Instagram’s Disruption in our Culture:The Back Story
Instagram is a photo-sharing, social networking app that enables users to share pictures and videos on one or several accounts. The content shared can be seen by people who ‘follow’ an account and users can see the content of any account that they ‘follow’ as well. Instagram was founded in 2010, but initially focused on location check-ins as an app called Burbn. Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, the app founders, noticed that early Burbn users were heavily using the apps photo feature, so they decided to focus more heavily on sharing photos and changed the name. Instagram came at the perfect time when Flickr, a web-based photo sharing website was declining, and Apple had just released the iPhone 4. The iPhone was a great piece of luck for the app, as it had a five-megapixel camera which was a major leap for smartphones—anyone could easily take a picture, edit it with Instagram’s filters, and upload it in a matter of seconds.(Victor, 2019) In just two months of the app’s release it had passed one million users. As of June 2018, Instagram reported more than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, their daily active users stood at 500 million (Statista, 2019 a.). Overall, the app is one of the most popular mobile social apps worldwide with high levels of user engagement. Instagram is dominated by mostly younger users below the age of 35; this age group is mostly interested in having a glimpse into celebrities’ lives. As of 2019, the accounts with the most followers worldwide are indeed celebrities: Cristiano Ronaldo tops number one with 145 million followers (now 192 million), followed by Ariana Grande (159 million followers) and Selena Gomez (153 million followers)(Statista, 2019 b.) The possibilities of online self-expression on viewing people’s lives in a more personal way is what makes Instagram adapt so effortlessly into our culture.
Instagram’s Disruption in our Culture: How We Utilise It, How it Influences Us
‘How our lives are foreseen online is part of our culture.’
Instagram in all its fame, like many massive tech companies, has backlashes. Critics state that the app offers users to carefully stage an ‘unreal’ version of ourselves, highlighting it as ‘living our best life’. Even though it is packed with celebrities and influencers who can aspire users to be better selves, it can also lead to inspiring others to feel envy or self-pity about their not-so-great life. And for those with a strong base of followers, it can lead to the exhaustion of attempting to keep a facade or having the desperate need of approval from others. For all the behaviours the app provokes, the app, for its nine years of existence, has remained a primary way to keep in touch with friends, as well as for discovering a hidden beach somewhere in Mexico perfect for this summer’s holiday.
It is easy to find heaps of articles that describe just how it has influenced and transformed the way we live. Often the headlines are very dramatic and negative, debating whether Instagram has a dominant transformational power or whether it is just a passing part of the social media age. Whether we like to admit it or not, Instagram has created a platform of a wide-range of communities, interests, and trends. Photography, the most obvious of related interests, has influenced both the amateur (e.g. selfie culture) and the professional kind. Passing trends like food, design, art, fitness, and lifestyle blogging are ongoing and evolving simultaneously with our culture. In general, it has a great impact on how we experience, document, and share our life, especially now with ‘Instagram Stories’.
To be continued...
References
Statista. (2019 b). Most Followed Instagram accounts 2019. [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/421169/most-followers-instagram/ [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
Victor, D. (2018). How Instagram Rose Into a Cultural Powerhouse. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/25/technology/instagram-celebrities-cultural-powerhouse.html [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].