Aestheticized Identities, Mediatized Interactions: Approaching Instagram from Social Semiotics
Authors
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Sebastián Moreno Barreneche
Universidad ORT Uruguay
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3551-7117
Abstract
This article analyzes Instagram from the perspec-tive of social semiotics. Its focus is set on studying the functionalities that the platform offers to its users to project their personal identities, as well as the possible interactions it enables with other users. The article argues that the codes that do-minate meaning-making on Instagram foster an "aesthetization of the self", i.e., a process of stylization in which the visual aspect plays a cru-cial role in the construction and management of personal identities. As a result of that process of aesthetization, subsequent interactions on this di-gital platform will be mediated by these strongly stylized semiotic constructions and governed by the logics of mediatization.
Keywords:
Instagram, social semiotics, semiotic practices, digital culture, self-representationReferences
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