Selfie Motivations of Generation Y in Turkey within Visual Sharing Culture Context

Öz

In recent years selfie has become an inevitable part of social networking sites (SNS). With the substantial growth of profile-based SNS, users communicate and represent themselves through photographs, particularly with selfies. A selfie is a self-representation tool, more intensely among younger generations. In this research, we focused on motivations of Y generation to express themselves through selfie in Turkey. We specified 4 main hypotheses; social media usage, showing and defining themselves, social acceptance, and narcissism. In order to investigate this hypothesis, we focused on college students who are active SNS users. Semi-structured interviews conducted to reach in-depth information about their tendencies and motivations. Our findings supported hypothesizes we identified.

As a result, participants have social networking accounts for a long time and are observed to be spending a long time each day on these platforms. Users utilize SNS to be present in the virtual world as well as to see the shares of other users. It has been observed that users take a selfie to share their social media identities, to be liked by other people, to show themselves better than they are in real life, to take the pleasure of continuous likes. When we examined the motivations of the users, we observed that there are some narcissistic tendencies. We have discussed our insights for the future research in line with such findings.   

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Visual Communication,New Media,Self-portrait,Self-representation,Narcissism,Social Networking Sites

Kaynakça

1. Alanka, Ö., & Cezik, A. (2016). Dijital Kibir: Sosyal Medyadaki Narsistik Ritüellere İlişkin Bir İnceleme. TRT Akademi, Dijital Medya, 1(2), 548-569.
2. Alte Pinakothek. (1500). Albert Dürer, Self-Portrait With Fur-Trimmed Robe. Retrieved from Alte Pinakothek: https://www.pinakothek.de/en/modules/module-image-text-marginal/1052
3. Andreassen, C., Pallesen, S., & Griffiths, M. (2017). The relationship between addictive use of social media, narcissism, and self-esteem: Findings from a large national survey. Addictive Behaviors, 64, 287–293.
4. Atay, S. (2009). Narsistik Kişilik Envanteri’nin Türkçe’ye Standardizasyonu. Gazi Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, 11(1), 181-196.
5. Büyüköztürk, Ş., Kılıç Çakmak, E., Akgün, Ö., Karadeniz, Ş., & Demirel, F. (2011). Bilimsel araştırma yöntemleri (10.Baskı ed.). Ankara: Pegem Akademi.
6. Barber, B. (2005). Through the Eyes of Vincent Van Gogh. London: Arcturus Publishing.
7. Baudrillard, J. (1970). The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London: SAGE.
8. Bennett, S., Maton, K., & Kervin, L. (2008). The ‘Digital Natives’ Debate: A Critical Review of the Evidence. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(5), 775-786.

9. Bennett, S., Maton, K., & Kervin, L. (2008). The ‘digital natives’ debate: a critical review of the evidence . British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(5), 775-786. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2007.00793.x.
10. Bergman, S., Fearrington, M., Davenport, S., & Bergman, J. (2011). Millennials, narcissism, and social networking: What narcissists do on social networking sites and why. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(5), 706–711.
11. Bolton, R. N. (2013). Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda. Journal of Service Management, 24(3), 245-267. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/09564231311326987. .
12. Bolton, R. N., Parasuraman, A., Hoefnagels, A., Migchels, N., Kabadayi, S., Gruber, T., .Solnet, D. (2013). Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda. Journal of Service Management, 24(3), 245-267, https://doi.org/10.1108/09564231311326987.
13. Bonafoux, P. (1985). Portraits of the Artist; The Self-Portrait in Painting. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, INC.
14. Boyd, D. (2011). Social Network Sites as Networked Publics Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A Networked Self; Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (pp. 39-59). New York: Taylor & Francis .
15. Buffardi, L. &. (2008). Narcissism and social networking web sites. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(10), 1303–1314.
16. Carmean, D. M., & Morris, M. E. (2013). Selfie examinations: Applying computer vision, hashtag scraping and sentiment analysis to finding and interpreting selfies. Oregon: (Draft). IntelLabs.
17. Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2014, March 13). Sharing The (Self) Love: The Rise of The Selfie and Digital Narcissism. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/mar/13/selfie-social-media-love-digital-narcassism
18. Charmaz, K. (2006). Constucting Grounded Theory A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
19. Connell, C. (2015, February 17). Selfie obsessed: Why DO teenagers take so many pictures of themselves? One mum says she's baffled by daughter's addiction to sharing absolutely everything (and here's just one day in her life. Retrieved from Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2957800/Selfie-obsessed-teens-pictures-baffled-mum-defiant-daughter-head-head.html
20. Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2008). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
21. Creswell, J. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th edition ed.). Los Angeles: Sage. Day, E. (2013). How Selfies Became a Global Phenomenon. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/14/how-selfies-became-a-global-phenomenon
22. Diefenbach, S., & Christoforakos, L. (2017). The Selfie Paradox: Nobody Seems to Like Them Yet Everyone Has Reasons to Take Them. An Exploration of Psychological Functions of Selfies in Self-Presentation. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 7-21. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00007.
23. Gnambs, T., & Appel, M. (2017). Narcissism and Social Networking Behavior: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Personality, 86(2), 200–212. doi:10.1111/jopy.12305.
24. Hall, J. (2014). The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History (Kindle Edition ed.). London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.
25. Hancock, J., & Toma, C. L. (2009). Putting Your Best Face Forward: The Accuracy of Online Dating Photographs. Journal of Communication, 59, 367-386.
26. Instagram. (2017 , April 26). 700 million. Retrieved October 2018, from Instagram Press: https://instagram-press.com/blog/2017/04/26/700-million/
27. Kim, E., Lee, J.-A., Sung, Y., & Choi, M. S. (2016). Predicting selfie-posting behavior on social networking sites: An extension of theory of planned behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.078, 64, 116-123.
28. Krause, J. (2005). Photo Idea Index. Cincinnati: F+W Publications. Krippendorff, K. (2004). Content Analysis: An introduction to Its Methodology (Second edition ed.). USA: Sage Publications, Inc.
29. Lee, E. L.-A. (2015). Pictures speak louder than words: Moti- vations for using Instagram. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 1, 18(9), 552–556. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2015.0157. .
30. Leung, L. (2013). Generational differences in content generation in social media: The roles of the gratifications sought and of narcissism . Computers in Human Behavior, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.028, 29, 997–1006.
31. Library of Congress. (2018). Robert Cornelius, self-portrait; believed to be the earliest extant American portrait photo. Retrieved from Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004664436/
32. Livingstone, S. (2008). Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers’ use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self- expression. New Media & Society, 10(3), 393–411. DOI: 10.1177/1461444808089415.
33. Miller, J. D. (2008). Comparing clinical and social-personality conceptualizations of narcissism. Journal of Personality, 76(3), 449–476. .
34. Nevils, B. &. (2014). The Relationship Between Social Network Usage and Narcissism. Retrieved 12 3, 2017, from Hanover Collage: http://vault.hanover.edu/%7Ealtermattw/courses/344/papers/2014/MassieNevils.pdf
35. Ong, E., Ang, R., Ho, J., Lim, J., Goh, D., Lee, C., & Chua, A. (2011, January). Narcissism, extraversion and adolescents’ self-presentation on Facebook. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 180-185.
36. Oxford University Press. (2013, November 13). Scholarly reflections on the ‘selfie’. Retrieved from OUP Blog, Oxford University Press's Academic Insights for the Thinking World: https://blog.oup.com/2013/11/scholarly-reflections-on-the-selfie-woty-2013/
37. Oxford University Press. (2013). Selfie. Retrieved from Oxford Dictionaries: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/selfie Örs, B. (2018, April). Hedonizm ve Sosyal Medya. Retrieved from Karakoy Mono: http://www.karakoymono.com/2018/04/18/hedonizm-ve-sosyal-medya/
38. Patten, M. L., & Newhart, M. (n.d.). Understanding Research Methods: An Overview of The Essentials. New York: Routledge.
39. Rawlings, K. (2013, November 21). Selfies and the history of self-portrait photography. Retrieved from Oxford University Press Blog: https://blog.oup.com/2013/11/selfies-history-self-portrait-photography/
40. Rawlins, J. S. (2008). The elderly in trinidad: health, social and economic status and issues of loneliness. West Indian Medical Journal, 57(6), 589-595. .
41. Rettberg, J. W. (2014). Seeing Ourselves rough Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan .
42. Rhodewalt, F. (2014). Narcissism. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica,: http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/403456/narcissism
43. Saltz, J. (2014). Art at Arm’s Length: A History of the Selfie. Retrieved from Vulture: http://www.vulture.com/2014/01/history-of-the-selfie.html
44. Sheldon, P., & Bryant, K. (2015). Instagram: Motives for its use and relationship to narcissism and contextual age. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, 89-97.
45. Statistica. (2018, January). Statistica. Retrieved from Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 3rd quarter 2017 (in millions)ˮ, Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
46. Statistica. (2018, January). Statistica. Retrieved from Global digital population as of August 2017 (in millions), Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/ Strauss, W. &. (1991). Generations: The history of America's future 1584-2069. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks.
47. Sung, Y. L. (2016). Why we post selfies: Understanding motivations for posting pictures of oneself. Personality and Individual Differences., 97, 260-265. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.032 .
48. Thompson, C. (2013). Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better. New York: Penguin Press. Van De Wetering, E. (2005). A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings IV, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project. Netherlands: Springer.
49. Wang, D. (2016). A study of the relationship between narcissism, extraversion, drive for entertainment, and narcissistic behavior on social networking sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 66, 138-148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.09.036.
50. Wendt, B. (2014). The Allure of the Selfie: Instagram and the New Self-Portrait,. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.
51. Wortham, J. (2013). My Selfie, Myself. Retrieved from The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/sunday-review/my-selfie-myself.html
52. Wu, Y.-C., Chang, W.-H., & Chih-Hung , Y. (2015). Do Facebook profile pictures reflect user’s personality? Computers in Human Behavior, 51, 880–889. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.014.
53. xtrlarge. (2016, October 2016). Instagram Türkiye istatistikleri ile dikkat çekiyor. Retrieved from xtrlarge: https://www.xtrlarge.com/2016/10/21/instagram-turkiye-istatistik/
54. Yıldırım, A., & Şimşek, H. (n.d.). Sosyal Bilimlerde Nitel Araştırma Yöntemleri (8. Baskı). Ankara: Seçkin Yayıncılık.
55. Yeniçeri Alemdar, M., İşbilen, D., Demirel, K., & Günal Telli, N. (2017, Fall). Özçekim Davranışı Narsisizm Göstergesi Olabilir mi? Özçekim ve Narsisizm Arasındaki İlişkiyi Tanımlamaya Yönelik Nitel bir Araştırma. Global Media Journal TR Edition, 8(15), 71-97.