Digital Activism and Socially Conscious Online Entrepreneurship Amongst the #WitchesOfInstagram

Photo Credit: (W.I.T.C.H. Boston 2018)

Created by Jaya Singh
for
ANT 486 Special Topics: Socio-Cultural Research Seminar
Digital and Visual Anthropology Lab
Professor Kristin Bright
University of Toronto

These historical points are significant when examining activism amongst contemporary American witch communities since many of these societal issues that impact women’s lives are still prevalent worldwide (Federici 2004; Sollée 2017). For additional information pertaining to recent increased visibility of witches in the United States, the following articles are suggested as supplementary reading.

Suggested Reading

Observing these images, it is easy to recognize that the witching community is very diverse. Witches can be of any gender identities, sexual orientation, race, etc., and inclusivity is key to witch activists (Sollée 2017).It is also important to note that advertising, self-expression, and social activism are synonymous with one another for many of these socially conscious entrepreneurs. This is evident through the content they post on their Instagram profiles. When it comes to the promotion of services and products online, socially conscious witch entrepreneurs share various types of digital content through their Instagram profiles with the most popular types of content being witchcraft-related memes, product images, personal vlog entries, and selfies (as seen in the above selfie posts).

Memes

Memes (seen below) are often shared amongst witches to disseminate knowledge and wisdom for a wide range of topics from spells tips and Tarot card spreads to wellness advice. Memes are also used throughout digital witch communities as a ‘social coagulant’ since niched memes disseminate community-related jokes, short musings, and messages pertaining to social activism.

In many ways, these memes act as fluid symbols as they depict older, more recognizable symbols such as pentacles, sigils, Tarot cards, altar items, and images of popular polytheistic deities. This type of symbol making, replication, and dissemination is reminiscent of David Kertzer’s (1988) observations pertaining to the importance of symbols amongst communities. These recognizable symbols are consistently repurposed and reframed in memes, and they continue to encourage engagement and discourse throughout Instagram witch communities due to recognition (1988).Much like Edgar Gómez Cruz and Helen Thornham’s (2015) observations, which pertain to selfies and their intrinsic embedment in public-facing digital communicative processes, it is imperative that all Instagram posts including memes are examined not only for their initial content. The mobility (i.e., shareability) of memes and related subsequent user-generated content (e.g. comments related to memes) are collectively significant components of online interactions. While I cannot elaborate further on the complex nature of this form of digital discourse due to the scope of this project, this area of research is one that I intend on providing further focus on in the future. I also intend on further examining the roles of selfies in digital entrepreneurship since selfies are typically used to provide notable levels of personability and credibility to online businesses in lieu of in-person representation.

Product Photography

This is a small sample of product images shared by online witch entrepreneurs through their Instagram profiles. Advertised materials include (but are not limited to) ritual and altar supplies, fashion accessories, books, crystals, and artwork. Images of divination tools (e.g. Tarot cards and oracle cards) along with images of personal altars are typically used to promote services such as spellcasting and divination readings. It is common for witch entrepreneurs to pose with their products in selfies and/or other types of images where specific parts of their bodies are prominent such as their hands. They often also cross-promote products from other Instagram users they respect, which bolsters communal ties.

It is apparent through a variety of Instagram posts that witches advocate for numerous causes and movements including environmental conservation, Black Lives Matters, and decolonization efforts. This intersectionality is unsurprising when considering Trinh T. Minh-Ha’s (1987) observations pertaining to the societal roles and objectives of contemporary feminism:

In their inclusive spirit, socially conscious witching communities inherently recognize that obstructive capitalistic and patriarchal infrastructures cannot be overcome when related communities are divided or even deprioritized, as noted by Minh-ha (1987).Social activism-related messages are shared through Instagram profiles alongside product images and other digital content (e.g. selfies, videos, etc.) that entrepreneurial witches use to advertise their products and services. At times, their products will even embody these socially conscious messages (seen below). It is evident overall that when an individual supports witch entrepreneurs through purchasing power, they are also supporting that entrepreneur’s social causes and activism.

Symbols associated with contemporary witchcraft including pentagrams, besoms, sigils, smudge stick bundles, and divination tools (e.g. crystal balls) are used in numerous memes and product-related artwork to signal messages of solidarity. This process is akin to the political symbol creation processes David Kertzer (1988) observed amongst nations and their related institutions. Kertzer (1988) recognized that nations are invisible forces which require symbols and rituals to unite their citizens. Since online communities and digital social activists do not meet in physical spaces regularly or, sometimes, at all, community symbolism and even hashtags assist in inspiring and sustaining messages of activism.Sometimes, fashion and make-up become key aesthetic tools in online witch activism (Sollée 2017). This is especially salient amongst socially conscious witches who use Instagram since Instagram is a social media platform that relies on visual content. While witches are encouraged to wear or not wear whatever they please, some witch activists purposefully wear social markers of epitomized or ‘ultra’ femininity (2017). These social markers include bold makeup, clothing, and fashion accessories that are condemned in numerous conservative communities for being “slutty” or sexually explicit (2017). Some witches wear gender neutral attire not only to suit their aesthetic preferences but to also advocate for the rights of non-gender conforming people. Through these acts, witch activists are taking a stand for various social causes such as gender equality, sex-positivity, body-positivity, and self-sovereignty.Although digital activism has been heavily critiqued for its ephemeral nature, as Yarimar Bonilla and Jonathan Rosa (2015) observed in their research on Twitter hashtag activism, digital activism can be a powerful influencer when examining its effects on new and ‘traditional’ news outlets. Political intuitions have been documented for recognizing digital activism movements, and these movements provide a platform to activists who are otherwise unable to protest in-person due to geographical barriers (e.g. communities are widely dispersed) or potential physical dangers (2015).

Sameness

Around the mid-twentieth century, Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1944) publicly critiqued what they termed the “culture industry”* for utilizing mass production and mass dissemination to cultivate a level of “sameness” across art and media. Both scholars posited that art and media were being created and disseminated through the culture industry in manners that prioritize advertising as “its elixir of life” (1944, 68) since this industry sustains itself on corporate advertisement funding. The result of this prioritization of corporate funding, according to both scholars, has been a detrimental commoditization of culture that is widely accepted by members of society at the sacrifice of creating quality art and media that does not possess this critiqued crux of “sameness” that results from capital interest (1944).One salient example provided by Adorno and Horkheimer (1944) examined how magazine advertisements are presented by magazine publishers in such a manner that they resemble or even, at times, are superior in aesthetic quality to editorial content. This results in advertisements becoming more conspicuous than editorial content even though readers purchase magazines primarily for their editorial content. This aesthetic prioritization of print advertisements was problematic to both scholars since they felt that art and media content should never be created in manners that take the creative process away from citizens (1944). They also declared that media and art should never be secondary to capital interest or be created merely as vehicles for corporate advertisement campaigns (1944).With the advent of Web 2.0, which has brought with it social media outlets including Instagram, it is evident that people have more control over advertising their businesses and creating their own content, as witnessed through the online presences of prominent social media influencers and small businesses. The capitalistic frameworks of North American societies, nevertheless, still appear to point towards Adorno and Horkheimer’s arguments pertaining to corporate advertisement prioritization and “sameness.”Just as Safiya Umoja Noble (2018) observed in her work pertaining to algorithmic biases embedded in Google search results, it is clear that biases in the curation of search results and even Instagram hashtag feeds are being perpetuated through flawed machine learning processes. These flaws result in the selection of certain images for curation due to their resemblance of images that were preselected by programmers to train these curating algorithms. As Noble (2018) notes, however, it is not the algorithms’ responsibility to change. It is the programmers who are responsible for creating, maintaining, and training these algorithms who must recognize the detrimental social repercussions of such biases in order to resolve the related issues at hand.Noble (2018) concluded that the biases she recognized in Google search engine results resulted largely from corporate interest. Corporate paid content (i.e., content certain companies paid Google, Inc. to advertise on their behalf) appears closer to the top (if not at the top) of Google search engine results (2018). Similarly, with regard to Instagram hashtag feeds, the sameness Adorno and Horkheimer (1944) criticized the “culture industry” for is prevalent in Instagram hashtag feed curation. This is largely due to corporate advertisement campaigns along with the aforementioned issues and unaddressed biases in machine learning processes. In 2018 alone, it was estimated that Instagram grossed $5.48 billion in net advertisement revenue; indicating that corporate advertising is a crucial revenue stream for Instagram (Condliffe 2018).

* The “culture industry” was centred mainly around film, television, radio, and magazines in Adorno and Horkheimer’s (1944) essay. They criticized this industry both for “confin[ing] itself to standardization and mass production and sacrific[ing] what once distinguished the logic of the work from that of society” (1944, 42).

Algorithmic Homogeneity

While numerous scholars and technology journalists have observed and criticized Instagram for perpetuating a salient level of problematic, homogeneous algorithmic curation, one Instagram account in particular, “@insta_repeat”, provides key visual representations of this practice. @insta_repeat posts a series of popular Instagram posts depicting the same travel destinations from the exact same angles (Shamsian 2018). In some instances, the destinations appear to be different but the landscapes, objects and/or people in these popular Instagram posts bear specific similarities.

Based on Noble’s (2018) observations on how deep learning for machine learning algorithms (i.e. artificial intelligence) yields narrow curation results based on narrowly selected training values, I posit that popular Instagram posts like the ones shown on @insta_repeat bear certain similarities that enable Instagram’s algorithms to verify that they depict what they claim to depict. As a result, these images become ‘safe’ and ‘ideal’ images that are considered suitable for promoting/endorsing across Instagram through popular streams such as hashtag feeds. The same is observed in the following screenshots from the Instagram hashtag feed for #witchesofinstagram. It is overall difficult to form concise theories about algorithmic curation since algorithms are proprietary information. Nevertheless, it is still possible to analyze the curation patterns of algorithmic output.

Mobile phone screenshots from the Instagram hashtag feed for the hashtag #witchesofinstagram. Screenshots created by author.

These screenshots and videos of Instagram’s #witchesofinstagram hashtag feed were taken over several days. It is apparent that the diverse population of the American witch community is not adequately represented in the selfies that are algorithmically selected for this hashtag feed’s curation. Moreover, activism-related posts along with ritual-related images from non-Eurocentric spiritual traditions (e.g. altar images from brujas or Hoodoo rootworkers) are sparse, albeit a few divination-related product shots. Both trends are puzzling since Instagram posts that fit these descriptions are frequently tagged with the hashtag #witchesofinstagram.

Below are screenshots of Instagram posts that possess the #witchesofinstagram hashtag but were not selected for #witchesofinstagram hashtag feed curation.

Left images depict an Instagram post that maintains the #witchesofinstagram hashtag. It was recently posted at the time these screenshots were taken. The third image depicts that this Instagram post was selected for the #brujasofinstagram hashtag feed. The video on the right displays that this Instagram post was not selected for the #witchesofinstagram hashtag feed. While Instagram hashtags feeds do not always feature posts in a purely chronological order, I scrolled down far enough in the above video to a section in the feed where older posts from 1-2 days ago would appear. Screen captures created by author.

Left images depict an Instagram post that maintains the #witchesofinstagram hashtag. It was posted an hour before these screenshots and the corresponding video were produced. The video on the right displays that this Instagram post was not selected for the #witchesofinstagram hashtag feed. While Instagram hashtags feeds do not always feature posts in a purely chronological order, I scrolled down far enough in the above video to a section in the feed where older posts from 1-2 days ago would appear. Screen captures created by author.

It could be argued that Instagram posts are selected to be featured in only one hashtag feed even if a post bears multiple hashtags. This would be difficult to verify since algorithms are proprietary information. Nevertheless, as seen in the above images, the Instagram posts circled in the first two screenshots appear in multiple hashtag feeds simultaneously. As seen in this series of screenshots, the hashtag feeds depicted are for the following popular witch-oriented hashtags: #witchesofig, #witchcraft, #witchlife and, #witchessociety. Screenshots created by author.

I am unable to provide all of the collected data pertaining to these trends within the scope of this project but the following findings were apparent throughout my research: witches of colour were often featured through hashtag feeds related to ethnicity and colour including #brujasofinstagram and #witchesofcolor. People of colour including celebrities like Beyoncé were more likely to appear in the #witchesofinstagram hashtag feed if they were depicted in memes (i.e., depicted with text and sometimes a frame around their image). People of colour were also featured in this hashtag feed predominantly through illustrated depictions of people of colour. Based on the collected data, these trends also appeared to apply to people who did not fit Eurocentric and/or ableist beauty standards.Overall, as observed in the provided screenshots and videos, people who fit the following criteria had their selfies/photographs selected and promoted more often through the #witchesofhashtag feed (versus being subjected to primary representation through artistic renderings and memes): appear ‘feminine’ within a heteronormative scope (i.e., cisgender women), Caucasian-passing/European facial features and hair types, of slim body types, and wearing black/gothic-inspired makeup and clothing in their photographs.In addition to these trends, some of the selfies featured through the #witchesofinstagram hashtag feed are tagged with the #witchesofinstagram hashtag by other users despite the fact that the Instagram models depicted in these images do not necessarily identify as witches. While this is acceptable as long as these models do not object to this, it is still worth questioning why a more diverse range of witches are not represented in popular witch-related hashtag feeds including the #witchesofinstagram hashtag feed.

Some may argue that social media platforms bear no responsibility to prioritize diversity and meaningful community representation over their corporate interests. Would this mean then that communities would need to try to beat the “master” at their own “game” if social media platforms are not willing to make necessary revisions? For example, would witches on Instagram need to discover ways to inspire additional community members to use certain hashtags like #witchesofinstagram? In doing so, would this even alter the current algorithmic curation patterns that have been observed throughout this project?It may also be argued that members of the witch community who are not algorithmically prioritized for Instagram hashtag feed curation should promote themselves across other platforms, which is already a common practice amongst social media content creators. However, similar algorithmic biases towards certain body types, aesthetic features, etc. just as readily exist across other platforms. Paying for social media advertising is not always effective either since small businesses cannot compete with the sizeable advertising budgets of large corporations.While no one solution could be offered at this time to circumvent these catch-22 scenarios, it is evident that algorithmic biases obstruct the authentic representation of smaller communities and individuals when it comes to technosocial frameworks. This lack of authentic representation is particularly paradoxical in relation to witch activists on Instagram since their socially conscious messages are buried by the homogeneity they collectively advocate against.The future remains unclear in relation to how technology companies intend on addressing algorithmic biases and to what extent. Nevertheless, as a large body of scholarship continues to grow that addresses the problematic implications of these biases, it will be crucial for anthropologists to contribute to these discussions with their own contextualized ethnographic findings.