How does Taylor Swift present herself on Instagram and Twitter (X)?

Taylor Swift is a tremendously well-known American pop singer who has, so far, claimed 12 Grammy awards. She uses her social media platforms in an apt way to promote her music, whilst also advocating her personal political beliefs – all in aim of inspiring and educating her followers (Chan 2023).

But what is identity? Identity is understood to be a set of individual resources that people draw upon to present and express their own identity, these resources can be semiotic or linguistic (Bucholtz and Hall 2005: 585). There are many strategies that someone can use to create their own identity online. Taylor Swift’s static identities are that she is female, American, 34 years old; and her fluid identity could be her fondness for cats which is posted on her social media through photos or stories of her and her cat. Although, due to Taylor Swift’s fame there is a very low likeliness that she is actually in sole control of her social media accounts. She will have a team that post for her and write her captions etc. So, it is from Swift’s ideas that her social media team help to paint her identity online. On both Instagram and Twitter (X), Swift interacts with fans’ tweets or posts which helps her connect to them, whilst also building her identity as a friendly pop star. But, on Twitter see seems to express her political views more.

            One framework that can be used to explore someone’s online identity is Higgins’ (1987) three types of self domains model. The first type of self-domain is ‘the actual self’, this is the representation of attributes that are believed to be possessed by the individual. The second self-domain is ‘the ideal self’, this involves the representation of attributes that someone would like to possess. The third and final self-domain from Higgins’ model is ‘the ought self’ which contains attributes that someone believes they should possess (Ozgul et al. 2003: 56 & Higgins 1987: 320-321).

How do Taylor Swift’s Tweets create her identity? Applying Higgins’ (1987) three types of self domains model to one of Taylor Swift’s Tweets on Twitter (X) looks like this…

Screenshot of Taylor Swift’s Tweet from Twitter/X (June 2022)

1.     The actual self – Taylor Swift could possibly be believed by others to be resilient, headstrong, and creative.

2.      The ideal self – possibly possess the following attributes: authenticity, extroversion.

3.      The ought self – Taylor Swift might believe that she should present her political and feminist beliefs, especially ones on America’s Roe v. Wade, online in a way to raise awareness of inequality in society. With the hope that the next generation (her young fans) grow up and make a difference to the world.

            A second framework for considering identity is Cooley’s (1922) looking-glass self. The looking glass is a self-assessment which is split into three sections, the framework claims that self-concepts are reflections of other people’s evaluations of us (Gecas and Schwalbe 1983: 77). The first part is imagination of your appearance, this involves judging your social media profile(s) as if you were someone else. The next part is the imagination of other people’s judgement of you, and the third section is your own self-judgement of your profile(s) leading to people developing themselves through the judgement of others.

            How do Taylor Swift’s Instagram posts mould her identity online? Application of Cooley’s looking-glass self, Taylor Swift on Instagram seems to post pictures that other people would think she looks, powerful, feminine, or confident. From her imagination of other people’s views of her, Taylor Swift and her social media team carefully edit captions to make the posts have a positive impact on Swift’s audience. Throughout this judgement she receives, Taylor Swift and her social media team may change the way that she portrays her political views online or change the style of photos that get posted on her account.

Screenshot of Taylor Swift’s Instagram post (June 2023)

            Taylor Swift frequently tags people in her Instagram posts and Tweets, as well as commenting on threads/retweeting other people’s tweets (as seen in the screenshot of her re-Tweet in response to Michelle Obama’s statement on the overturning of Roe v. Wade). The tagging and commenting/retweeting helps to build identity by showing group membership and affiliation. Swift shows that she affiliates herself with an ex-American President’s wife’s extremely negative view on the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

            Overall, Taylor Swift and her social media team do a very good job in creating Swift a positive identity, and one that many (young girls in particular) will find inspirational and uplifting. Higgins’ (1987: 321) self-discrepancy states that people are individual in which ‘self’ ‘they are motivated to meet’ – Taylor Swift seems to be motivated to reach the ought self, whilst also achieving the actual and ideal self.

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References

Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K., 2005. Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse studies, 7(4-5), pp.585-614.

Chan, G. 2023. How Taylor Swift Built A Billion-Dollar Brand Identity. [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/goldiechan/2023/12/04/how-taylor-swift-built-a-billion-dollar-brand-identity/?sh=7b4b59fc206d [Accessed 29 Apr. 2024].

Gecas, V. and Schwalbe, M.L., 1983. Beyond the looking-glass self: Social structure and efficacy-based self-esteem. Social psychology quarterly, pp.77-88.

Higgins, E. T. 1987. Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect. Psychological Review, 94 (3), pp.319-340

Swift, T. 2010. Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) | Twitter. [online] Twitter.com. Available at: https://twitter.com/Taylorswift13.

Swift, T. 2018. Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Instagram.com. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/taylorswift/.

Swift, T. 2019. Taylor Swift. [online] Taylor Swift. Available at: https://www.taylorswift.com/ [Accessed 29 April 2024].

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2018). Roe v. Wade. In: Encyclopedia Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Roe-v-Wade [Accessed 29 April 2024].

Ozgul, S., Heubeck, B., Ward, J. and Wilkinson, R., 2003. Self-discrepancies: Measurement and relation to various negative affective states. Australian journal of psychology, 55(1), pp.56-62.