I was surprised to learn so much about Instagram in the EOTO presentations we did in class. As someone who has used Instagram since 2013, I can definitely attest that it has served as my primary app of sharing my life with friends and family.
Instagram was wildly successful from its inception. Launched in October 2010, the app was created as a social media site solely focused on sharing photos. At first, it attracted mostly photographers and other digital artists. The app didn't stop there though. Just two months later, Instagram hit 1 million users. After another quick two years, Facebook bought Instagram and added the fast-growing app to its arsenal. Since then, the app has dabbled with a variety of features and added videos, direct messages, and stories as of 2016.
The wild success of Instagram seems to have further infiltrated other platforms. Twitter for one just added stories far later than its other social media peers recently in 2020. Although Instagram is younger than Twitter, it has eclipsed the blog-styled app in several categories as indicated by the graphics below based on data from SimilarWeb. Instagram is closing in on Facebook's once-impenetrable monopoly over social networking in daily time on the app.
Instagram has become the "new Facebook" primarily through its popularity with younger generations such as Gen Z who were not of age when Facebook came about. The app is not only a place to share all types of photos, it also doubles as the launching pad for the trends, brands, and standards of tomorrow's world.
However, Instagram's meteoric rise does not come with no bad apples. According to a 2017 survey by Time Magazine, the photo-sharing app came in last behind Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat respectively for mental health and well-being. One of the most repeated responses came from the app's ability to create unreasonably high standards for girls and womens' bodies. Instagram has also received criticism for being a type of highlight reel showcasing only the best moments in life but not the low points.
Despite its flaws, millions of users log in every day to get their fix of what's going in the lives of their peers. The user-friendly interface makes staying on the app easy. In the next decade, it would not be surprising to see Instagram supersede Facebook as the king amongst the platforms.
Sources:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/102615/story-instagram-rise-1-photo0sharing-app.asp#:~:text=Instagram%20is%20a%20photo%20and,app%20was%20launched%20on%20Oct.
https://medium.com/@obtaineudaimonia/how-instagram-started-8b907b98a767#:~:text=Instagram%20was%20developed%20in%20San%20Francisco%20by%20Kevin%20Systrom%20and%20Mike%20Krieger.&text=At%20this%20point%2C%20Systrom%20decided,solely%20on%20communication%20through%20images.
https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/average-daily-time-on-social-media#post-navigation-3
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/7-unexpected-ways-instagram-has-changed-the-world/539032/
https://time.com/4793331/instagram-social-media-mental-health/
No comments:
Post a Comment