With over 50% of the world's population now on one or more social media platforms, it's apparent that it's quite a large part of modern society and culture. Founded in 2010, Instagram is the world's second-largest photo and video sharing medium.
Instagram is a fantastic tool for connecting with like-minded communities, offering a plethora of affordances. Users can post images and videos, send messages and create group chats, host and join live streams, and watch Reels (Instagram's solution to TikTok's short-form video success). Due to its global boundaries, it allows for very niche communities to be established which wouldn't have been viable in real life. Rosemary Pennington describes social media as a third space. A place that's completely separated from your existing life. Which "can serve as sanctuaries where they (users) do not have to fight to make themselves seen, heard, or understood". This third space allows users who may feel alienated in their existing environment to see, locate and connect with those who share similar experiences or interests. “For Instagram specifically, it is well known for its superior visual sharing capability and archives users’ content in their profile page, and as such, Instagram users tend to portray a creative and ideal self on this particular platform.” (Sheldon & Bryant, 2016). Providing users with the power to create their own virtual identity.
However, with these affordances come a total war of scepticism and scandals. A viral controversy on social media in 2013 labelled "Funeral Selfies" blew up, after journalist and social commentator Jason Feifer compiled a collection of selfies from random Instagram accounts under the hashtags #funeral #selfie and published it on Tumblr. This caused outrage among both online users, and offline as news and media companies began publishing this story. The Huffington Post even went as far as to title their article “Funeral Selfies Are The Latest Evidence Apocalypse Can’t Come Soon Enough”. Explaining how they believe social media has dampened the significance of funerals, with mainly younger people stripping away all respect by taking selfies, taking the focus away from someone who has passed and spotlighting the user. Personally, I agree with this report in a sense, as similar content is so widely accessible via social media that users may grow less empathetic to such a dark and emotional period for many people. However, can also respect that each person has a unique way of coping with trauma.
Over the years, my online presence has evolved as I have matured. During earlier years on Instagram, my accounts were not at all curated. I would post occasional memes, life quotes and random selfies with friends. Nowadays, my public-facing accounts are much more structured. I use social media management tools to plot out my feed to ensure it flows with my existing content. I have established a photography & travel persona via my account. My intended audience for this type of content is individuals who are local to the areas that I photograph and also people who enjoy landscape photography. I believe my persona is very internationally accessible as it doesn't rely much on language to convey my messages however platform limitations could limit access, as Instagram is banned in China, Russia, Belarus, Iran, and Uganda, to name a few.
