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Livingetc’s new Meaning of Home series examines how social platforms have given domestic spaces a public, image-focused life. The report argues that online interiors can shape expectations of what a home should look like, while creators Dima and Guy say their space remains a home first, not a set.
Livingetc has introduced The Meaning of Home, a new series about the cultural forces shaping domestic life, beginning with a report on how social media has made homes both lived-in spaces and public images. The piece examines whether the pursuit of Instagram-ready interiors changes what people expect their homes to do, while distinguishing that wider pressure from creators’ own accounts of how they live.
The report argues that homes have long communicated identity, status and aspiration, but social platforms give that image a potentially permanent audience. Instagram, TikTok, Twitch and Pinterest circulate interiors while also shaping the standards against which viewers may judge their own spaces, according to architect and academic Javier Fernández Contreras.
Fernández Contreras, author of The Interiors of Social Media: Architecture, Space, and Technology in the 21st Century, describes platforms as producing “aspirational futures” and turning the home into a “container for visual representation.” The report links this shift to homes serving several roles at once: residence, creative studio, portfolio and backdrop.
The pandemic accelerated the visibility of domestic spaces, the report says. Remote work and online broadcasting made bookshelves, kitchen islands and walls behind desks part of the image people presented to others. For professional creators, renovation can also be serialized as content, from demolition and sourcing to a finished-room reveal.
When Private Rooms Become Public Images
The report’s central concern is not simply that people see more interior design online. It is that repeated exposure may help establish normative models of domesticity, affecting how people assess their own homes and what they believe a well-designed space should look like. That matters to readers because the home has practical and emotional uses that may not fit an image-led ideal.
At the same time, the article does not claim that every visible home is staged for an audience or that social media necessarily makes domestic life less authentic. Dima and Guy, the creative duo behind The Berlin Chapters, say they do not consciously design their home around viewers. Their account complicates any simple claim that a home appearing in online content has become a set in everyday life.
The piece also notes that the gallery-like presentation of interiors can overlap with genuine design interests. Art, craft and furniture may be arranged with more visual emphasis, but the report says those blurred boundaries have also contributed to rich contemporary interiors. The tension is between living in a space and presenting it—not a settled verdict that one must replace the other.
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From Home Backdrop to Gallery
Livingetc describes The Meaning of Home as a series using essays, interviews and personal stories to examine domestic life through design and subjects including culture, psychology, history, politics and economics. Its opening report places social media within a longer history: interiors have always helped people express identity, but online platforms have expanded the audience and reach of those expressions.
The report traces one visible change to the pandemic, when many people broadcast from home and domestic features took on work-related roles. It also describes a gallery aesthetic in which artworks and collectible furniture receive prominent space, lighting becomes more theatrical and everyday items may be tucked away. These are observations in the Livingetc essay, not survey findings about how common such choices are.
The Berlin Chapters began sharing their design and domestic life on Instagram in the previous year, according to the report, and the article says their account had nearly 82,000 followers at the time it was written. The source gives no date for that figure, so it should be read as a reported snapshot rather than a current follower count.
““Aspirational futures””
— Javier Fernández Contreras, architect and academic
How Far Online Ideals Reach
The source is a design and culture report, not a quantitative study. It does not establish how many people change their homes because of social media, how often viewers feel dissatisfaction, or whether particular platforms cause specific decorating choices. Fernández Contreras presents a concern about domestic ideals, while the article offers no data measuring its scale.
It is also unclear how representative the experiences of The Berlin Chapters are of creators or social-media users generally. The report does not quantify the time, cost or personal trade-offs involved in maintaining an image-focused home, nor does it establish whether the gallery-like aesthetic is driven mainly by online visibility, design preferences or other influences. The follower figure is undated in the supplied source.
Further Stories in the Series
Livingetc presents the report as the opening of The Meaning of Home, which is intended to explore questions about domestic life through essays, interviews and personal stories. The source does not provide a schedule or name the subject of the next installment.
For now, the report frames the issue as an open question: how much should a home’s appearance be shaped by the possibility that others will see it? Further reporting or research would be needed to establish how widely online ideals alter people’s choices, and how those pressures vary between viewers, creators and households.
Key Questions
What is The Meaning of Home?
The Meaning of Home is a new Livingetc series using essays, interviews and personal stories to examine ideas that shape domestic life. The social-media report is its opening piece.
What does the report say social media changes?
It argues that platforms make homes more publicly visible and may shape expectations of what domestic spaces should look like. The report does not quantify how many people change their homes as a result.
Do The Berlin Chapters say their home is a set?
No. Dima and Guy say they do not feel they are walking around a set when they are not making content, and describe the space as their home first.
Is the nearly 82,000 follower figure current?
The report gives nearly 82,000 followers as a figure at the time it was written, but the supplied source does not provide a publication date. It cannot be treated as a current count.
Source: livingetc.com
