Instagram Changing the World and How We See Ourselves (EOTO Key Post)

In 6th grade (2011) I was asked "Do you have Instagram?" for the very first time. Little did I know that after downloading the app, and creating my profile, that I would be using it almost every single day for the next 9 years. Instagram, started in 2010 and bought by Facebook in 2012, is a leading social media app that has changed almost as much as I have since first creating my profile.

To say the least, Instagram has changed the world. The app has not only revolutionized how businesses are marketing/being successful, but also how users market their very own lives to their followers. Sarah Manavis of NewStatesmanAmerica says "Nearly ten years on, it is its own industry, a form of social currency, a perceived moral demon and the anchor for most of our disclosure about women, young people, and celebrities".

When Instagram first came out, I was at the age where young girls first begin to struggle the most with their appearance and care more than they should about how their peers perceive them. Instagram became the popularity contest that I, and many others, couldn't escape once getting home from school. The app had transformed how individuals present themselves online the more popular it became. Photoshopped pictures, only showing off the luxurious side of your life, the amount of likes/followers someone has, etc. had consumed much of my generation. To fix this problem, Instagram has recently decided to try and remake their image. With the goal of "improving mental health", the app has started to begin hiding users' likes.

On the business side of things, in 2019, Instagram collected about $20 million in advertising revenue. This $20 million is more than a quarter of Facebook's overall 2019 revenue. With an average of 1 billion monthly users, it is no surprise that so many businesses are marketing themselves on instagram. The app says that 80% of users follow a business. Retail brands are greatly benefiting from using the app, brands are able to showcase their products using an easy interactive catalog.  Over 25 million brand accounts are using the app and 96% of U.S. fashion brands have accounts. Users are even able to purchase items directly within the app off of select companies' pages, but most people do not realize that Instagram charges a fee for this.

Without a doubt, Instagram has had one of biggest impacts on how we use social media. From starting out as a basic photo-sharing app to becoming the empire it is today, it will be exciting to see what else Instagram will do in the next 10 years.


https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2019/12/i-instagram-how-one-app-changed-way-young-people-see-world
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/business/dealbook/instagram-20-billion-revenue.html
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/03/business/instagram-shopping-checkout/index.html