Instagram was started by Kevin Systrom and was inspired by his love for photography. When in college he was approached by Mark Zuckerberg in efforts to recruit him to Facebook's team. Systrom shut him down because his career was his priority. After college Systrom began working a Google and then eventually transitioned to a startup for social media that revolved around travel recommendations. While working there he focused on developing his own app. He wanted the app to be a social media platform in which individuals exchange images they took. The problem he faced was a struggle to make his social media platform unique. When walking along the beach with the woman he now calls his wife, he came about the solution that would insure his application stood out. His wife mentioned to him that her photos never look as good as another app user's photos. This was because the other user consistently applied filters to his photos! He decided to make filters the premise of the app. There were 25,000 downloads within the first 24 hours of the launch!
- October 2010: Instagram was launched
- December 2011: Instagram became the App Store iPhone App of The Year
- April 2012: Created an android platform
- May 2013: The "For You" page was created
- September 2015: 400,000,000 users
- May 2017: introduced face filters (in efforts to compete with Snapchat)
- June 2018: 1 billion users
- July 2021: Instagram reels can be up to 60 seconds long (to compete with Tik Tok)
I M P A C T S
Positive:
Creation of Jobs:
Many people have created a living just by blogging, and posting on instagram. Instagram is a great way for people to advertise themselves, sometimes to the point where they gain millions of followers and make millions of dollars. Some people even find jobs through advertising on instagram. Many companies also use instagram to advertise products that people may want to buy. It helps companies find more consumers by promoting their products.
Advertisement:
Instagram provides a platform for individuals to advertise themselves, or others, for free. It is a great option for people to get their media to reach an audience.
Example- Instagram has helped many people with passion for music share their art.
Communication:
Instagram is a great way to keep tabs on people that you don't get to see or talk to very often. You can also keep in touch with friends and family by directly messaging them memes, or other posts you may want to share.
Negative:
Body Image:
According to the Wall Street Journal and their research, it has been proven that instagram worsens body image issues, and erodes mental health, especially for teenage girls. While instagram might be a great place for people to become influencers and earn money, those same people have unintentionally worsened mental health for a lot of young girls who have body dysmorphia, problems with self-image, mental health problems, etc.
When people are constantly posting only the positive experiences they have in their life, such as travel posts, bikini pictures, aesthetic hotels and places they go too, there are young children and adults that are constantly comparing their lives to the influencers ways of living, thus worsening their view of their own life.
What people tend to forget while scrolling through instagram and seeing all of these positive, unrealistic, perfect lives people are posting about, is that even those people have negative things occur in their every-day life, They just don't post about it. The body dysmorphia that young girls and boys obtain from being on instagram is based on edited, unrealistic images of women in bikinis.
These women are posing with the most flattering angles, editing their waste lines and ridding their faces of acne. Their pictures aren’t even real images of them, but what even they wish they could be. The facts are that only 10-15 percent of women have the genes to be naturally thin and eat a healthy amount of food daily. Only 9% of men are genetically thin. Most people become thin by neglecting to eat enough. This promotes eating disorders, problems with body image, and more.
Disconnect:
The instant gratification associated with likes and comments leads individuals to transport themselves to the digital world. Increasing screen time and decreasing meaningful connections
O V E R A L L
Instagram is a very successful platform with a grand amount of users. Like every form of technology, there are some major mental health issues associated with it. When using instagram it is important to remind yourself that people edit their
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