Diffusion

Diffusion of Innovations: Instagram

The Diffusion of innovations theory according to Wikipedia is, "...a theory that seeks to explain why, and at what rate new technology spread." To look at the diffusion theory I want to highlight the innovation of Instagram. Instagram is one of the post popular apps in social media today, it is a platform that allows you to share photos via a post or a story to show all your friends what you're up to, the app also allows your to share content with others such as videos and pictures. 

Instagram was released on October 6th, 2010 and was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. The two first photo up a location based check in app called 'Burbn', however the noticed the photo sharing aspect of Burbn was more popular, so they took the idea of sharing photos and created 'Instagram'.

The app gained its popularity from its main feature of sharing photos in a quick manner, in fact Instagram gained one million users just after three months of people released. A lot of people started to use Instagram as a way to show their friends what they're up to; if they're at a coffee shop they'll post that photo, out shopping, on vacation, etc. We as people love sharing the exciting things in our lives and instagram gave the people a platform to do that.

I go Instagram back in 2015 so I've had the opportunity to see the platform grow over the course of 10 years. My original use for Instagram was to post silly selfies, slime videos, and photos of my Barbie's onto a private account that only follows my family and a couple of my friends. 10 years later I only post events I go to such as concerts, formals, dinners, but sometimes there just a casual post for no event at all. Instagrams purpose has no changed but the way I use it has. I will now only post "content" if I'm doing something exciting for if the photos come out really good, which were not concerns of mine back in 2015.

Although Instagram is a fun form of social media, between posting photos and sharing videos with friends, it also has negatives. Since everyone is constantly posting photos, you find yourself constantly comparing your life to the lives of others. If someone I follow is out going to different countries, concerts, other fun events, I find myself wondering why I'm stuck in my room doing nothing exciting. But I have to remind myself that I have good opportunities coming and that just because I'm not always doing something exciting, doesn't mean I'm not happy. 

Another issue is the constant comparison of like counts, I find myself beating myself up for not having enough likes while other people get hundreds of likes within the span of an hour. Comparing isn't healthy. In May of 2021 Instagram acknowledged the issue of like counts and choose to implement a feature where the creator can turn off their like count to the public eye, this feature is a life saver that I use all the time.

Overall Instagram plays into the diffusion of innovations theory because we as people are and always have been nosy as to what other people are doing in their lives. This platform allows for the indirect communication of just liking someone's post and having it count as you acknowledging them even if you don't leave a comment of actual words. I think we like the fact that this communication is so effortless and not at all time consuming that we gravitate towards it.