The Psychogenesis of Increasing Violence on Instagram: in the Context of Transformation from Society of Prohibition to Society of Commanded Enjoyment

It goes without saying that we are living in a world, which is increasingly dominated by image, and such domination is the essential element of our contemporary society. In this regard, Michelle Stephan believes that “the image is replacing the word as the predominant means of mental transport”. It seems that today, images have much more influence upon us compared with words and we are increasingly confronted with images. In psychoanalytic terms, this transformation in the priority of image in comparison to word is in accordance with the transformation of the emphasis on the Imagery in comparison to the Symbolic. Under the circumstances, it becomes understandable why an image-oriented social media like Instagram is so popular that it has more than 20 million users in Iran and 1 billion users around the world. Considering the number of Iranian users and the role Instagram plays in their daily lives, it could be said that there is a reciprocal relationship between what is happening on Instagram and in society. The existing increase in verbal violence in this platform, as an instance of aggression, has drawn so much attention.