Peter Nolette
Instagram is an immensely popular photo and video-sharing social networking application. It has enabled users all over the world to connect. Users can share bits of their lives through pictures and videos. Also, it has become a platform for creators to showcase their talents. Be it fashion, technology, cooking, baking, writing, storytelling, standup comedy, art, crafts, making videos – you name it, and it’s there on Instagram. Fortunately, gaining seguidores is not tough today.
How did it all start?
Instagram started as Burbn by its founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and has developed to the platform we know today. It was launched on iOS in October 2010, and its Android version was released in April 2012. It was acquired by Facebook on April 9, 2012, for $1 billion in cash and stock. As of July 2020, Instagram ranked 28 among all the apps globally.
The Follow Race
One of the features of this application is that it allows users to follow each other. When a user starts the following someone means that whatever that person posts will automatically appear on the user’s wall. The user can be constantly updated about the activity of the person he/she follows without much effort.
The number of followers a particular user has equates to the popularity of that user. As a result, some of the most-followed people on Instagram are celebrities. Some people gain popularity through Instagram by their quality of content and the audience activity on their profile. Such people are popularly known as influencers. While the following feature on Instagram has made it insanely competitive on the one hand, on the other hand, this makes many people happy too. Reaching the following milestone of 1 million or 5 million has become a celebratory event. Currently, the most followed person on Instagram is footballer Christiano Ronaldo, with 238M followers.
Double Tapping our Way to Happiness
The like feature of Instagram enables users to appreciate the effort made by the creators of a particular image or video. All a user needs to do is a double-tap on the post, a heart appears, and it gets liked. It gives motivation to creators to make more interesting posts. The number of likes a post measures the popularity of the same.
People generally look forward to positive posts; some of the well-liked posts are that which reflect positivity. It motivates users to look for little moments of positivity or happiness in their lives. Eventually, they post about it, with such a grim time going on, these little bits of happiness help maintain stable mental health.
Instagram’s inclusivity is making it gain popularity all over the world. Keeping pace with the current times, Instagram has provided many people to voice and publicize their opinions, further their agendas by posting about it and lead many activities that have the potential to change our world. The little happiness and positivity moments that users tend to create and find on Instagram make it a wonderful place to be.
