Female Users' Experiences of Identification with Cosmetic Surgery in Instagram Content

Subject Areas : Communication

Mina Jelvan ¹ , Abbas Zamani ^{2 *}

1 - Master in Communication Sciences, Institute of Higher Education of Daneshpajoohan Pishro Higher Education Institute (DHEI), Isfahan, Iran
2 - PhD in Media Management, Head of Department Social Communication Sciences, Daneshpajoohan Pishro Higher Education Institute (DHEI), Isfahan, Iran

Received: 2023-04-04 Accepted : 2023-05-06 Published : 2023-04-21

Keywords: identification, female users, Instagram, experiences, cosmetic surgeries,

Abstract :

The present study was conducted with the aim of explaining the experiences of female users of identifying with cosmetic surgery in Instagram content. The research method was a qualitative type of phenomenology. For this purpose, based on the qualitative research process and selected methods, from the field of research, which was all women who performed cosmetic surgery or cosmetic surgery through the Instagram program, a number of them were selected as the final sample based on heterogeneous targeted sampling. There were 7 people whose information was collected using semi-structured interviews and the interviews were continued until information saturation. In the following, the findings were analyzed using the 7-step method of Claysey. From the total findings of this research, a number of 186 related sentences and phrases were extracted, and after removing duplicate codes, 92 conceptual codes were obtained. First, the codes were converted into simple concepts and then they were categorized into 9 categories with the same concept and 2 main propositions, which included environmental factors with 5 sub-concepts, background factors with 4 sub-concepts. The findings indicated that women who underwent cosmetic surgery through Instagram had successful and unsuccessful experiences, which were the result of research and searching on Instagram, consultation with friends and clinic consultants, family supervision, and finally their own personal opinions. And of course the influencing factors were the family's situation and opinions, economic situation and interest in changing body and being modern