Studying the Ways Female Fans Connect with Instagram Bloggers' "Sweet Home"

In this study, we focused on the female audience of Instagram “Sweet Home” bloggers. First, we addressed the question of how the relationship between the Sweet Home blogger and the fan is defined by the audience. Then, we examined how the content of the page is perceived and understood by the fan. In this research, we employed a qualitative approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 women who were active followers of five Sweet Home Instagram pages. Through thematic analysis of the collected data, we identified five main themes. In the first theme, we found a form of sometimes deep distrust toward the content produced by the blogger. In the subsequent themes concerning the fan–blogger relationship, we discussed the impact of fans’ presence on bloggers’ content production processes and their hidden power in shaping the direction of the Sweet Home pages, to the extent that audience members consider themselves part of a larger family. The findings showed that fans of Sweet Home bloggers are not merely followers or passive consumers of content; rather, they are influential and aware participants who are, to varying degrees, conscious of their role within this field. The results further revealed that contemporary fans and audiences are not receptive to just any type of content produced. Instead, they maintain a hidden, two-way relationship with the blogger and even demand the content they wish to receive.
Extended Abstract:
Introduction
Instagram is a symbol of the demotic turn in the media landscape. It is a medium that has allowed ordinary people to become highly visible and increasingly attain celebrity status (Linguist, 2021). In 2022, Instagram was recognized as the fourth most popular social media platform in the world, with 2.5 billion active users worldwide. According to the latest report by the statistical website Statista prior to the extensive filtering of the platform, the number of active Iranian users was approximately 40 million, representing about half of the country's population. This indicates that Instagram has become an integral part of Iranians’ lives. Even obstacles such as filtering, reduced internet speeds, and the need to pay for access to IP addresses from other countries in order to use the platform have not diminished Instagram’s importance, influence, and status among Iranian users.
What is important for the researcher in this study is to understand the nature of the relationship between the audience and the pages managed by women who do not produce specialized content but simply share their daily family lives on Instagram and, according to available surveys, receive high levels of audience engagement and interaction. When discussing the importance of monitoring Instagram and its effects, a key question that arises is: How do micro-celebrity pages influence the daily lives, thoughts, and activities of Instagram audiences and users?
Methodology
The method of this research is qualitative and is based on thematic analysis. The study population consists of fans of Sweet Home bloggers. The present study was conducted using purposive sampling. Based on theoretical saturation, 21 participants were selected. The essential criterion for selecting these participants was that they were women who had been using Instagram for more than two years and were fans and followers of at least one of the pages under consideration.
Findings
The Actor on the Stage: Goffman views social life as a theater in which actors perform on a stage. Individuals are highly sensitive to how others perceive them and use various forms of influence to elicit the reactions they desire from others (Giddens, 1997: 132). Goffman does not view the concept of the self as the actor’s possession; rather, he sees it as the product of the dramatic interaction between the actor and the audience. The self is a theatrical work that emerges from the stage (Ritzer, 1996: 293).
Search of Oneself: In this section, an attempt has been made to examine the role-modeling tendencies of fans. By reviewing the data several times, we arrived at concepts that can be better explained by placing them on a continuum, which we have called the "continuum in search of oneself." Each of these concepts will be explained below. It should be noted that particular attention must be paid to the meaning of "continuum" in this context. The goal was not to classify fans absolutely in terms of role modeling, but rather to demonstrate their varying degrees of willingness to adopt a role model along a continuum. For example, this tendency may range from the position "I am the same as her" to "I should not be like her at all." We can locate the positions of all interviewees on this continuum from the perspective of role modeling.
Silent Reader: In this theme, we explain the influence of audiences on content production. If we consider Instagram as a field of action, as defined by Bourdieu, we can say that the field is the context within which the game takes place and is internalized by the agent. In other words, when official definitions of individuals, as well as their introductions and representations within a social space, become habitual, these definitions and representations become guiding principles of behavior.
String of Colors: During our research, we repeatedly encountered concepts that were more closely related to the aesthetic sensibilities of the interviewees than to human and social relationships. Followers perceive part of their relationship with, and understanding of, Sweet Home bloggers as being dependent on visual content of high aesthetic quality. As one interviewee stated:
Cosmopolitans: McLuhan believed in the shrinking of the world through electronic media, a concept he described as the "global village." "Now the earth, through new media, has become so small that it has acquired the dimensions of a village" (McLuhan, 1377: 172). Instagram has become an integral part of people's lives. According to Meta, Instagram's parent company, most users of this platform are between the ages of 18 and 35. Individuals born in 2012 (1390 in the Iranian calendar) and later were born at a time when Instagram was already a part of everyday life. In other words, people born after this period have never experienced life without Instagram.
Conclusion
Fans closely monitor Sweet Home bloggers on Instagram, to the extent that even the slightest transgression or inconsistency on the part of the blogger does not escape their critical and sometimes cynical scrutiny. However, the relationship between the Sweet Home blogger and the fan, which may appear from the outside to be a one-way, top-down relationship, is in fact a two-way relationship characterized by hidden interactions. This means that fans understand the blogger’s codes, but do not accept them unquestioningly. Instead, they identify and interpret contradictions, inconsistencies, and differences within their own personal and social contexts.
This relationship is a two-way relationship with hidden dimensions. It may seem that the only visible actor in this relationship is the blogger, who establishes the relationship through posts and stories. In fact, however, other important actors in this interaction—namely fans and active audiences—also play a significant role in shaping this interaction, albeit in a different way. The presence of fans, along with their expectations regarding what should and should not be shared, helps define this relationship and influences the actions of Sweet Home bloggers.