Abstract
This study qualitatively examines the “non-boundaries of style” represented in fashion on a social media platform. The term “non-boundary” refers to a nonlinear boundary or distinction based on the more flexible time and space in the digital era, rather than a space at a certain time. Based on a theoretical review of media ecology, that is, how the media environment transforms human experience and affects society and culture, the spatial and temporal aspects of digital platforms were characterized as transcendental, open social, realistic virtual, and aesthetic spaces in everyday lives. The fashion-related images from the Instagram account of global fashion influencer Susanna Lau (@susiebubble), uploaded from May 2012–June 2019, were then analyzed, including their titles, caption content, hashtags, and followers’ commentary. Analysis showed that the images represent a digital lifestyle and trace the non-boundaries of style across the binaries of work–leisure, public–private, real–virtual, and geography–culture.
Highlights
Everyday life is rapidly shifting toward a mobile digital paradigm
This study qualitatively considers how the characteristics of digital space–time found within a social media platform embody lifestyle changes through fashion images, reflecting the ambiguous boundaries of time, space, and culture
Four characteristics or forms of digital space–time were defined from a media ecology perspective: transcendental space, open social space without boundaries, realistic virtual space, and aesthetic space in everyday life
Summary
Everyday life is rapidly shifting toward a mobile digital paradigm. As MacDowall and de Souza (2018) noted, recent scholarship on the uses of social media has opened up productive ways of thinking about the relationship between user-generated content and new forms of sociality and social practice. Instagram—the photo- and video-sharing platform—has received relatively little scholarly attention compared to, for example, Twitter and Facebook. It has gained considerable attention as a digital media space that visualizes the changing aspects of everyday life in the age of digital culture. Kang (2018) treated Instagram as a new space in which people today establish their identities, presenting or staging themselves in various ways shaped by social norms and knowledge Faleatua (2018) explored three young women’s self-representation practices on Instagram as “authentic self-branding,” while Becker (2016) pointed out that Instagram serves as an “image-maker,” expanding individuals’ influence horizons. Kang (2018) treated Instagram as a new space in which people today establish their identities, presenting or staging themselves in various ways shaped by social norms and knowledge
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