ABSTRACT
The chapter explores the semiotic realization of new ‘elite’ forms of travel on Instagram with a special focus on the processes of social differentiation and on the performances of class identities in transmedia age. Through a case study of ‘van life’ phenomenon, selected Instagram profiles are approached in terms of presencing (Couldry), sustaining a continuous presence-to-others across space, and analyzed in terms of its visual conventions and semiotic codes. The chapter argues that stagings of the van life as they occur on Instagram epitomize the shifting strategies of distinction in social life in general, where downplaying or rejecting the recognized status symbols plays an important role in articulating the class judgments of (cultural) elites. Yet, as shown in van life posts analysis, the distinctive anti-materialistic stance of van lifers is deeply commodified and hyperstylized with the use of highly competitive visual conventions and representation strategies. This contribution thus addresses broader social processes enacted through media-related practices and calls for closer attention to be paid to multifaceted ways in which mobility and personal media play into social power relations today.
