Sociological Study of Virtual Subjectivity (Study of Instagram Users)

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Department of Social Science, Faculty of Law & Social Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

10.22059/jisr.2022.343882.1312

Abstract

Presently, users perceive virtual space as an existential situation, and as a result, they participate in it as a social world. This engagement requires that we define ourselves as subjects within this social world. This study examines the construction of virtual subjectivity among Instagram users.
This study was conducted qualitatively. In this regard, the interpretive paradigm and multiple contextual theory methodology were used. Using the method of targeted sampling in accordance with the maximization of diversity, 46 Instagram software users were selected as the study's sample.Subjectivity in virtual space is constructed and defined using the techniques of “existential perfectionism,” “escape from being,” “identifying with oneself,” and “identifying with another.” In all four concepts, the subject pursues existential validity, with the exception of existential perfectionism, where self-identification occurs through the recovery of self and identity, and “Dazman”, where identification with the other occurs through falling.Fundamentally, the selves based on both forms of credit are post-real and based on post-realities that exist and are present only in the virtual space.

Keywords


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