Literature Review
Culture has specific values around the world. It is made unique by norms, traditions, and beliefs, which are easily manifested in users’ social media accounts. The following literature expands on the subject of cultural values between Chinese and American students. The two cultures have significant differences that shape the profiles and usage of Instagram in individuals. In the U.S., Instagram is legally accepted and widely used but unavailable in China, although not a new platform. Individuals access it using a VPN to hide their identities.
Similarities in Cultural Values
Instagram has significant potentials in influencing self-perception. A majority of youth in most countries worldwide are connected to this and other social media platforms, which are essential in body images and self-esteem. Chang explored the influence of social media in young adults through an exploratory study (2016). The control studies were attractive peer images and sceneries on Instagram. It was hypothesized that respondents exposed to these control experiments would have lower-self esteem and negative perceptions of their bodies than the other respondents. The authors expected the results to inform the significance of social media in shaping cultural values and self-esteem. The results suggested that exposure of young adults to celebrity images and scenes compromise cultural awareness. Young adults develop low self-esteem and dissatisfaction with body images. The results align with Diliara’s findings that young adults experience equally intensive negative feelings when comparing their Instagram posts with celebrities and peers based on the level of attractiveness (2018). Features such as likes and comments are critical on the posts since constructing the body images of users. These features act as a form of approval from society and affect individual perceptions and self-esteem.
Forbush & Foucault-Welles explored social media adaptation in Chinese student commencing studies in the U.S. ESL students in the U.S go through life-changing experiences. Among them is the continuous learning from the American students and the entire community, although it comes at the cost of fitting into this culture (Forbush & Foucault-Welles, 2016). The researchers demonstrated diverse and large networks in Chinese and American students’ interactions, which optimizes the opportunities for cultural adaptations. The authors attempted to explore the possible impacts of using social media in creating social networks in international students. In answering the research question, they administered online surveys to Chinese students in the U.S. It was established that students that use social media platforms like Instagram during their studies have diverse and larger social networks abroad compared with those that limit their use of these platforms. The students also have higher opportunities for adapting to the new culture and improved academic excellence. The study recommends learning the use of social media (Instagram) in higher learning to increase cultural adaptation in students.
Variations in Cultural Values
Song and colleagues explored users’ attributes on Instagram by evaluating characteristics like gender and age-associated with users’ engagement on this tool. They classified age and gender-based on F1 scores of 74% and 88% in identifying gender and age, respectively. The results suggested significant differences in topic choices between adults and teens and males and females (Song et al., 2018). Teen users demonstrated attachments to human-related topics like faces (selfies) and human actions. In the female, the frequency of posting was influenced by self-believe in high beauty standards and peers’ influence. The use of Instagram in young adults was influenced by the surroundings, such as images of humans and the environment. The study implies that users of Instagram in both Chinese and American share some values despite cultural variations. For example, all the surveyed users had some privacy levels, such as restricting the people who can view their posts.
The findings by Song and colleagues conquer with those of Akhiar et al., who examined ESL students’ perceptions and attitudes towards using Instagram in English language writing. The researchers preferred this tool because it promotes connectedness, individualism, and opportunities for interactions. A majority of ESL students feared and felt threatened writing in English. This aspect can be traced back to the cultural background in communication between Western (American) and Asian (Chinese). In the former, communication is direct while it is indirect in the latter. A majority of ESL have confidence issues in addressing target language in written and spoken interactions (Akhiar et al., 2017). This affects writing performance, especially when the students know that the Instagram communities will read their work. It introduces another cultural value of privacy. Akhiar et al. found out that ESL students are reluctant to share their posts with strangers but not the people they know (2017). A majority of ESL students restricted the view of profiles on Instagram to avoid their posts going public. It goes back to the cultural value of individualism in American students and communal relationships comprising a few but strong ties between individuals. The issue may also reflect the cultural value of freedom of speech that is perceived as a fundamental right in American compared to the censorship of information in Chinese communities.