An exploration into users' engagement with nostalgia content on Instagram.

Marcella-Hood, Madeleine; Thornton, Seáron

Abstract

Visual social media platforms like Instagram are recognised as a mechanism through which individuals can capture, share, and preserve experiences. The ease through which these media can be accessed enables users to share and consume visual content constantly as part of their daily routine. The way in which content is stored and can be accessed continually makes individual and group reflection a key characteristic of these platforms, producing and enhancing feelings of nostalgia. Fashion by its nature is cyclical but it is only now becoming possible to consider how social media impacts the resurgence of styles amongst those who first experienced these. With the rise of trends from the 90s and 00s, Millennial and Generation Z audiences (widely acknowledged to be the biggest users of these platforms) are seeing styles from their own lived past coming back to the fore. The resurgence of these trends both influences and coincides with the emergence of nostalgia accounts as a new genre of content creation on these platforms. Some of these accounts have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers in a short space of time. This paper explores why and how users of visual media platforms engage with nostalgia accounts through a qualitative survey method using open questions and grounded theory analysis. The findings contribute to a broader understanding of visual platforms, which remain under researched, despite their recognised impact. Conclusions will be drawn around how shared collective memories and experiences can help individuals make sense of reality at times of uncertainty.

Citation

MARCELLA-HOOD, M. and THORNTON, S. 2023. An exploration into users' engagement with nostalgia content on Instagram. Presented at the 2023 Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association conference (MeCCSA 2023), 4-6 September 2023, Glasgow, UK.

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: 2023 Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association conference (MeCCSA 2023)
• Start Date: Sep 4, 2023
• End Date: Sep 6, 2023
• Deposit Date: Sep 12, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 9, 2024
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Instagram; Nostalgia; Social media; Visual media; Online communities
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2474939