Investigating the Impact of Instagram Application on Algerian Individuals' Self-Identifications: The Case of Algerian Teenagers.

Modern media creates for young people a desire to change them with a subsequent loss of personality. It has influenced its users, particularly adolescents because it carries different contents that attract their attention; therefore, they escape to the world of dreams where they can find a suitable place for themselves through being an influencer and/or following media content creators who share what is attractive to gain more followers. To this end, adolescents are the intended age segment because they get influenced easily owing to their sensitive age period. In this regard, the present paper aims at studying the impact of Instagram on Algerian adolescents' selfidentifications. It focuses on how individuals interact within Instagram as a virtual community and how it affects their real lives due to the unbalances between the real and the virtual worlds. To do that, we employed mixed-methods research relying on an online observation and an online questionnaire as research instruments. The participants were 161 Algerian adolescents known to be Instagram users. Final results indicated that 57,8 % of their real and virtual identities are the same, and 42,2 % have declared that there is a contradiction between both identities, which has amplified the phenomenon of double personality or schizophrenia with 61 % among Algerian teenagers. Therefore, the Instagram app has hidden individual and psychological effects on its users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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