“If I Post Stories With Fire, It’s for You”: Adolescent Flirting Strategies on Instagram

Abstract

With the expansion of social media and the multiple possibilities for communication they offer, flirting is increasingly developing online. The aim of this article is to analyze how the adolescent population uses Instagram to initiate and develop courtship. For this, the results of 14 focus groups held in Secondary Education Institutes in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), in which a total of 114 students between the ages of 12 and 17 participated, are analyzed. The results show that the online courtship game has its own rules and strategies. The most common Instagram strategies are: “best friends,” the use of songs, and direct appeal for audience response. The results show that social interactions continue to be influenced by regulated and stereotyped social patterns.