annotated bibliography
DESCRIPTION
A collection of descriptions of several sources for the research paper.TRANSCRIPT
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Marybeth Fair
Dr. McLaughlin
Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric
17 November 2015
Annotated Bibliography
I am studying the social media app “Instagram” and the “social media persona” accounts
prevalent on the site. My main research question is: how do the accounts of “social media
persona” women on Instagram negatively influence their followers? This issue is important and
timely because of the explosion of popularity of this app in recent years. In September 2015,
Instagram hit 400 million monthly users (CNBC). Many of these accounts are “social media
persona” accounts, pages dedicated to showing artful pictures of women and their lives. Many
having hundreds of thousands of followers, these women have a significant, and often harmful,
influence over their followers. I plan to investigate this negative influence in order to make the
argument that health classes in middle and high schools should cover this topic. If young women
specifically are warned about the dangers of following these accounts, hopefully they will be
able to make better decisions about their following habits and stay safer online.
"Facebook’s Instagram Hits 400M Users, Beats Twitter." CNBC. 23 Sept. 2015. Web. 17 Nov.
2015.
In this article for CNBC, Arjun Kharpal, the associate producer for CNBC in London, announces
that “Instagram has hit 400 million monthly active users” (CNBC). He notes that this number is
larger than the number of users of Twitter, and then he explains the increase of advertising on
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Instagram and slowdown of usage on Twitter. Possible audiences for this article include
subscribers to the newspaper or readers interested in the scope of different technological
platforms. This source is a news article. It connects very loosely to the other sources, mostly by
providing weight to their statements by showing how many people are affected by Instagram.
This article does not necessarily conflict with other sources, but it differs in that it simply states a
statistic rather than analyzes the app itself. The quality of this article is high as it is from a trusted
news source. The usefulness for my article, unfortunately, is rather low. The one statistic on the
number of users will add weight to my argument by showing, as stated above, how many people
are influenced by Instagram, but I will most likely not cite this article beyond that.
"Instagram Star Essena O'Neill: Social Media Is Not Real CNN.com." CNN. Cable News
Network, 4 Nov. 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
In this article for CNN, Kerry ChanLaddaran, a reporter for CNN, explains the story of Essena
O’Neill, an Australian teen who deleted her social media life. She claims that social media took
control of her life, making her extremely unhappy, and implores her followers to realize that
“social media is an illusion” (CNN). The intended audience of this article is both people who
follow accounts and the parents of these followers. The context of this article is within a world
where social media platforms, such as Instagram, are flooded with accounts of “perfect women”
with hundreds of thousands of followers. The purpose is to share her story, which urges people to
acknowledge the dangers of social media. This connects to other sources by addressing the
dangers of social media and these instagram accounts. Specifically, O’Neill’s story aligns with
the view depicted in the article about the “minimalist pixie dream girl.” This article differs from
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other sources by focusing on the effects of these accounts on the creator rather than the
followers. The quality of the article is high as it comes from a trustworthy news site. It will also
prove very useful in my argument, providing a specific case study to support my claims.
"An 18YearOld Instagram Star Says Her "Perfect Life" Was Actually Making Her Miserable."
BuzzFeed. 2 Nov. 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
In this article for BuzzFeed News, Stephanie McNeal, a New Yorkbased Buzzfeed News
Reporter, also tells the story of Essena O’Neill. This story, in contrast to the CNN story, is
targeted more towards the actual followers of social media celebrity accounts. The outlet used is
one indicator, as BuzzFeed generally has a younger audience. This article is different from the
CNN one in that it has more specific quotes and photos from O’Neill and her Instagram. The
context for this article is similar to the CNN article, within a world of mass social media usage
and an abundance of accounts similar to O’Neill’s. The purpose, again, is to share her story, to
spread her message that the life portrayed in accounts like hers “isn’t candid life, or cool or
inspirational. It’s contrived perfection made to get attention” (BuzzFeed). This article connects
specifically to the CNN article as it shares the same subject, but differs in the target audience.
The quality, unfortunately, is low for this article because BuzzFeed does not have a reputation as
a reliable news source. I will probably not be comfortable citing it in an academic research paper,
but I included it in this bibliography because it is very useful. The specific quotes and photos
used really add to the case study of Essena O’Neill.
Fagan, Chelsea. "The Minimalist Pixie Dream Girl: Who She Is And Why I Hate Her." The
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Financial Diet. 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
This article was written by Chelsea Fagan, a writer and blogger who founded The Financial Diet,
a personal finance and lifestyle blog. The intended audience members of this article are users of
Instagram (or other social media/photo sharing sites) frustrated with “perfect” lifestyle photos. It
was written in the context of an abundance of these types of photos and accounts on the internet.
The author’s purpose is to point out how unrealistic, and actually false, these photos are. I like
this article because of its perfect descriptions of the types of photos I am denouncing. I have been
struggling with how to define and describe the accounts of digital influencers, and Fagan
captures their aesthetic through her humorous depictions. I also love the term “minimalist pixie
dream girl” (Fagan). This article could add to my initial description of the accounts and help my
audience understand to what I am referring when I use the term “digital influencers” or “social
media personas.” Thus, this article is very useful. It connects to the story of Essena O’Neill, also
claiming that these social media accounts are lies, but differs from O’Neill’s story by not
examining the effects the accounts have on their creators. My only concern regards the quality of
this source. It is an opinionbased article in a blog. It provides no evidence and has not been
peerreviewed.
Detweiler, Craig. IGods: How Technology Shapes Our Spiritual and Social Lives. Grand Rapids:
Brazos, 2013. Print.
This source is a novel written by Craig Detweiler, a professor of Communication at Pepperdine
University and a filmmaker, author, and cultural commentator. The intended audience members
of this novel are Christians trying to navigate the world of technology while maintaining their
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faith. It was written in a world of social media explosion, where technology grows more
ubiquitous by the hour and more and more is shared online. The specific context of this work is
faith within this technological world. The author wrote the novel to implore Christians to
actively adopt strategies to avoid worshipping the idols of technology (“iGods”). While this is a
Christianbased novel, it still carries many important points about the negative effects of social
media. The sections on Facebook discuss the dangers of passive following and the envy and
unhappiness that follows viewing the perfect moments of others’ lives. Detweiler also analyzes
the rhetorical presentation of Instagram photos and the potential meaning behind the popularity
of the site. The parts about Instagram could fit nicely into my introduction to the site and the
phenomenon of these “digital influencers,” and the passive following passages would support my
claims regarding the negative effects on followers, so as a source it is very useful. It specifically
connects to the article on negative social comparison, with both sources warning against the
dangers of comparing one’s entire life to the highlight reel others share on social media. This
novel differs from my other sources by examining this issue in a theological context. This source
is also high quality, as it is a published novel by a reliable author.
Vries, Dian A. De, and Rinaldo Kühne. "Facebook and Selfperception: Individual Susceptibility
to Negative Social Comparison on Facebook." Personality and Individual Differences:
21721. Print.
This article was written by Dian A. De Vries, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of
Amsterdam, and Rinaldo Kühne, an assistant professor at the Amsterdam School of
Communication Research. The intended audience members of this article are academics
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interested in the effects of social media on happiness, as it was published in a scholarly journal.
It was written in a world with widespread Facebook use, where roughly a billion people are free
to browse the lives of others and compare them to their own. The argument of this article is,
using the results of a study as evidence, that “Facebook use is negatively related to
selfperceptions of social competence and physical attractiveness through negative social
comparison” (Vries 218). Though this study was done for Facebook, I could easily extend it to
Instagram. Then, this evidence would perfectly support my claims regarding the negative
impacts of viewing these “perfect girls” on Instagram and comparing their “lives” back to those
of the follower. This article, as I noted above, agrees with the arguments made in iGods that
viewing others’ seemingly perfect lives on social media causes negative selfopinions. This
evidence differs from some of the other articles because it discusses all social media interaction,
not specifically these digital influencer accounts, but I can extend the evidence to support my
claim. This article is also high quality, as it appears in a peerreviewed journal.
"Danielle Robertson on Instagram:." Instagram. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
This source is just one of the many Instagram accounts I found that are examples of these digital
influencer women. This account belongs to Danielle Robertson (@dannibelle), a 21yearold law
student from Australia with 540,000 followers on Instagram. Her account was made for a variety
of audiences, from people looking for photos of a beautiful woman to those looking for fitness
motivation. The context for this account is within the app Instagram, where anyone can make an
account and share their lives. The purpose of this account is to share photos from her life with
hundreds of thousands of strangers, possible to gain self esteem. Robertson also almost certainly
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garners large profits from this account, as many of her posts appear to be sponsored. This
connects to my other sources by providing a concrete example of the phenomenons examined in
them. The account differs by having no analysis. As an example, this account is high quality as it
has most of the aspects I am examining. This specific account is interesting as Robertson posted
a counterargument to O’Neill’s story, claiming that O’Neill’s claims “cannot be applied
generally” and that her account can “positively affect someone’s life” and “genuinely make a
difference” (Instagram). This source is also useful, as it provides examples. I am also going to
look at the comments on the photos to see evidence of the audience’s response.
Clay, Daniel, Vivian L. Vignoles, and Helga Dittmar. "Body Image And SelfEsteem Among
Adolescent Girls: Testing The Influence Of Sociocultural Factors." Journal of Research
on Adolescence: 45177. Print.
This article was written by Daniel Clay, a social researcher, and Dr. Vivian Vignoles and Dr.
Helga Dittmar, both readers in social psychology at the University of Sussex. The target
audience members are academics interested in the effects of media on selfesteem. The context
lies within a world where adolescent girls are continually exposed to images of unrealistic
women. The purpose is to draw on sources of empirical research to explain that “exposure to
either ultrathin or averagesize magazine models lowered body satisfaction and, consequently,
selfesteem” (Clay). This source connects to the article about negative social comparison, both
outlining how comparing one’s life to images can lower selfimage, but it differs by focusing
specifically on body image. While this source is about media in general, I can extrapolate their
argument to the social media accounts I am discussing, so this source is useful. It is also
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important because the my final argument is similar to that of the authors, “Results support calls
for early educational interventions to help girls to deconstruct advertising and media images”
(Clay). This article is also high quality because it appears in a peerreviewed journal, so it is
reliable.