Lived Experiences of Young Iranian Users of Algorithmic Surveillance and Micropolitics on Instagram: A Phenomenological Study from the Perspectives of Control Society, Capitalism, and Schizoanalysis

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the lived experiences of young Iranian users of algorithmic surveillance and micropolitics of power on Instagram through the theoretical lenses of control society, algorithmic capitalism, and schizoanalysis. This qualitative study employed an interpretive phenomenological design. The study population comprised young Iranian Instagram users, and 25 participants were considered according to criteria including an age range of 18–35 years, at least three years of continuous Instagram use, and meaningful experience with the platform’s algorithmic mechanisms. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews addressing perceived visibility, experiences of control, algorithm-oriented behavioral adaptation, digital identity management, and strategies for engaging with the platform. The data were analyzed through coding, conceptual categorization, and thematic analysis, while the resulting themes were interpreted within the frameworks of control society, algorithmic capitalism, and schizoanalysis. Credibility was strengthened through participant review, repeated examination of the data, and peer review procedures. The analysis identified four overarching themes: “algorithmic domination and digital control,” “production of the algorithmic subject,” “data capitalism,” and “tactics of resistance and negotiation.” Seeking likes and uncertainty regarding content-display criteria were among the most recurrent experiences, indicating the simultaneous operation of the attention economy and algorithmic opacity. Participants interpreted declining visibility and fluctuations in engagement as manifestations of invisible algorithmic power and consequently modified posting times, content, hashtags, and modes of self-presentation to improve visibility. These adaptations fostered self-surveillance, self-censorship, identity reconstruction, and the internalization of algorithmic standards. Nevertheless, users were not passive recipients of algorithmic control; learning platform rules, experimenting with posting strategies, and attempting to circumvent restrictions demonstrated continuing forms of digital agency and negotiation with the platform. The relationship between young Iranian users and Instagram’s algorithms is best understood not as one-way technological domination but as a dynamic process involving control, self-regulation, data-value production, adaptation, negotiation, and resistance. By governing visibility and attention, algorithms participate in shaping digital behavior and identity, while users simultaneously develop practical forms of algorithmic literacy and digital agency.