The “Why” of Instagram
My first interaction with Instagram was on a field trip in middle school. One of my best friends was telling me and some other friends about it, and all of us were huddled around her phone. I was probably the least interested in the conversation, mostly due to the fact that all my friends had smartphones or iPod Touches, and I was the odd one out with my slide phone. Social media wasn’t of interest to me. I remember a large part of the conversation being about sharing, though. That part clearly caught my attention, and since then, my perspective has changed.
Today, I think people join (and remain users of) Instagram because of the culture of sharing that the app has created. Almost all social media platforms have this, but Instagram’s exclusive pairing of pictures (and later videos) with words created a new version of sharing. Now that I use Instagram, I have realized that it is a place to share moments and memories that are important to us, as well as share our creative endeavors. It’s not just life updates or random things we like. A lot of accounts I follow on Instagram are related to art or music, and even writing. I like to think of myself as a fairly creative person, and I’m drawn to people who are also creative. This is something that I also think plays a large role in why so many people continue to use the app. It connects people with likeminded individuals and allows for inspiration and conversation.
Over time, the platform also began catering to its audience not just by having people share content by posting it, but through Direct Messages. I use Instagram DMs solely to send my friends posts or stories, with commentary of course. Not only are people being connected to others they might not have interacted or known of otherwise, but they can also maintain and build relationships (in-person and online ones) in digital spaces.
Instagram has become a digital photo repository, replacing scrapbooks and photo album on top of photo album. This also plays into why people don’t stop using the app. If they don’t have access to the app, they may not have access to those memories. I look at my Instagram story archive weekly, just to remind myself of certain things. Sometimes when the app is slow or my phone is being weird, I fear losing data stored in the app solely because I don’t have documentation of those memories elsewhere. We have become dependent on apps like Instagram to house not just documentation of things we love, but experiences and memories we loved and want to relive.
In Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky discusses intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. On Instagram, I believe most people post due to intrinsic motivation. The act of sharing visual evidence of our memories is something joyful in and of itself. It also relates to the conversation he has about value. Instagram is driven by personal value, people taking photos or videos or sharing something because they feel a certain way when viewing it and therefore get something out of it. But because so many people use it to share content of personal value, it becomes a platform of communal values rooted in that sharing.
I think sharing and information control have to be viewed as a unit of sorts. Sharing requires some set of boundaries, and that content or information needs to be controlled in some way. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are both components of that push and pull as well. For instance, someone is sharing a post due to intrinsic motivations, but someone else is being paid to monitor that content, therefore they are being driven by extrinsic motivations.
Sources:
Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky
