How do travel photos shared on Instagram shape the virtual self?

Abstract: Travel images and self-promotion are two regions that don’t seem to be correlated at first sight. But being a witness of the widely practiced sharing of travel images on social media triggered my curiosity and got me into questioning its implication on the performance of the self on social media. Confirmed by prior academic studies, it turned out that travel imagery and social media are both utilized for the purpose of self-promotion and self-construction and that’s where they meet. To gain a deeper knowledge of the link between the two, I conducted an empirical case study aiming to understand how sharing travel images on Instagram contribute to the crafting of a positive virtual identity, what factors determine the choice of the desired character and what are the aspects of one’s virtual self that are shaped by the context of traveling. In order to make sense of the gathered data, I used Goffman’s theory of self-presentation in everyday life and its adaptation to the context of social media by new media scholars. The interpretation of the data revealed that the virtual self is determined either by selfcentric motives or by outer pressure. As for the context, Instagram users choose the travel context for its positive connotations which facilitate the enhancement of the virtual identity. Furthermore, the context of traveling is easily adapted to the chosen character and by adopting impression management strategies and putting effort into the performance, the travel images are able to convey the desired values to the audience. The results obtained in the process of the current research contribute to the study of image construction on social media bound to a specific platform (Instagram) and tied to a specific context (traveling). I have attempted to underline the importance of the choice of context when expressing one’s self and its impacts on the virtual identity. On a personal level, with the presented findings, I hope to provoke a self-reflection regarding the roles enacted online by exploring the concept of the virtual self.