Instagram As the “Identity Workshop” for Female Travelers

Abstract

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms used by societies, with one of the key groups being female travelers. Nowadays, Instagram does not only become a social space, but it is also a space of identity construction, or an “identity workshop”. Traveling is one activity which is often found on women’s Instagram accounts. It is an activity chosen by women to show their personal authority. The purpose of this paper is to understand how female travelers use Instagram as their “identity workshop”. This research analyzes the Instagram account of a female traveler, Claudia Kaunang’s (@claudiakaunang) by applying virtual ethnography methods. Alongside this, the research uses Angela McRobbies’s postfeminist theory which focuses on ‘empowerment’ and ‘choice’. The research findings confirm that a female traveler constructs herself to be what she wants through Instagram.