I love Instagram. It’s the only other social media platform I’m on everyday, besides WordPress. I’ve been wanting to write a post about Instagram for a while. I kept trying, but I couldn’t ever get all my thoughts down in a coherent way. But, I recently read Ella’s latest post which was about whether Instagram may be toxic for us (which you should all ready by the way). So here I am, trying again to write coherently how I feel about Instagram. Bear with me as I try ramble out my thoughts and also share some of my favourite photos to break up all the words.
When I first heard of Instagram, I thought it sounded neat. A visual platform where people can share photos, play with filters, and connect all over the world. Obviously, I heard about the negative parts of Instagram too. How it can influence people, and make them anxious or envious because of the photos they were seeing. Beautiful, skinny people in amazing far-off places, creating amazing dishes and just having that perfect aesthetic. Sure, I get bouts of jealousy, but then my thoughts turn to planning a holiday, where hopefully one day I can go somewhere like that. Or I look at my own photos of my of past trips. My mindset is able to often turn things around and turn negative thoughts into positive. But not everyone thinks like that. So if someone’s posts are continually making you feel bad, it may be time to unfollow, or maybe step away from the app for a bit.
Another thought I have about Instagram, is the whole mess of following and unfollowing. For the first few months I had my account on private and didn’t really upload anything. After I started getting more into blogging, I moved my account to public and began following fellow bloggers. Since then, my account has grown fairly steadily. I have over 400 followers currently, but it was a confusing time to get there. Sometimes when I publish a post, new accounts will just randomly follow. Then an hour later they vanish. Then there’s all the bot accounts that say they can increase your followers by thousands. It gets a little messy. But sometimes, you get a follow from someone whose feed you like, and a mutual bond is made which is cool!
Instagram also changed it’s feed algorithm, so that the photos you see aren’t in chronological order but rather what has the most likes. So now I have to scroll for ages, or go to direct pages to find photos from the people I really want to see from. It’s weird, but I think I’ve figured out a way that works for me.
All these strange thoughts about Instagram aside, it really is such a fun platform. I love seeing what pictures everyone will post, whatever it is. It’s a fun addition to blogging, seeing bits and pieces of everyone’s life when they’re not on here. I also have gotten addicted to trying think of as many hashtags as possible. I try to limit myself at 10..most of the time ?
What are your general thoughts on Instagram? Do you agree that it’s a fun, photo sharing app but could probably benefit from being a little less confusing?
Angela.
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lifeofangela 