The MIMIc project, led by @lauravandenbosch.bsky.social‬, investigates how ‘malleable ideals’—the constantly shifting portrayals of success & perfection in media—influence teenagers’ well-being, identity, and life aspirations.

Discover more 👉 buff.ly/jLuzdnI

By unpacking the impact of social media-driven pressures, #MIMIc aims to foster a healthier, more grounded digital culture for future generations.

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#TeenMentalHealth #FrontierResearch @mediapsychologylab.bsky.social‬

Bottom line: Instagram isn’t just aesthetic and commercial—it’s normative.
Our study highlights how social media figures subtly promote values aligned with consumer culture, entrepreneurship, and individualism.

📖 Read the full paper here: doi.org/10.1177/2056...

#influencers #commsky

Building on Johanna Arnesson's concept of influencers as ideological intermediaries, we propose an extension to consider them as value intermediaries—figures whose content may shape audiences’ value orientations over time. Further research is needed to examine these long-term effects. (7/10)

The paper explores the intricacies between influencer and celebrity culture, Instagram’s vernaculars and commercial logic, and the hegemony of self-oriented values and Western cultural priorities in top aspirational content. (6/10)

Some distinctions emerged between influencers, celebrities, and athletes—for example, influencers and athletes were more likely to share hedonistic and benevolent content. The paper offers rich qualitative insights that help illustrate how these values are expressed in practice. (5/10)

Most of these values were expressed visually rather than textually, underscoring the importance of manual and visual content analyses. Relying solely on textual analysis risks overlooking how such abstract constructs are communicated through imagery. (4/10)

Using Schwartz's theory values, we found that 100% of the personalities, and 60% of the content they share conveyed at least one value. The most frequent?
✨ Achievement (25% of posts/stories)
💖 Benevolence (22%)
🍷 Hedonism (20%)

(3/10)

What values do social media influencers, celebrities, and athletes promote on Instagram? And how are these values expressed? As part of the @erc.europa.eu project MIMIc, we analyzed 1256 posts and 2936 stories from 59 of the most-followed Western public figures to find out. (2/10)

Commission TikTok à l’Assemblée : « Certains influenceurs ont un sentiment d’impunité » usbeketrica.com/fr/article/c...

Congratulations @luca-carbone.bsky.social, so very well-deserved 💛

The second project is a theoretical model I'm developing with @lauravandenbosch.bsky.social on (im)moral influencer content and adolescents—applied to the case of virtual influencers. Hopefully more about this in the coming months. 😀

The first project was a study on adolescents' use of Snapchat's "My AI" chatbot, led by @gvanhoffelen.bsky.social, @laraschreurs.bsky.social & @lauravandenbosch.bsky.social as part of the ERC MIMIc project.

This research was conducted as part of the ERC-funded MIMIc project at the @mediapsychologylab.bsky.social, and I’m grateful to my brilliant co-authors @gonzalezanaelle.bsky.social @laraschreurs.bsky.social @Caroline Giraudeau and @lauravandenbosch.bsky.social for their collaboration on this work ✨