ME IMAGINED: THE SELFIES AS A POSSIBILITY OF CREATION AND RECREATION OF YOURSELF IN INSTAGRAM
Me. Selfie. Instagram. Visibility.
The incorporation of digital information and communication technologies in our social environment makes us re-signify several aspects of our daily lives, and it has confirmed the emergence of new ways of experiencing time and space. The recording of self-portraits through smartphone front cameras and their dissemination on digital social media made available on mobile phone applications led to the popularization of "selfies", digital photographs of oneself, but also the adoption of public attitudes and social behaviors that they correspond to the constant registration and dissemination of self-images. In this sense, we have followed since 2018 the trajectory of self-images on Instagram through the “selfie” hashtag, aiming to realize the possibility of creating and recreating oneself through selfies posted on Instagram in the form of “imagined selves”. More specifically, we seek to understand the meaning attributed to the selfie in people's daily lives, and to perceive the re-signification of the “I image” as shown on the platform. In addition, to reflecting on the importance attributed to the search for visibility and people's approval. As support for the investigation, theoretical reflections and articulations with empiricism, we based on Morin (2012; 2014) as a way to support some concepts related to image; Norval Baitello (2010; 2014; 2019) from the perspective of an iconophagic society, and especially in the discussion about selfies; Le Breton (2012;2013) to understand the social context of redefinition of the body itself, among others. In this context, we realized through the empirical-methodological research that the selfies anchored in Intagram allow the creation and recreation of oneself, taking into account its countless possibilities of clippings, filters, editions, made possible by the tool. Thus, through self-records, there is a search for achieving desired and/or imagined ideals of self that materialize in the registration and publication of self-images.