Reshaping beauty standards and lifestyle behavior of lebanese young female adults : qualitative insight on the effect of instagram

Abstract

Instagram, is considered one of the fastest growing social media platform in recent years.There has been minimal studies on the effect of Instagram in reforming and affecting the beauty standards and lifestyle behavior of the Lebanese female young adults. The standard of beauty is essentially a variable standard of what it means to be attractive that is contingent on the feminine beauty ideals that are present in a given culture. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the usage of Instagram by Lebanese young adults affects in reforming their beauty standards and changing their lifestyle behavior. A qualitative method, focus group (n 31) was used in this research paper to study the Instagram effects on beauty standards as in changing physical appearance and attractiveness to lifestyle behavior as in eating, dressing, exercising, of Lebanese female young adults. The results showed that 81% of the participants changed their lifestyle behavior after being exposed to Instagram posts and got affected by what they are being exposed to on Instagram whether through the celebrities they follow or through normal posts they see. 80.6% of the results showed that participants would want to look like their influencers and had undergone a type of reformation in their physical appearance and due to the celebrities’ effect on their lifestyle behavior. These findings confirmed that Instagram usage would directly influence beauty standards set and lifestyle behaviors exercised by these young female adults.