Commodifying Visual Piety on Instagram: A Critical Netnography of the Aesthetic Hijrah Lifestyle among Urban Muslim Youth
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24256/jiis.v6i1.12710Keywords:
Aesthetic Migration, Religious Commodification, Hyperreality, Digital Habitus, InstagramAbstract
This study aims to analyze the phenomenon of the "aesthetic hijrah" lifestyle on the Instagram social media platform through a critical sociological approach. The focus of the analysis is directed at content visibility and algorithmically mediated visual culture within Instagram in encouraging the commodification of piety and its sociological implications on the representation and performance of religious identity of urban Muslim youth in Indonesia. Using a qualitative approach with the critical netnography method, data was collected through the observation of digital participants on five hijrah micro-influencer accounts as well as the search for popular hashtags such as #HijrahEstetik, #OOTDHijabSyar'i, and #PemudaHijrah during the period from January to June 2026. The findings of the study show that there is a strict standardization of religious expression through visual morphology based on earth tone color palettes and minimalist urban spatial landscapes. The process of religious commodification operates in a multi-layered manner, including the material-symbolic dimension of the physical attributes of fashion and the existential-spiritual dimension of the narrative of the inner experience of repentance for economic gain and digital metrics. Through Jean Baudrillard's analytical knife, this phenomenon constructs a condition of piety hyperreality, where the simulacra of digital imagery obscures the substance of esoteric religiosity. In Pierre Bourdieu's perspective, the digital arena of Instagram demands the formation of a new digital habitus in order to compete for symbolic capital in the form of social legitimacy and digital authority. This study concludes that digital aestheticism may contribute to the commodification and visual simplification of religious expression.
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