festinger, 1954) Further on, Festinger concludes: the need of self-evaluation related to other’s experiences is the base of social influencing processes and competitive behaviour, this is why people try to convince others to agree with their opinions and in some cases, they believe their skills are better than others. The author stated that the more distinct opinions the less likely it is for a person to compare to someone else (Festinger, 1954). As an example, it can be said that an online user could only compare his/her selfies to a relative or friend and not to a famous personality (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017).
The second theory stated by Festinger in another publication (Festinger, 1957) is known as Cognitive dissonance, a phenomenon explaining the inconsistency of one’s attitude and actions. In Oxford Dictionary it is explained as “the state of having thoughts that are not consistent, especially relating to beliefs, behaviour and attitudes” (Oxford Dictionary, 2020). In other words, the human being is continuously changing either his actions or his behaviour in order to match the other one. For instance, a person with cognitive dissonance can have opposite attitudes towards selfies: “I feel bad about uploading selfies” and “I upload selfies”. The person can either change feelings towards selfie posting or avoid the action of posting self-pictures (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017).
2.4 Relevant studies from the past
2.4.1 Rina Ghazale and Moa Pareigis - “A selfie a day keeps insecurities
away. En kvalitativ studie om unga vuxnas behov och upplevelse av att
ladda upp selfies på Instagram”
In their report, Ghazale and Pareigis analyse the experience of young adults with selfie posting and observing by using a qualitative research method (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017). The authors conducted 10 semi-structured interviews on participants aged between 16 and 26 years. The chosen questions for the interviews had as guidance previous studies and theories and the goal was to identify the target group’s beliefs and experiences with posting selfies on Instagram platform in particular. Among the questions used, one specific question asked about the needs people can experience when uploading self-photos (“What needs do you feel/believe are fulfilled
Theoretical background
by uploading selfies, if any?”) revealed that confirmation needs was achieved for 90% of participants. The authors created “The Selfie Model”, a visual concept used as interpretation for the answers of their target group. This model consists of several elements that can appear as patterns among the answers collected, such as narcissism, cognitive dissonance or popularity. As results, according to the author’s interpretation, when posting selfies, the young adults experience a significant increase in self-esteem level, but only for a short time, as a consequence of receiving online attention. On the other hand, the number of likes earned for a selfie proofs the need for confirmation, a social validity as an online media active and interesting user. Different opinions related to selfie culture has shown how participants can feel mixed emotions in connection to selfies and how feelings are different before and after posting a selfie.
This study offers a great opportunity for in depth research. Firstly, the report has revealed interesting results for young individuals, in particular showing the link between selfie uploading and self-esteem. It is intriguing to discover whether or not people form another age generation can show the same beliefs concerning social media and selfie posting. As discussed before in this chapter, previous studies have proven how different generations express distinct self-esteem levels that changes over lifetime, and older individuals have better self-esteem compared to younger age. Due to this fact, we believe that our study might identify changes in self-esteem and other opinions about selfie culture and selfie posting for the particular target group chosen. Secondly, the referenced study had focused on the Millennials, the generations that grew up along with technology in a natural and organic way, opposite to Baby Busts and Baby Boomers, who were born before the online era and was challenged to keep up with the fast pace of internet development). We believe this difference in generations can lead to opposite experiences with online media and selfie trend. Our goal is to recreate the study of Ghazale and Pareigis (2017) by using the same interview manual on a different audience and eventually compare results.
Throughout this paper, connections between their study and this current research will be made.
2.4.2 Wang et al. – “Let me take a selfie: Exploring the psychological
effects of posting and viewing selfies and groupies on social media” (Wang
et al., 2017)
Researchers from Penn State University have studied the influence of selfies on self-esteem, need for popularity and life satisfaction of social media users (Wang et al., 2017). They explained in their report the meaning behind every variable. Life satisfaction is presented as ‘‘a judgmental process in which individuals assess the quality of their lives on the basis of their own unique set of criteria” (Pavot and Diener, 1993, p. 164). Need for popularity is shown when individuals are motivated to do certain actions in order to boost their popularity, phenomena occurring when posting self-photos. Based on other studies, the authors agree on several hypothesizes: “Self-esteem mediates the relationship between selfie posting and life satisfaction” and “Need for popularity moderates the effect of selfie viewing on self-esteem and life satisfaction” (Wang et al., 2017). Two hundred and seventy-five participants accepted to complete a survey. They were around 33 years of age, 49% of them were females and 80% users posting selfies on Facebook. This study has proven interesting results regarding self-esteem, even though the authors agreed on using a quantitative over qualitative method. It has been identified the following: the more selfies seen by participants the lower level of self-esteem they experience. This action takes place for two possible reasons: either the individual experience loneliness or they tend to compare themselves to others on social media platforms and under evaluate themselves as consequence (Social comparison theory). However, it was identified the fact that selfie posting has no direct connection to self-esteem or life satisfaction. The study showed how participants increased their
Theoretical background
level of self-esteem when observing photos of others but not when posting their own. As this study only focused on Facebook as their social media platform, future studies can expand the results on other channels like Instagram or Twitter.
Method and implementation
3
Method and implementation
In this chapter we will describe the method we have chosen to examine the research questions of this study. We will describe how the selection of participants was conducted and also explain in depth the approach for this study. We will also talk about ethics, validity and method of comparison.
3.1 Suitable research method
In order to conduct research for this particular topic it is necessary to identify the most suitable research method to use. There are two distinct research method types: quantitative and
qualitative methods. Quantitative methods are used in research works that aim to study a specific idea on a large scale of target group which can eventually lead to a generalized fact. These
methods can be implemented by distributing surveys or questionnaires to an audience as broad as possible, and by the end of this process, the researcher is looking for pattern or repetitive
elements identified in the majority of participants’ answers. Quantitative data are measurable and can be exchanged to statistical analysis as conclusion for the study. Concerning the qualitative research methods, there is an opposite effect. These methods have the role to discover an in-depth analysis of the study and aims for an individual investigation. Methods like individual interviews or participant observation highlights differences or similarities in society, culture, self-conduct and thoughts and experiences of participants. Qualitative data cannot be numerical represented, but themes can be extracted from the data in order to get a deeper understanding of a specific phenomenon.
Our study is focusing on beliefs and experiences of participants within the selfie context which can be best analysed by utilizing a qualitative research method. In this case, we have chosen to use semi-structured interviews for two reasons. Firstly, this method is a suitable tool for an in-depth analysing and understanding of the audience. Secondly, for a valid comparison of data between this study and the research of Rina Ghazale and Moa Pareigis, we have decided to use the exact same research method the authors have previously used.
3.2 Semi-structured Qualitative interview
Since our study is a comparison to Rina Ghazale and Moa Pareigis study “A selfie a day keeps insecurities away” (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017) we used their method of a Semi structured Qualitative interview in order to guarantee validity to our study.
Semi-structured Qualitative interviews is set up as an interview guide based on a set of questions designed to give open ended answers and a space to ask follow-up questions if needed (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009, Østbye et al., 2004). This will give the researcher a possibility to obtain a deeper understanding of the topic studied. The method is especially well suited for exploring social movements from the perspective of the participant. The researcher will get “access to people’s ideas, thoughts and memories in their own words rather than the words of the
researcher, but at the cost of a reduced ability to make systematic comparisons between interview responses” (Klandermans & Staggenborg, 2002) We decided to conduct the interviews in
Swedish since this is the native language of our participants and therefore they will feel much more comfortable when answering the questions. Furthermore, we think we will lose a lot of details if the interviews are performed in a secondary language. The details are important within this type of study method, since they will give us further understanding of the participants inner thoughts of the topic.
Method and implementation
The environment where the interviews take place is something we considered when planning the study. We believe it is of great importance that the participants are involved when deciding the settings for the interview. This because, we want them to feel as comfortable as possible during the session. We want to create an intimate area where the participants would feel they could speak freely and answer our questions as genuine as possible. “The importance of the setting in which qualitative interviews take place and the effects this can have on interviewer and
interviewee and their interaction, influencing the type of data that can be generated”.
(Edwards and Holland, 2013) Due to this there were a great mix of places where the interviews took place. In the two tables below interview locations are presented.
3.3 Participants and the selection
As described in section 1.1 we found a gap in recent studies made in this field. We could not find any studies conducted on people of the age from 45 and up. Since this is an age group that have had to adapt to the world wide web, compared to the younger generations that grew up with this as a natural part of their life, we wanted to research if the selfie culture affects differ between the generations.
We decided to set the selection criteria to people in the ages between 45-65 years old who post at least 10 selfies per year. They have to be able to set aside 2 hours for the interview. This because we didn’t want the participant to be stressed. Furthermore, they have to live in Jönköping County. We decided to carry through 10 interviews with 5 female and 5 male participants. To reach a broad group of people we posted a question on Facebook and Instagram with an Illustration of a girl taking a selfie, asking friends to share our post on their accounts. This would take us outside our closest sphere of friends. We knew that most of the interviews would be carried out on the participants’ spare time therefore we also offered to buy them fika or lunch. Due to Corona virus we had a late drop-out and decided to satisfy with 9 interviews, 4 female and 5 male participants.
3.4 Interview manual
In their research study, Rina Pareigis and Moa Ghazale have created a set of questions which represents the primary elements of the theories chosen in their research – see Appendix 1 (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017). The interview guide commences with some general questions covering background information about the participant (age, employment, hobbies). Except from
Method and implementation
that part the interview manual is divided into several groups of questions, such as “Editing images”, “Selfies”, “Likes and followers”, “Needs” and “Selfie culture”, which helped us discover the participants perception towards selfies and their behaviour in this context. The first section, “General questions about social media usage” introduces the participant to our topic and the interview atmosphere (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017).
Questions like “Why do you post selfies?” or “Do you edit your photos posted online?” (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017) offer in depth insights of participant personality and self-presentation within the chosen context. When answering this, participants express their level of self-esteem and the meaning of a selfie as seen by each one of them.
The theory of social comparison is tested when asking questions like: 1. “Do you ever look/reflect on how many likes others get on their selfies?” 2. If someone else gets more or fewer likes than you, how do you feel/think?” (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017). The answers here can prove whether the participant gets influenced by other people’s appreciations and in that case, in what way (positive or negative).
Regarding their needs and emotions, the interviewees respond to questions like: “How do you feel after posting a selfie?” and “What kind of needs do you think/feel are fulfilled when posting a selfie, if there are any?”. The answers offer us a deeper dive into participants feelings and beliefs and clarifies their potential experience of cognitive dissonance (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017). We decided to add one extra question to the interview manual which we thought it is relevant for the selfie culture topic and could strongly highlight the comparison between the generational groups: “Do you think there is any difference in how you are affected between the younger generation and the older of the selfie culture? If so, can you describe the differences?”. Participants responded with their personal beliefs regarding this aspect and offered different perspectives based on their experience with younger generations and their behaviour on social media.
3.5 Approach and implementation
The study was conducted in four main parts. 1. Conducting the interviews 2. Transcription of the interviews 3. Analysing/colour marking 4. Looking for tendencies. Each interview has been conducted following the same pattern. Participants were invited in a familiar and comfortable environment and were offered lunch/fika as reward for their participation to this study. Before each interview, the participants were informed about the ethical and professional aspects of the interview and approved for the interview to be saved. All interviews have been fully recorded using Voice recorder mobile app on one of our phones and no other persons except of us had access to the recording files. After the interviewing process (part 1), we made transcriptions (part 2) for each participant. Transcriptions represent the reproduction of the interviewee’s words on paper, with no distortions or misinterpretations. By the end of interviewing and transcribing process, we sat together and printed out all interview transcriptions prepared for marking. The transcriptions were individually analysed and marked for different criteria using the marking scheme (part 3) in order to identify any recurring elements or patterns (part 4). Analyse Appendix 2 for examples of marked interviews.
Method and implementation
3.5.1 Marking/Colouring scheme
When marking the transcriptions for each participant, we used the marking scheme created by Moa Ghazale and Rina Pareigis – see Appendix 3. The authors created 13 themes based on both the participants answers and the key elements of the theories chosen. The original marking scheme was created in Swedish and since the interviews were conducted in Swedish, we used the original version. For this academic paper we made a direct translation of it in English, therefore the themes are: 1. Self-presentation – Narcissism, 2. Existence – I am, I have been, I have done, 3. Fixation of looks, 4. Perception – real/simulation, 5. Likes and its meanings, 6. Popularity, attention seeking, 7. Marketing yourself, 8. How you value yourself, 9. Self-esteem/self-confidence, 10. Confirmation needs, 11. Cognitive dissonance, Selfie culture divided into 12. Selfie culture – negative aspects and 13. Selfie culture – positive aspects, and 14. Comparison to others. As we were marking the interviews, we also added notes on the side when we found interesting parts in the answers, that were not applicable to any of the 14 predefined themes. From these notes we could identify patterns that would become three new themes as an addition to the original colouring scheme. These themes are as follows:
15. Inspiration: We could see a pattern of our participants wanting to inspire others by posting
selfies when being active. “When I can come out from a workout class and be completely sweaty and bright red. And you just feel “wow what a good feeling”. Then you take a selfie and so… I post it. It is after all, to convey a feeling, I would say” (male 47) Another pattern we found within inspiration was to be inspired from others. “But in private, as a private person, I'm probably very much looking for "feelgood" things that make me feel good and that contribute to what I consider to be personal development. Or yes, things that inspire and delight me.”(
fe
male 48
)16. Marketing in professional life: We found that more than 50% of our target group used
social media as a marketing tool in their professional life. “When it comes to the job, it's advertising things. “Now we have a church service or now we have a concert.” And sometimes you might post something for the choir in order to promote the choir.” (male 45) Another participant explains his usage in professional life like this: “I use it as a channel for my work. Marketing for Our Gym. I know some people say you
shouldn't share... That you should not advertise on Facebook, but I do not care, and I do it a lot” (male 53)
17. Staying connected to friends and/or global news: To be updated with friends and news
around the world was of great importance for all of our participants. We found patterns in their answers that would lead us to this last additional theme. “Yes, but it's probably to have contact with these that you do not meet very often. Some distant relatives and old friends from the past.” (male 47) Another participant described this, as a way to find conversation topics and a reason to call the person in question. “I have 4 siblings who live in many directions and places. Their children and so on. From Norrbotten in the north to Gothenburg in the south and then you can see quite regularly what they are up to and so you can call if it is something that is special.” (Male 61)
After finishing the analysing/colour marking part of the interviews, step 4 in the study was launched: looking for tendencies/patterns in each interview among the markings in each question group. To depict most common themes, we counted the unique appearances of each theme in the text. From that we ranked the appearances of the three most common themes for each group of questions, in a falling scale list. (1=most common and so on) With this data we created hand drawn pie-charts where each colour marking was represented with corresponding values in the chart. This was done to visualize tendencies and to get an overview of patterns in each group of questions. We also extracted several valuable quotes from the answers of each participant, to give a deeper understanding of the patterns seen in the different question groups. Finally, an overall summary of patterns revealed in the answers given from all participants within each group of questions was compiled.
Method and implementation
3.6 Ethical implication
For an ethical and professional approach, all our participants have been informed before the interview about privacy concerns. We assured all interviewees that their names will never be published or mentioned in this study and each transcript will hide any personal and/or detailed information regarding name, profession or family members. All participants had the right to withdraw anytime during the interview or skip any questions that might be uncomfortable for them (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). Moreover, none of the answers from participants have been judged in any subjective way, but they were only used for research purposes and only us as the authors of this research study have access to them. We kept an objective and professional attitude throughout the interviews, and we made sure the persons involved in this study felt safe and comfortable to share their thoughts in the chosen environment. All follow-up questions were constructed based on the response received from the interviewee and their purpose was to observe and understand participants’ answers on a deeper level (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). At the end of this study, all voice recordings will be permanently deleted, and transcript of the audio files will be kept private.
3.7 Research validity, reliability and Generalization
3.7.1 Research validity
In qualitative research, validity is achieved when the researcher can prove trustworthiness and consistency through his study both in research methods and data analysis (Golafshani, N., 2003). In order to accomplish a high level of validity, several measures have been taken for this research study. Our topic concerns the experience of selfie culture observed as older generations;
therefore, our target group consists of persons belonging to the age categories previously described and who also represent Facebook and/or Instagram users who post at least 10 selfies per year. We also achieved a balanced gender distribution, by conducting interviews on 5 women and 5 men. The gender criterion was not the primary factor to analyse in our study, but it offers useful information which can be corelated to the rest of results. Another measure for validity was conducting objective and non-judgmental interviews. The interview manual covered only open-ended questions to which the participant could answer in any way; there was no right or wrong answer. When participant responded with affirmative or negative answers, we asked follow-up questions and encouraged them to freely develop their thoughts. Participants were never asked to show any private data, such as photos, videos or any kind of social media content belonging to them because it was not relevant for our study and it was not ethically a right action.
3.7.2 Reliability
Reliability concerns the credibility and ethical approach of the qualitative research: the semi-structured interviews, transcripts and data interpretation (Østbye et al., 2004). All participants were informed prior to the interview time about data collection and all of them approved on recording and transcribing their words. For consistency reasons, all 10 interviews have been conducted in the exact same manner and the questions have been asked by the same interviewer and the places for the interviews were all decided in agreement with the interviewee. These settings created a safer and more comfortable environment for both the participants and the interviewer.
Method and implementation
3.7.3 Generalizability
To generalize you have to be able to draw conclusions for a greater population than your target group. The two most important factors are the number of participants in your target group and what kind of research method you will undertake. (Østbye et al., 2004). Since we have chosen semi structured, in-depth interviews as our research method, we are aware of the limitations and difficulties of drawing generalizing conclusions concerning a broader group of individuals. To meet the requirements of generalization it would have been necessary to have a greater number of participants in the study. In our study we are instead aiming to get a deeper understanding for reasons, experiences and beliefs within our target group, connected to selfies and the posting of selfies.
3.8 Method of comparison
Our research study aims to analyse data and compare it to the results from the study of Moa Pareigis and Rina Ghazale (2017). In order to achieve a valid and credible comparison, we follow five specific steps. First step is gathering data from the interviews. After conducting the
interviews, all answers recorded and then transcribed are collected in one place. Second step, the qualitative data is sorted by group of words or categories, using the marking scheme. Third step, recurring answers are grouped together, creating visible patterns. In the fourth step, these patterns will be discussed and analysed. Finally, overview of answers will be compared and discussed in parallel with the results of Pareigis and Ghazale’s study. We will identify any possible similarities and/or differences and discover whether the theory of self-esteem in older generation can be valid.
More detailed, we will initially create notes and pie charts covering the repetitive elements visible in our study results and afterwards we write down the patterns identified in the other study and look for similar or opposite facts. In terms of validity and reliability, the method of comparison is continuously guided by the literature review and the results are analysed in order to find answers for our research questions.
Method and implementation
4
Findings and analysis
In this chapter all data from participants is analysed and structured based on the 6 sections used in the interview manual: general questions about social media, editing photos, selfies, likes and followers, needs and selfie culture. Specific key questions are discussed in separate paragraphs for an in-depth investigation. The chapter concludes with comparison between findings of our study and results from the study of Moa Pareigis and Rina Ghazale.
4.1 General questions about social media usage
For this section participants responded in different ways. Most of their answers lead to a pattern of reasons for using social media and posting selfies, such as finding inspiration in others posts or inspiring others to do things, marking their offline presence in the online world by showing activities or achievements accomplished in life (“I post images about what my lady and I are doing. Where we are, what we are doing” – male 1), and keeping updated to friends or global news. These reasons have been associated to “Inspiration”, “Existence – I have been, I have done” and “Keeping updated”, respectively from the colour scheme. Most participants have had an online account since almost the beginning of the social media era and only one participant mentioned that he had several offline time spans throughout his life due to different feelings he has
experienced when using Facebook and Instagram accounts. When asked about reasons for using social media, males 3 and 5 mentioned posting pictures related to their training hobby, while female 3 and male 3 said about using it as a marketing tool for their professional life. In terms of social media usage frequency, all participants responded they use it on a daily basis: “Every day, a lot. Oh yes” (male 3), “Way too often. Every day. Several times a day” (female 2), “All the time, every day, several times a day, many times a day. Mostly Facebook and Instagram” (female 1).
4.1.1 Comparison, usage of social media
We can see similarities in the usage frequency of social media between the younger target group in the comparison study (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017) and the older target group in our study. Social media are used on a daily basis, even several times per day, for both target groups.
4.2 Editing photos
When asked about whether they edit their photos before posting, 6 participants infirmed, whereas the other 3 confirmed they do edit their selfies. However, out of the 6 persons non-editing their pictures, male 2 and 5 and female 4 mentioned they sometimes alter the contrast, lighting, or the photo frame before posting. The ones correcting the pre-uploaded selfie motivate their choices: “It’s because you want to look as young and fresh as possible” (female 2), “Filters can enhance, beautify the reality (…) I want the selfie to be more interesting and better good looking” (male 4), “That you try to (laugh) look good actually. As good as it can be. Trying to stay young and something like that... I guess.” (male 3). Among the patterns identified in participants answers it can be mentioned: hiding double chin, taking selfies from above, choosing a specific angle for taking the picture. Some participants clearly stated their opinions about editing their self-photos when talking about the importance of sharing a genuine image of yourself and having a high level of self-esteem. Female 1 said she is confident enough to show her real face on social media and she values the real image over the ones altered by filters. Male 2 explains: “I sometimes use the #no filter (hashtag) to show that it’s actually this nice and I haven’t done (used filter) and hold high honour of not cropping the image with the camera”.
Method and implementation
4.2.1 Comparison, editing photos
We found that there were split opinions about editing selfies within our target group, whereas the younger target group had a more humogen attitude on using filters and other tools to enhance their looks. This was of greatest importance for the younger generations, and they would put a lot of time and effort in editing. As interpreted in the comparison study, it’s important for the younger target group to make a good impression on social media. For the older generation it is more important to reveal a genuine image of themselves and as one of the participants
mentioned “…otherwise it is like false advertising”. Even though the older generation did not use filters to any greater extent, they did use the angle and the opportunity to take several photos and then choosing the best one, before posting. This is something both groups had in common.
4.3 Selfies
Within this section, participants described feelings and reasons behind posting selfies. The collected answers have correspondence to Self-esteem and self-confidence, Existence and Real vs. simulation in the colour scheme. From her perspective, female 3 thinks of selfies as a “reflection of frozen moments from daily life”. Participants explained their type of online self-image: “I want to show that I am active woman”; She posts pictures “…For others to see that if I can do stuff … so others will dare to post a “sweaty cap” and think if I can go 40 km on ski they could do that too” (female 1), “I want to be seen. We all have some kind of dream of being famous” (male 4), “I post pictures to express a feeling” (male 5), ”You want to share a feeling, You don’t want to feel lonely or maybe you need support” (female 2). A few participants highlighted the reality factor who plays a major role in selfies; it has a great meaning for them to post real, genuine pictures that illustrate them as they really are: “I will never post something that I wouldn’t stand for” (male 4), “When I post a picture of myself in my messy kitchen with my kids, I feel I let others to get insight of my life” (male 2), “I wrote exactly what I felt and it was really cool”, “Actually, I probably needed to just flag that "I feel down" (female 2). However, other
participants mentioned they don’t share the negative side of their lives: “I never posted an image when I was at my worst” (female 4), “”. “You don’t want to post when you feel bad. Or some people do” (male 4). Some of the interviewees connect their selfies with a life event or place them in a context: “(Selfie) It’s usually connected to an event. I feel like I use my selfie to reinforce something else” (male 4).
4.3.1 Comparison, selfies
Our belief that self-esteem rises with age, is probably one reason behind the non-existence of anxiety and stress after posting selfies, within our target group. “(…) it's fun if you can share what you do ... I think so” (male 1) Female 1, describes the feeling of gratitude about her current life
situation when posting selfies “(…) that you kind of feel that now it's my turn to feel good and be happy. In this I live in, so I think I feel pretty good. So... Right now, when you feel well, you are quite confident in your feeling. It doesn't matter what people say. I'm just laying out. You're just proud” (female 2) As for the younger group, the appearance of anxiety and feeling discontent with their looks, after posting a selfie, (even if they had put a lot of effort in editing) was often occurring.
4.4 Likes and followers
In this part of the interview, participants talked about the meaning of likes, number of followers and differences between likes and comments. Female 1 and 2 and male 1 declared likes and followers have zero value for them, while female 4 and male 4 consider likes have a moderate
Method and implementation
meaning (“If I only get 5 likes, I don't go around thinking "oh, nobody likes this" – female 4). In his reply, male 2 associated selfies with “postcards or the telephone calls”, meaning that photos can be a form of communication with friends and family. Female 3 and male 4 explained that thumbs up
appreciations have a deeper meaning in their professional life, where social media is used as a marketing tool for reaching target audiences. When comparing likes to anything from the outside life, participants responded: “Likes can be something like engaging or touching someone…It’s like a high 5” (female 3), “Is like well done, or a thumbs up” (male 3), “If you've had a show and someone comes out afterwards. [As appreciation then?] Yes definitely” (female 2), “Likes are like smiling to someone on the street” (male 5).
Comparing likes and comments, all participants explained in their own words how comments are more important than thumbs ups because it expresses a more personal type of online
engagement. Male 1 talked about comments as a way to “express something that you might not be able to express with these choices on likes”. Female 3 said “I'm thinking that likes do not have so super high value really, without, but comments have really ... Well, then you've... You can see whether you have managed to get involved or not. It weighs much heavier”. Male 4 went forward and thought of private messages over likes, explaining how one selfie can help reconnect to old friends: “Well, that's entirely something else. Sending a private message is even more worthy. Then it's me who gets to be seen, me as a human being, my picture, my selfie. If someone sees a selfie of me, someone I have not met in a very long time, I mean things like this has happened then, so maybe they send a text in messenger: "ohh I saw the picture of you, I was so happy, it's been so long since we met and I was happy" ... that's all like that. It makes you incredibly happy”. Male 5 declares: “I'll be much happier if I get a comment. It's actually someone who has looked, reflected and written something”.
4.4.1 Comparison, likes and followers
There is a distinct difference between the younger and the older generation concerning the importance and meaning of likes and followers. In our comparison study they found that likes, in many cases, was the basic reason and foundation for posting selfies. Likes fulfilled the need for confirmation. It also affected the respondents in a positive way if they received a large amount of likes on a selfie, just as it negatively affected them if they did not get a response to a posted selfie. When it comes to participants in our study the relevancy of likes was low, almost none, as described in chapter 4.4.
4.5 Needs
Participants were asked to respond about what possible needs are fulfilled when posting a selfie. In general, people thought about keeping updated to news and friends, showing their existence (I have been, I have done) and waiting for confirmation. Female 3 thought “It’s like portraying the moment, a diary telling, a form of documentation of the present on a deeper level. Communicating is a human need. A basic need I mean, not human need”, while female 2 had in mind “The need to be seen”. Female 4 described her photos like “"Now I'm out walking in the woods here" So I actually see that I get 25 likes ... Well, they've seen that I'm out in the woods. I exist, I see you”. Participants talked about the wish of communicating with their friends or private audience: “it’s time to post something and you want to keep contact to people out there, and you still want to exist on that platform” (male 4), “It’s a way of being personal with your close friends” (male 2), “advertise and share happiness” (male 1). Some interviewees mentioned about confirmation needs, explaining it as a demand to be seen, observed, not necessarily as a source of likes: “It’s also a little bit of sending a life sign. Waving, waving a little bit from the side. I’m here, no need to leave a comment (female 1), “A little bit to be seen, see me maybe. No... But... [Confirmation?] Yes, but confirmation is probably a better word, and a need to... to be heard also maybe as well as... or a way to tell others about something that you think is important.” (male 3), “Well, I think it's about getting some kind of
Method and implementation
confirmation. I think that's what it's all about anyway. Self-affirmation somewhere. I think that's the need that's underlying, if you dig a little bit into it, I can feel it, and I've reconciled myself to that, that's probably why I do it” (male 5).
4.5.1 Comparison, needs
The needs behind posting selfies differs between the two generational groups. Putting
themselves in a context and showing their existence (I am, I have been, I have done) is the most prominent need for the older generation. This is also an underlying need for the younger ones, but the need of confirmation and popularity is also well represented and among top needs behind selfie posting within this target group.
4.6 Selfie culture
The interviewees were asked to think of positive and/or negative consequences generated by selfie culture. Among the positive aspects, participants had in mind self-esteem and the power of honesty: “When I dare to show the real me, I have no fear. (selfies) I think it can boost someone’s self-esteem” (female 1), “It’s a way of being personal, showing your face, showing you” (male 2), “I think it’s a pretty nice “spice” along to everything that you post” (male 1), “It’s like a new language that unfolds in a totally different way than before” (female 3), “You actually broaden your social life” (male 3). In terms of negative consequences, the persons interviewed thought of the young generations and rose up issues concerning addiction, deceptive image promotion, self-exposure and influencer life: “You can easily be dependent on your smartphone, but I am trying to deal with that”, “(About young generations) you put a lot of time in make-up and showing your best face, and then you practice and go (…)” (female 3), “(...) You need to be able to put down your phone when you're out eating. I get scared when you're out in a restaurant and there's a family with mom, dad and two kids. There's a little toddler screaming there. What is the reality behind this selfie, so to speak?” (female 4). Female 2 believes that some selfies do not reflect the real life. For this reason, some people are never satisfied with their photos because of the wrong examples promoted in the world. From her perspective, people should post pictures as they really are, because they are naturally beautiful. Other opinions are: “it feels like you’re exposing yourself a lot. And by that, I mean I really don’t know the effect of this now until afterwards and it feels a little bit scary. All this trillions of images that we post, and we know are owned by Facebook it’s scary (…) So there is a big brother watching you” (male 4), “But for young people it absolutely does, they think I have a huge pressure to put out nice selfies. And it's supposed to be so amazingly perfect.”, “And linked a little to anorexia and stuff like that. Then it'll be very strange. [Body fixation?] Yes, that's very good. Body fixation.” (male 3), “Influencers have to post a dense flow. They can feel like they have to post every day” (male 5). Male 2 and 3 mentioned as well cyber-bullying and mobbing as negative facets of selfie culture for teenagers and young adults.
4.6.1 Comparison, selfie culture
Our target group do not express concerns about pressure connected to selfie posting, whereas the younger generation feel like they have to be online and updated to a greater extent. Also, the pressure of always “looking good” seems to be higher in the younger target group, while the older generation is more confident when posting selfies. What connects both target groups are that they believe the image visualized on social media is not fully real, since posting mostly occur in positive situations, leaving the negative parts of life offline.
Method and implementation
4.7 Difference in generations within selfie culture context
At the end of the interview, participants answered an extra question added by us to the interview guide: “Do you think there is any difference in how one is affected between the younger
generation and the older?”. When responded with their personal perspective, some of them had in mind the behaviour of their own children. The primary aspect mentioned by several
participants was the level of self-esteem between generations, which is an influencing factor for selfie-posting culture. Secondary element was discovered to be connected to “fixation of looks” and popularity, participants explaining how teenagers care more about their online appearance and getting attention from their audience. This phenomenon can be caused by the existence of unnatural role models young adults follow and replicate. Female 1 says: “The older gens are more affected by their happy life and the younger one is affected by their looks”. Male 2 concludes: “I think it is a giant difference. The young ones are more after attention and they want to feel good-looking and belonging to a group (…) Well for us I feel it’s much cooler with this. In general, I don’t think we care that much of what other people will think. You are much cooler with your body, yourself and what you want”. Female 2 thinks “The younger ones, I think, they have demands on what they should look like”. Opinions about the knowledge and handling of social media between generations are mixed. Female 3 believes: “I think this has something to do with experience and knowledge. To be able to use the tools in the right way. It might be easier when you are a little bit older to handle the tools (…)”, whereas male 5 states: “Actually, one can think like this that the younger ones have grown up with this. They may have become much better than I am in a way. We're trying to learn this now. So, it could be… (…) Yes, but I think so, it's really about how mature you are yourself”. Participants thought about young ones being permanently so connected to the online world that it would be very difficult for them to let it go: “(My generation): you keep up with this, but if social media would disappear you wouldn’t really care. (…) I don’t really take it that seriously. It feels the kids are more bothered by each other because they have access to each other on social media a lot. They don’t choose to leave; they are there all the time (on social media)” (male 4), “is you who controls the technology and not the technology that controls you”, “Having a pretty good self-image, selfies are something you think is fun.”, “But unfortunately, I think there are a lot of young people who are confirmed by, who only live through their selfies” (female 4). Male 3 and male 5 associated the online behaviour patterns to maturity of age: “maybe becomes a little more pressure for the younger ones. And a little more relaxed and maybe a little more different pressure on the elderly maybe. But it's still the same needs”, “I may be prejudiced there, but I still believe that the life experience makes you a little calmer in this. It's not that important” (male 3), “Some may feel truly mature and safe when they are 20 years old and another... There are 20 years old persons who are safer and more mature than a 60-year-old. It's hard, I think” (male 5).
Discussion and conclusions
5
Discussion and conclusions
In this chapter we will describe the strong and the weak points of our chosen research method and draw parallels in findings between our study and our comparison study, “A selfie a day keeps insecurities away” (Ghazale and Pareigis, 2017).
5.1 Discussion of method
Choosing the semi-structured interviews as research method for our study help us to get a deeper understanding of the individual, his beliefs and feelings. Participants had the chance to expand their thoughts when answering open-ended questions, which later offered us the chance of analysing their behaviour and personality. We believed this method was successful considering the results we obtained. We have gathered valuable information in response to our research questions. This method proved that our beliefs concerning different levels of self-esteem according to distinct generational groups, strengthened by previous research (Orth et al., 2018), was correct. When answering the questions, we thought that participants felt safe and
comfortable to talk about their beliefs throughout the integral interview. However, we do regret not using more follow-up questions for some participants who gave very compact answers to some points but on the opposite side we were aware that using too many follow-up questions can make them perceive us being judgmental or intrusive. It would be of great interest using the same method on a broader target group in future research works. Regarding the method of
comparison, we can agree to mention that we succeeded to find both similarities and differences between our study and the study of comparison, fact who gave us more credibility and a more interesting outcome. It was easily done making connection between the method of comparison and the theoretical background that guided us throughout the whole method investigation.
5.2 Discussion of findings
5.2.1 Self-presentation - real or simulation
Interesting differences were found in the attitude towards editing images and especially self-images between the younger generation and the older. The younger generation has a more critical and tensed attitude towards their own looks while the older generation seems to have a more relaxed feeling about this. As a direct effect, the younger ones frequently use beautifying tools like filters, which for instance can change the appearance of their skin or face. This type of editing self-images before posting will give the individual a feeling of satisfaction and well-being. Few participants in our comparison study also responded that they spend a lot of time on editing their selfies. Except from using filters on their images, we could see that they used other ways of enhancing their looks, such as taking the picture from above which gives the face a slimmer look. The interest of using filters on selfies in our target group, the older age generation, was low since most of them thought of it as “fake marketing”. As we consider using specific angles as a conscious method of enhancing your looks on a selfie, we can see that “the fixation of looks” exists among the older generations too, even if the older age generation is not affected to the same extent as the younger generation. So, the usage of this method is something both generational groups have in common.
