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The Insta-Trainer: A Study of How Instagram Is Used as a Biopedagogical Tool for Health and Wellbeing Among Young Women in Qatar

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Abstract

“Insta-Trainer” or “Insta-Training” is a concept that I define as instantly training the self, mind, and body, through the aid of social media platforms. It is a concept that aligns with the characterisations of Feminine Technologies through direct relation to women’s health applications and devices. In the context of this chapter, I specifically look at how Insta-Training content on Instagram operates to discipline the female body through visual content that encourage and normalise constant self-surveillance, discipline and improvement. This specific study explores the concept through the experiences of young women from Qatar who interact with Instagram on a daily basis and how such interactions impact their overall well-being as well as their relationship to culture/traditions. The women aged between 18 and 30 years were tasked with completing an interactive open-ended question survey and an hour long semi-structured interview. The study confirms that women from Qatar approach Feminine Technology with an optimistic mentality. It also confirms that there exists a strong need to obtain knowledge on their physical and mental well-being through the use of biopedagogical practices on social media platforms.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This includes private, public, and governmental institutes and organisations.

  2. 2.

    A hypermedia space, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, are “a combination of videos, images, sounds text, etc. that are connected together on a website, which you can click on in order to use them or to go to other related videos, websites, etc.” or “an interactive system that allows users to navigate a network of linked hypermedia objects” (2023).

  3. 3.

    As of 28 April 2023, the video I am referring to was played 213,583 times. The number of likes is not visible, but the users who have liked the video are overwhelmingly female users. The post was originally uploaded on 18 April 2023.

  4. 4.

    All the names of the participants have been changed to protect identity of the participants.

  5. 5.

    The way Dr Al-Badir operates as an Insta-Trainer is based on data collected between 2019 to 2021.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Sara Al Derham

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  1. Sara Al Derham
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Correspondence to Sara Al Derham .

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  1. Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University, Coventry, UK

    Lindsay Anne Balfour

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Al Derham, S. (2023). The Insta-Trainer: A Study of How Instagram Is Used as a Biopedagogical Tool for Health and Wellbeing Among Young Women in Qatar. In: Balfour, L.A. (eds) FemTech. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5605-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5605-0_7

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