The Elites of Instagram  

We all know those people that can get hundreds of ‘double tapes’ on their Instagram posts. People like me envy those who can take the flawless or stylish picture that demands likes. Moreover, as a society we give power to those who are ‘Instagram famous’ and in turn they have the power on the platform. These persons can be classed as the elite of society. Furthermore, it is evident that through social media such as Instagram “the elite are the few who control what is valued in society and use that control to shape the lives of others.” (Dye, 2005, p.5)

Image 1:n Are You Harnessing The Full Power Of Instagram? (Geffin, 2014)

In this blog and the three to follow, the social space of Instagram will be the spot light of discussion. Additionally, this blog will analyse how the elite or famous have the social power to control their masses of followers.

Sherry Turkle states that via the internet “modern society must control the bodies and behaviours of large numbers of people” (Turkle, 1995). These Instagram elites such as; Kendall Jenner (82.5 million followers), Gigi Hadid (33.5 million followers), Cara Delavigne (40.5 million followers) and Ariana Grande (111 million followers) or Cristiano Ronaldo (108 million followers), Justin Bieber (90 million followers) and Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson (91 million followers) have the power to control how people represent themselves in society through their posts.

For example, every soccer fanatic wants to be Ronaldo (or Messi depending on your preference). They desire what he endorses through his Instagram account moreover, this goes for the other examples given earlier. Celebrities such as the Jenner’s/Kardashian’s can sell their clothes and accessory brands to their followers by using their position of power on Instagram. Only six days ago Kendall Jenner got 1 million likes and 7,873,937 views on a short video where she was holding a tube of tooth paste (don’t believe me click here to see for yourself) and I can’t even get 60 likes on a family photo. Not only can they create revenue from selling their brands and bodies but can demand incomprehensible amounts of money just to post on social media. According to an article on ‘The Economist’ people with 3m-7m followers can charge, on average, $75, 000 per post on Instagram (Economist.com, 2016). Displaying that the cyber space of Instagram is under the power of the celebrities or social elites that choose to post on in.

 It is theorised that power is a networked space of relations (Kuttainen, 2017) and moreover, that power comes out of connections and out of relationships this is particularly evident regarding Instagram (Kuttainen, 2017). If so then the more followers you have on Instagram the more power you have. This means the more people you have connected with, that you have created a relationship with in the cyber world the more power you will have on the website. The relationship between the elite and the normal class is of a one-way nature though. The celebrities mentioned earlier have millions of followers but only follow a few hundred in return. Take for instance the ratio of the idolised Ronaldo. This shows that though there are relationships and connections in the networked space of Instagram the power in the relationship is held fully by the elite. The idolised elites have full control in the relationship giving them full power. Thus, they can influence society by controlling the bodies and behaviours of the millions of followers they have.

Cristiano. (2017). Homepage [Instagram]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/cristiano/?hl=en

Dye, T.R. & Harrison, B.C. (2005). Power and society: An introduction to the social sciences. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Economist.com. (2016). Celebrities’ endorsement earnings on social media. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/10/daily-chart-9

Geffin, David. (2015). The True Power of Instagram [Image]. Retrieved from https://fstoppers.com/originals/are-you-harnessing-full-power-instagram-8271

Kendalljenner. (2017, August 5). Do you get your Toothpaste delivered? [Instagrampost]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BXT5UCMDqVA/?hl=en&taken-by=kendalljenner

Kuttainen, Victoria. (2017). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, lecture 2: Power. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

 Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.