Selfie Production: A Qualitative Study of Platform Affordances and Cultural Norms in Shaping Saudi Women’s Selfie Practices Posted on Instagram and Snapchat
posted on 2018-12-20, 09:37authored byAfnan Abdullah Qutub
With the rise of digital technologies, selfies are a contemporary and popular form of
digitally produced self-expression for women in Saudi Arabia. Drawing from a
phenomenological approach, informed by Goffman’s (1959) self-presentation theory and
Hall’s (1966) proxemics theory, this study explores how Saudi women express their identity
through selfie images on Instagram and Snapchat platforms, examining how these practices
are shaped by cultural norms and platform affordances. Methodologically, the study consisted
of four staged phases with 25 Saudi women involving focus groups, in-depth interviews,
online observation, and photo-elicitation interviews. Through the research I developed a
framework for understanding selfie production, consisting of seven stages, and I identified
six key motives for taking and posting selfies on these platforms. This study draws on critical
technological perspectives and theories of spaces to show how Saudi cultural norms, in
combination with platform architecture and affordances, shape and inform selfie production
in a number of ways. For example, Saudi women are discerning about which platforms they
use, depending on which audiences they want to reach, and they build what I conceptualise as
“virtual walls” to keep audiences separate.
The study makes several important empirical, theoretical, and methodological
contributions by shedding light on the selfie production and sharing process, highlighting
how users and culture are shaping online practices, providing a new way of thinking about
selfies in terms of dramaturgical analysis, and pioneering a mixed method design providing
multidimensional understanding of selfie presentation in online spaces.