Social media are generally seen as something we use to pass time, if not to waste it. It is less frequent to consider them as tools to define the ways we live time. In my article, I will focus on Instagram posts and stories by solo travellers and propose to read them as forms of personal storytelling expressing the existential need to construct one’s lived time, and hence one’s self, as “adventurous” – in a specific philosophical sense. First, I will provide a synthetic overview of travel writing, addressing the shift from its professional form to social media broadcasting as a sharing practice available to masses of travellers. Then, I will go through the works of three important authors – Vladimir Jankélévitch, Georg Simmel, and Jean-Paul Sartre – to clarify the notion of adventure I refer to. Reinterpreting this notion in light of the contemporary developments in “mobilestorytelling”, I will build my key claim that Instagram narrations by solo travellers are grounded – among other factors – in a will to pursue this specific idea of adventure. By doing so, I will offer a precise interpretation of the possibly puzzling combination, in much Instagram contents of the type at stake, of both beauty or the sublime, and death. Lastly, I will substantiate and illustrate myclaim concretely by discussing some case studies of Instagram solo travellers.
TO TELL OR NOT TO TELL: INSTAGRAM NARRATIONS, LIVED TIME, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE "ADVENTUROUS" SELF
Federica Cavaletti
2025-01-01
Abstract
Social media are generally seen as something we use to pass time, if not to waste it. It is less frequent to consider them as tools to define the ways we live time. In my article, I will focus on Instagram posts and stories by solo travellers and propose to read them as forms of personal storytelling expressing the existential need to construct one’s lived time, and hence one’s self, as “adventurous” – in a specific philosophical sense. First, I will provide a synthetic overview of travel writing, addressing the shift from its professional form to social media broadcasting as a sharing practice available to masses of travellers. Then, I will go through the works of three important authors – Vladimir Jankélévitch, Georg Simmel, and Jean-Paul Sartre – to clarify the notion of adventure I refer to. Reinterpreting this notion in light of the contemporary developments in “mobilestorytelling”, I will build my key claim that Instagram narrations by solo travellers are grounded – among other factors – in a will to pursue this specific idea of adventure. By doing so, I will offer a precise interpretation of the possibly puzzling combination, in much Instagram contents of the type at stake, of both beauty or the sublime, and death. Lastly, I will substantiate and illustrate myclaim concretely by discussing some case studies of Instagram solo travellers.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
