New citizenship types alongside formal citizenship in the cyberspace: Studying participatory practices in the public sphere of Instagram

The use of virtual networks, the globalization of mediated cultures, and the emergence of the cultural public sphere all have led to attention being focused on cultural citizenship theories in describing citizenship participation of cyberspace users.  In this paper, using the method of ethnographic content analysis, an attempt was made to evaluate the nature of citizenship practices of young Instagram users and the extent to which these engagement are consistent with their national citizenship. According to the findings, 69% of the content shared on the mainstream public pages, humor and entertainment pages encompassed "individualistic" themes, often in line with the users' individual interests and concerns and their tendency for happiness and fun. Moreover, these themes have complied with the cultures existing in the global public sphere rather than conforming to national citizenship. Yet, the more frequency of individualistic themes as compared to collectivist themes did not mean their complete disregard for national-scale actions, with 21% of the themes on these pages being formal and community-centered citizenship. Users have returned to their national-level belongings, responsibilities and issues through them. In the Concluding Section, the necessity of redefining the concept of citizenship based on the requirements of the cyberspace, the impossibility of adopting absolute positive or negative approaches to the consequences of virtual citizenship on national citizenship, the necessity of simultaneous attention to opportunities and threats this space poses, and the need to expand education pertinent to "cultural citizenship" were all emphasized.