Development of Communication Technologies

 


    After listening to all of the presentations, I decided to write this blog post about Instagram. Instagram is a popular social media platform that allows its users to share photos and videos to their feeds and interact with their followers. Launched in 2010, Instagram soon dominated the game. Originally the app was not called Instagram; it was initially called Burbn. This was absolutely fascinating to me, an app that I use every day, and it is a very big part of my life that was created because of alcohol. 

    Instagram officially launched on October 6, 2010. By December 2010, Instagram had one million users. Two years later, in a record-breaking transaction, Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion. Instagram has made a significant impact in our lives. It created an entirely new category of social media. Instagram is now even a job title. Have you ever heard of a social media influencer? Well, that started because of Instagram. In addition to being a new type of social media platform, Instagram created a different approach to the way political campaigns were marketed. It also helped to make the spread of breaking news occur faster. 

    Soon, Instagram became an essential business tool. Using Instagram, businesses were able to sell their products directly through the app. Almost like a social media version of the Etsy Marketplace. In August of 2016, Instagram introduced its new wildly popular Insta Stories feature. Just like Snapchat, users could post content to their story, and it would disappear 24 hours later. As depicted in the image above, as the development of Instagram grew, so did its user counts. Each icon represents a different era and the rapid growth Instagram underwent.

    As amazing as Instagram is and how it severely impacted society positively, there is also the negative side. Sorry, but nothing in life is perfect. As the popularity of Instagram grew, so did the number of teens with declining mental health issues. As beneficial as the platform is, it also can be extremely toxic. Cyberbullying and body shaming skyrocketed because it made it easier for people to be mean by allowing its users to hide behind their screens. If these people were in front of the people they are bullying online; they probably would not have the guts to act like that. 

    I really enjoyed learning more about Instagram. It is something I am very passionate about and an avid user of, so it was cool to learn a lot of its history through watching these presentations. Like the fact that Instagram was not even supposed to be Instagram at first, it was supposed to be a social app for alcohol. 

    I hope you enjoyed learning more about Instagram with me! If you want to learn more about the app and its impact, click on the video attached below. 


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