Social Media Analysis COM-100 PDF

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Rachel Gama 21 April 2020 COM-100 Spence Social Media Analysis Social media is fairly new however, it has made a huge impact on society in a short amount of time. There are multiple different platforms of social media being used everyday by millions of people. This essay will be analyzing the popular app, Instagram. Throughout the essay, I will be discussing the creation and purpose of Instagram, how users are able to communicate on that platform, and discuss the impact Instagram has made on users communication behaviors. In 2010, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger began designing Instagram. Systrom’s intention for Instagram was to be a social media platform where people can share pictures to the people who follow them. Instagram became popular quickly because it had unique features such as putting a filter on a picture, people get to “like” pictures, and the ability to comment on pictures. It was a way for people to communicate through pictures by showing people their likes, the places they have visited, and a different way to express a lot of other things. Instagram became so popular that in April 2012, Mark Zuckerberg (the founder of Facebook) made an offer to purchase Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock (Blystone, 2019). In the beginning of Instagram, there were very limited features. People only had the option of communicating through the pictures they post and by commenting. However, after about eight years of growth, there are multiple ways to communicate with one another. People still have the ability to post pictures, like pictures, and comment on pictures but the

communication aspect of Instagram has expanded drastically. Users of Instagram now have the ability to send direct messages with one another allowing for private communication on the app. Instagram has created something called “Stories” where a user has the ability to post a video or picture that does not go on their main Instagram feed and disappears after 24 hours. This type of communication allows for everyone to see pictures of people’s lives you typically would not see. Instagram is great for friends or family who live far from each other so they can still see what is going on in their friends and family's life. Although, another interesting thing on this app is that users are able to follow celebrities and get an inside look into their lives as well. Below I have attached what a user’s Instagram profile looks like, how people have the ability to like and comment on a picture, and how people can send direct messages to one another. These aspects of Instagram help people communicate in a new way.

Although plenty of good things have come out of this app, there have also been some cons. Instagram is a place where people can share pictures, as I have previously mentioned, but many users focus heavily on the amount of “likes” they get on a picture and how much someone interacts with the content that they post. People have relied on social media to give them a boost of importance and confidence. Instagram displays the “uses and gratifications” theory. This theory explains how people rely on social media for their own needs and satisfaction until they are pleased with what they get. This desire that users have to get the most amount of likes and interactions they can get on Instagram has led to a dependency issue. This app was created as a platform to communicate through pictures, which it still is, however there are a few underlying issues that some users now have from it. In conclusion, Instagram is an app that became popular very quickly because it allows its users to communicate through pictures. Users have the ability to post whatever they want and interact with their followers in a way that has never been done before. Although Instagram has many good attributes to it, there are also some downfalls. People rely heavily on the amount of popularity they get from how many people interact with the content that they post on Instagram. This dependency can fall under the “uses and gratification” theory since people like to see that their post has been interacted with a lot.

Resources Lumen Learnin. (2020). Media effects theories. Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-massmedia/chapter/2-2-media-effects-theories/...