Chapter 5 Reflection

 Instagram is probably my most used social media other than Snapchat. Instagram is where I usually post the most, and spend a lot of time aimlessly scrolling. When thinking of the most popular social media platform among my friends and peers, I would say Instagram. In the past few years, I think Instagram fell off a bit in popularity, maybe because of their algorithm. It could also be the fact that people post much more casually now, and don’t use Instagram for daily posts, while they do on Snapchat. When you used to post on Instagram, the posts would show up in chronological order. Now, they are mixed up with sponsored posts, and the content we engage with the most. The issue is, if you don’t interact with a friends posts often, then they stop showing up at the top, which makes it even harder to interact. I think this is a big reason why people stopped getting on the app as much as they used to. It’s hard to get on quickly see friends posts and get off, which could be why people started using second accounts. Keeping the amount of people you follow small, so that you can keep up and see all of the things friends are posting. 

While I use Instagram often for personal use, I also use it sometimes to promote shows I am in. I usually post just to remind friends what I’m up to, and will post during the run of the shows. I usually use my story to do this, and I like that it only stays up for 24 hours, when I can then put it in my memories. I also always get sucked into buying things off of Instagram, especially when they send me notifications later after I like or save something. I’ve bought many things off of Urban Outfitters and Aerie, and I even got my comforter off of a link on Instagram. Luckily, I never buy things that don’t seem trust worthy, and only buy items from places I would usually shop in person. I also usually don’t buy through Instagram, but I will usually get on the stores direct website after seeing notifications from Instagram.