Does This Photo Make Me Look Good?: How Social Media Feedback on Photos Impacts Posters, Outsiders, and Friends

In recent years, the use and importance of visual communication through photos have grown considerably. However, we have little understanding of the alignment between the intentions of the photo posters and the reactions of viewers. To address this gap, we replicated previous work that studied the alignment of poster and outsider judgments of text posts by extending it to photo posts. In our study of 573 users across four social media platforms, we found that outsiders generally judge photo posts more positively than anticipated by posters. Examining viewer engagement on social media revealed that photos depicting family and friends receive fewer reactions. We apply our insight to propose novel solutions that can help users create a more positive digital presence by aligning their photo posts with the expectations of their audiences.