Research Paper: How Does Social Media Influence a Society?

The idea of fashion and clothing shaping a specific generation or society has been around ever since we can remember. As once said by Muccio Prada, “What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick.” I agree with this statement, seeing that even now in this time and age, we are still able to associate certain clothing with a specific decade. Based on this fact alone, I want to research what fashion trends have maintained the most relevant in fashion history, and how modern media and influencers keep them from dying out while introducing old ideas and concepts into the modern era of fashion. I will ask questions such as how does one use social media to influence what they purchase, and how do we communicate through our fashion?  By being able to get a grasp on popular trends in fashion that keep making a comeback to this generation, I will have a better understanding on how fashion icons and people with a big platform can influences us as people. To make my research a bit easier for me, I will dive into just certain genres of fashion that I know are still relevant today and that I know Instagram influencers consistently wear and post on their feed. These include the Y2K fashion era, the New Romantic Era, and Old Money Style. In addition to my research, I will also be researching the bandwagon culture, and how oftentimes social media can have a big influence on our purchasing power and on fashion trends based on how a picture or idea is written or portrayed.

Initial Analysis

The research I will be doing is to not only demonstrate to others how big the influence of fashion is but will also showcase what specific factors led to it. As I begin my primary research, I'll concentrate on incorporating new information into my paper, ensuring that readers can learn about the most important fashion trends of the decades I've studied, as well as asking them if Instagram influencers have influenced their sense of fashion and daily style.  To do this, I have already started reading articles such as Millennium Fashion.  By reading this article, it will allow me to take note of how the writing of these fashion influencers cause their viewers to be in or out of favor of certain fashion trends. These are sources which have information on the questions and topics I wish to tackle, while also containing extra details.

Objective

In this research paper, my objective is to study the most famous fashion trends in American history, why were they so popular in their time stamp, and what keeps them from becoming relevant even today. Such cases include the comeback of low rise jeans, which was a big trend back in the early 2000’s, and have been seen making its way back into women’s fashion today, the androgynous look that many individuals have been trying to achieve, due to the influence of David Bowie in the New Romantic Era back in the 80’s, and the Old Money style, which is a style influenced by The Kennedys and Hartwick family. By picking these three genres of fashion, I wish to understand how and why do they keep returning to fashion history? Who decides what is fashionable? How do captions and images influence fashion trends?

Methods

The first primary research method I will be using is observation is the genre analysis method. I will look at the feeds of specific Instagram influencers, and take note on how they take their pictures, the captions that they use for the posts, and how they word their brand or images for their targeted audience. They also include examples of minor fashion trends that fall into the same category as the ones I am writing about. I will also be using surveys as one of my primary research projects. I will focus on how many times have people purchased an item based on how many times they have seen it on their Instagram feeds