Cycling as a Self-Presentation of a Healthy Lifestyle During Pandemic on Instagram

Abstract

This study shows the strategies that people use on Instagram to present themselves as healthy individuals by cycling during the pandemic. The positive self-image on Instagram is an inseparable part of individual communication patterns in their social interactions in the digital world. The cycling trend during the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the Instagram users' strategies to reach positive self-presentation, among others by integrating their cycling physical achievement data obtained through the Online Social Fitness Networks (OSFNs) platform. This study uses a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach. The data were obtained through observation and in-depth interviews with four informants. During the (first?) six months of the pandemic, the researchers observed the informants' Instagram feed and stories and interviewed them to explore their strategy and motivation related to their self-presentation content on Instagram. This study finds that the powerful strategy of self-presentation on Instagram is the "complete package". The informants present themselves by considering famous places as the photo background and as symbols that reinforce their social status. They also add popular hashtags, tag Instagram accounts featuring the glamorous lifestyle of the urban cyclists on their post, and exhibit their cycling data from the OFSNs platform.

Keywords: Self Presentation, Cycling, Pandemic, Instagram, Online Social Fitness Networks