Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms today, affecting a large portion of the Swedish population. Studies have shown that social media can affect the mental health of the users. Many of the pictures posted on Instagram are objectifying, meaning that they focus only on appearance. Objectifying pictures can cause women to self-objectify. This study aims to gain a more nuanced understanding surrounding the phenomenon and examines self-objectification among young women (18-24 years) and the effect on their self-esteem through 10 semi-structured interviews. Results show that young women self-objectify when choosing the best pictures to upload on Instagram. Furthermore, they have developed a lower self-esteem from using the application, since they compare their looks to others self-objectifying pictures.

Tidigare forskning visar att självobjektifiering kan ha negativa effekter på individens kroppsuppfattning och leda till bland annat lägre självkänsla, ätstörningar och depression. Enligt objektifieringsteorin innebär objektifiering att betrakta någon eller något som ett objekt när det inte är det och att bedöma och beskåda sig själv utifrån någon annans perspektiv. Självobjektifiering kopplas i huvudsak samman med kvinnor vilket kan bero på traditionella könsroller och att mindre forskning har gjorts på män inom samma fält. Studiens syfte var att undersöka eventuella samband mellan självobjektifiering och kroppsuppfattning samt om det skiljer sig mellan kvinnor och män. Med hjälp av välbeprövade instrument, ett standardiserat frågeformulär och kvantitativ design har vi utformat en tvärsnittsstudie som utförts på det svenska företaget Folkspel i Göteborg (N= 113). Studiens resultat visar att det finns ett samband mellan självobjektifiering och kroppsuppfattning vilket stämmer överens med tidigare forskning. Resultatet visar också att sambandet inte nödvändigtvis behöver vara i negativ art, framför allt när det kommer till män då en viss del av självobjektifiering kan ha en positiv effekt på individens kroppsuppfattning. / Previous research shows that self-objectification can have negative effects on the individual's body image and lead to for example lower self-esteem, eating disorders and depression. According to the objectification theory, objectification means considering someone or something as an object when it is not, and to judge and view oneself from someone else's perspective. Self-objectification is mainly associated with women which may be due to traditional gender roles and the fact that less research has been done on men in the same field. The purpose of the study was to investigate possible connections between self-objectification and body image and whether it differs between men and women. Using well-proven instruments, a standardized questionnaire and quantitative design, we designed a cross-sectional study that was carried out at the Swedish company Folkspel in Gothenburg (N= 113). The result of the study shows that there is a connection between self-objectification and body image which agrees with previous studies. The result also shows that the connection does not necessarily have to be, in a negative sense especially when it comes to men, as a certain amount of self-objectification can have positive effects on the individual's body image.