What Motivates the Content of Instagram Posts?

No matter whether a behavior takes a long while to do or takes a short while to do, something explains why the behavior occurs. What motivates the behavior may be known or unknown to the person. In today's world, motivation to use social media is pervasive. Researchers have taken an interest in understanding more about why people choose to share certain content on social media applications such as Instagram (Sciara, Contu, Regalia, & Gollwitzer, 2023).

Instagram Behavior

Instagram as a social media application is popular around the world because it allows users to present themselves as a curated story using captions and images. Thus, the user decides what identity they want to project to the world and proceeds to craft it. Many humans pursue identity goals both personally and professionally; Instagram has become a part of this pursuit. However, not all people are equal regarding how complete they believe that they are in identity goal achievements.

Self-Completion

Psychologists have suggested that people who feel more incomplete regarding their identity goal achievement may be motivated to post Instagram content that reflects the self they aspire to be (Sciara, Contu, Regalia, & Gollwitzer, 2023). It was found that medical students and law students as aspiring professionals in these respective fields selected photos and symbols as seen on Instagram accounts that supported their sense of self-completion towards being a successful lawyer or physician.

Self-Symbolizing

Doing and acquiring things that align with one's aspired-to identity is called self-symbolizing (Gollwitzer & Wicklund, 1985). To be clear, Sciara, Contu, Regalia, & Gollwitzer, 2023 state that self-symbolizing behavior isn't done to impress others, nor to receive a certain reaction from others; instead it is motivated by the person's need to feel more complete in the identity that one wants to achieve.

In conclusion, current research explains why many people create and curate photos in the moment of themselves engaging in behaviors that match the identities that they want to be and show to the world. Their pictures are symbolic evidence of their desired identity. It likely feels good to see hundreds of images and Instagram stories that reflect one's complete and desired identity goal.

Review your own and your friends' Instagram accounts. What is the identity being projected by your posted symbols to the world? How does it make you feel to see the collection of what you've posted? Self-symbolizing behavior has an identity purpose and may partially explain why social media applications are so popular.

A word of caution from the researchers was provided about self-symbolizing via social media. They warned: Be careful that self-symbolizing behavior doesn't distract from considering authentic and varied perspectives of others about our identity. Self-symbolizing behavior should also not distract from the continuous pursuit of one's actual goal achievement beyond just posting curated aspirational content.