1. 1 Australian Catholic University; 2 The University of Queensland
The Role of Social Connection in Satisfaction with Instagram Photographs
Stephanie J. Tobin1, Pitchaya Chulpaiboon2, Sorrel Graham1, and Emily Bourson1
1 Australian Catholic University; 2 The University of Queensland
Introduction
Study 1
Study 2
Conclusions
Photographs of known others provide a visual reminder of one’s relationships, which should help to satisfy the fundamental need to belong.
Baumeister and Leary (1995) define the need to belong as an innate need for interpersonal relationships. They argue that this need is best met by frequent, positive interactions in the context of ongoing relationships.
When current levels of belonging are unsatisfactory, a social monitoring system assesses opportunities for social interaction (Gardner, Pickett, & Knowles, 2005). If social interaction is not possible, people can still maintain a sense of belonging by drawing upon representations of social bonds. These representations could be tangible objects (e.g., photographs) or memories.
Social networking site (SNS) features that allow online interactions with friends would help to meet the need to belong. Instagram offers additional avenues for satisfying the need to belong by allowing users to share and view visual representations of their relationships.
Photographs of known others are frequently shared on SNSs. Hu, Manikonda, and Kambhampati (2014) found that “friends” was one of the most common categories of photographs shared on Instagram. Similarly, Mendelson and Papacharissi (2010) found that relationships (especially friendships) were the dominant subject matter of college students’ tagged Facebook photographs.
It is not yet known how sharing different types of photographs on SNSs influences people. However, when people were asked to photograph what made their life feel meaningful, they focused on their relationships (Steger et al., 2013).
We predicted that sharing photographs of known others on Instagram would be associated with
greater satisfaction and happiness
greater social interaction motivation for using Instagram.
Sample
113 Instagram users were recruited through mturk (85%) and a university subject pool (15%).
64% female, 36% male; Mage = 28.69, SD = 8.22
Procedure
Participants were asked to
open up Instagram on a mobile device or in a separate window on their computer, click on their own profile and scroll through the pictures they had previously shared
find a photograph that made them feel happy and answer a series of questions about it
photograph content (known other, self, etc.)
satisfaction looking at and sharing photograph
answer the same set of questions about each of their five most recent photographs, excluding the one they had already described
indicate their motivations for using Instagram (Smock, Ellison, Lampe, & Wohn, 2011)
social interaction
Results
A series of nonparametric McNemar’s tests revealed that the nominated happy photograph was more likely to contain a known other (61%) than any of the recent photographs (33%), ps < .001.
Pearson correlations indicated that having more photographs of known others in the recent set was associated with greater satisfaction and greater social interaction motivation. Greater social interaction motivation was associated with greater satisfaction.
Sample
293 Instagram users were recruited through social media (37%), mturk (35%), and a university subject pool (29%).
76% female, 24% male; Mage = 27.39, SD = 8.94
Procedure
Current emotions (Brown & Dutton, 1995)
Outcome: glad, happy, sad, unhappy
Self-worth: proud, pleased with myself, ashamed, humiliated
Motivations for using Instagram (Sheldon & Bryant, 2016): surveillance/knowledge about others
Content and satisfaction ratings for five most recently shared Instagram photographs
Emotions while reviewing photographs
Results
Pearson correlations indicated that sharing more photographs of known others was associated with greater satisfaction and greater surveillance motivation. Greater surveillance motivation was associated with greater satisfaction.
Regression analyses revealed that, controlling for baseline emotions,
sharing more photographs of known others was associated with more positive outcome emotions while viewing photographs
greater surveillance motivation was associated with more positive outcome emotions and feelings of self-worth while viewing photographs
The findings from two studies supported the idea that sharing photographs of known others on Instagram is associated with satisfaction and happiness, presumably because it helps to satisfy the need to belong.
Support for the role of belonging needs is bolstered by the findings that social motivations for using Instagram are associated with sharing more photographs of known others and experiencing more satisfaction and positive emotion while viewing photographs.
These findings add to the emerging literature on Instagram use and photography, and highlight the utility of examining the content of shared photographs.
Instagram has emerged as a dominant SNS with 600 million users sharing 95 million photographs and videos per day (Instagram, 2016). Our research suggests that such activity might play an important role in helping people meet their fundamental belonging needs.
References
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117,
Brown, J. D., & Dutton, K. A. (1995). The thrill of victory, the complexity of defeat: Self-esteem and people’s emotional reactions to success and failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68,
Gardner, W. L., Pickett, C. L., & Knowles, M. (2005). Social snacking and shielding: Using social symbols, selves, and surrogates in the service of belonging needs. In K. D. Williams, J. P. Forgas, & W. von Hippel (Eds.), The social outcast: Ostracism, social exclusion, rejection, and bullying (pp ). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Hu, Y., Manikonda, L., & Kambhampati, S. (2014, June). What we Instagram: A first analysis of Instagram photo content and user types. International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media.
Instagram. (2016). Retrieved on 24 August, 2016 and 4 January,
Mendelson, A. L., & Papacharissi, Z. (2010). Look at us: Narcissism in college student Facebook photo galleries. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), The networked self: Identity, community and culture on social network sites (pp ). New York, NY: Routledge.
Sheldon, P. & Bryant, K. (2016). Instagram: Motives for its use and relationship to narcissism and contextual age. Computers in Human Behavior, 58,
Smock, A. D., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., & Wohn, D. Y. (2011). Facebook as a toolkit: A uses and gratification approach to unbundling feature use. Computers in Human Behavior, 27,
Steger, M. F., Shim, Y., Rush, B. R., Brueske, L. A., Shin, J. Y., & Merriman, L. A. (2013). The mind’s eye: A photographic method for understanding meaning in people’s lives. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8,
SPSP 2017
Photos of known oth.
Satis. looking
Satis. sharing
Satisfaction looking
.24***
Satisfaction sharing
.17**
.80***
Surveillance motiv.
.14*
.22***
.29***
Photos of known oth.
Satis. looking
Satis. sharing
Satisfaction looking
.25**
Satisfaction sharing
.23*
.86***
Social interact motiv.
.20*
.32***
.34***
Outcome emotions
Feelings of self worth
Baseline emotion
.45***
.56***
Photos of known oth.
.16**
.09
Surveillance motiv.
.14**
.12*
* p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001
For more details about Study 1, please see:
Tobin, S. J., & Chulpaiboon, P. (2016). The role of social connection in satisfaction with Instagram photographs. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 2,
* p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001