Kiara Tincknell, Corey Doane, and Tri Dao

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College Aged Females: The Unwritten Rules of Instagram

To conduct our research, we utilized three different data collection methods: a ten question survey, twelve in-person interviews, and three eight-person focus groups. We hand selected our interviewees and chose females attending San Jose State and who had an Instagram profile that they actively used. Most of the interviewees were exceptionally social media savvy and provided us with clear examples of the unwritten rules that we had hypothesized earlier on. Some participants weren’t as active users as others, and were unaware of this rising sub-culture. There was also an interesting and unexpected divide from the survey responses and focus group discussions on the understanding of these unwritten rules. For our research question, we asked “What kinds of unwritten rules do females adhere to when posting pictures on social media?” and after research, our data showed that while some females are not aware of these unwritten rules, there is a niche group of young women that are driving this change in Instagram usage and managing their “personal brands.” Before collecting any data, we hypothesized that women are typically very concerned with photos featuring themselves and equate their “success” directly to their social value and public perception. We discovered that our original hypothesis was incorrect with a few minor exceptions.