Is the study of Instagram still relevant? What young people (don’t) want to tell us about themselves?

This paper examines how young people construct and manage their identities on Instagram, with particular attention to patterns of self-presentation over time. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of Instagram profiles belonging to high school and university students in Serbia (N = 53), the study explores the extent to which visual content reflects continuity or discontinuity in identity construction. Contrary to initial expectations, the analysis reveals a relatively limited diversity of posted content, with notable uniformity and repetition across profiles. Content related to subcultural, political, religious, national, or sexual identities was largely absent or marginal. A particularly striking finding concerns the temporal structure of profiles: a substantial number of profiles contained no posts at all, while many others included only a small number of posts. On average, respondents published their first Instagram posts around the age of 18, and posts originating from earlier life stages—such as childhood or early adolescence—were extremely rare. These findings suggest that young users may actively curate their digital self-presentations by deleting earlier content or creating new profiles at key life transitions, particularly around the attainment of legal adulthood. Rather than serving as continuous visual archives of personal development, Instagram profiles appear to function as selectively constructed representations aligned with current identity positions. The paper situates these findings within the broader context of the historical rise of Instagram and ongoing debates on digital self-presentation. The analysis highlights types of content that are notably absent from participants’ Instagram profiles, despite their clear relevance to the participants’ social lives, including political events, nightlife, hobbies, education, religion, and significant life events. Although it is unlikely that participants are not involved in these activities or do not experience such events, they are rarely represented in the analyzed content, suggesting a selective mode of self-presentation rather than a lack of engagement. Instagram thus appears not to be perceived by participants as a digital space for displaying the full scope of their social lives, a conclusion further supported by irregular posting patterns and extended pauses in content sharing. This research was supported by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, Grant No. 6701, Youth Identity Development Through the Use of Digital Media-IDENTITYthroughMEDIA.