The impact of Instagram on the increase of relative deprivation feelings and its role in the perception of the effectiveness of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Feyzafra, Davoud

The impact of Instagram on the increase of relative deprivation feelings and its role in the perception of the effectiveness of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Davoud Feyzafra

Department of Islamic Studies, Islamic Azad University, Shahr-e-Quds Branch, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

With the increasing penetration of Instagram in Iran, representations of luxury lifestyles, excessive consumerism, and transnational comparisons have created conditions for the formation or intensification of relative deprivation and a decline in the perceived efficacy of the Islamic Republic. This study addresses the question: How does Instagram, through the mechanism of relative deprivation, influence perceptions of regime efficacy? The central hypothesis posits that Instagram, by activating four processes—exposure to new lifestyles, reproduction of new ideologies, reference group displacement, and value imbalance—amplifies the gap between expectations and actual capacities, thereby undermining perceived regime efficacy. The present research employs a theoretical-analytical method, drawing on Ted Robert Gurr’s framework of relative deprivation. Findings indicate that Instagram, by substituting traditional reference groups and highlighting elite lifestyles, produces upward social comparisons, and that the selective and performative nature of these representations intensifies their socio-psychological impact. Based on these results, targeted explanatory efforts (jihad-e tabyin) and the promotion of media literacy are recommended as counter-strategies.

Keywords

Instagram

relative deprivation

efficiency

Robert Gurr

jihad of clarification

Subjects

Topics related to the Islamic Revolution

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