Explore Instagram: Social Media App for Photo & Video Sharing - Essay Sample

Introduction and Description

Instagram is a photo and video social networking service designed by mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom. The android version of Instagram was released in 2012, proceeded by a facet-limited website interface in the same year tablets and computers Instagram application permits its end-user to upload media, which thereafter provide options for filtering the media is then organized with location information and tags. These media Posts are then shared publicly or with approved followers. Active members can browse other users' content by location and tags and also viewing of the trending photos or videos. On Instagram, feeds are used where a user can like photos and as well follow other active members whom they wish to be their friends.

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Demographic elements of an ideal visitor to InstagramIn every social media, the market is segmented into geographic, demographic, and psychological and behavioral. In our case elaboration on the demographic elements of an ideal visitor.

On Instagram, the demographic statistics for any user are very crucial just like any other social networking since it is one of its marketing strategies. Just like in business you may want to know who utilizes your products or services, recognizing the user of Instagram according to these demographic elements helps in advertising, researching, and marketing decisions. Although Instagram space is always undergoing modifications, it is helpful to have updated information as you reconsider your decisions and customize content to the way your audience uses different platforms.

Instagram demographic helps in understanding the audience in greater detail. The demographic elements for an ideal user which am elaborating include:

• Age range
• Relationship status.
• Geographical location.
• Income range
• Hobbies
• Employment status and type of employment.
• Shopping habits.
• Surfing habits,
• Gender.

Age Range

Different age group users on Instagram have diverse objectives when joining the platform for example the teens join the Instagram platform for socialization purposes through sharing of their photos and videos and this consists of almost 50% of the total users on Instagram. The teens through using the site they have admitted being more popular, confident, and also feel better, less depressed, and anxious. Although Instagram may have negative consequences on a teen who is using the platform, which is also more evident on those who have low emotional well-being.

Relationship Status

Users on Instagram often post their relationship status or use a photo with their ally as a profile photo, and also posting photos and updating their post while mentioning their romantic partners. By having a couple of profile photo and also posting about their relationship status. Let consider a user who posts their partner on Instagram what could have triggered is that the person wants to maintain their relationships, adding value to the relationship, and reinforcing their closeness. They also come up with a reciprocity effect. Such people feel obliged to give back to users who have given to them, even if it is in a small way.

Geographical Location

Instagram is a worldwide platform, therefore, it means users find it necessary to post their locations on their feed, this is always made easy through the geotagging feature through the use of GPS on their device e.g. a user posting on Instagram their location is 648 Broadway, New York the main motivation for this could be; the user wants to be identified with the place due to its popularity or the person the ideal visitor just wants to market their product since Instagram can also act as a platform for marketing a product. Employment Status, Type, and Income RangeInstagram can dictate the employment of an individual. Instagram has become a very important platform since employers can use it to obtain personal details and also give the impression of an employee. About 37% of employers use these platforms to veil their potential candidates this is according to Jacquelyn Smith. Employers may use a user Instagram to develop their employment decision. Therefore considering an ideal user who posts their professional is on IT and post their work on the Instagram employers of a related field can look to see if you present yourself professionally on Instagram and also if you are good to their company by just going through your stories.

Gender

On Instagram just like other platforms, there is always an option to show whether you are a male or a female. From the chart above there are about 46.8% males and 53.2% females of the total Instagram user. Gender on Instagram plays a crucial role for identification for socialization and also making of new friends e.g. a female user may join Instagram for purposes of having male, marketing of female’s related products, and also sharing of their experiences as women and how to overcome challenges which they face as girls.

Hobbies, Surfing, and Shopping Habits

Instagram is a media sharing platform a user can use it show up his or her hobbies e.g. considering an ideal user whose hobby is for example singing will be able to come across other individuals with the same interests and they can build one another by sharing their songs and contents. The same can also happen to their surfing and shopping habits.Vulnerabilities and Security Assessment on Instagram

Instagram just like other social media platforms allows free socialization among its users and the creation of positive and new links, however, this independence of socialization comes with a lot of abuse. As a result of current fixation to sharing our personal lives online, the vulnerabilities that arise from the use of the Instagram platform are increasing. Almost every user on Instagram becomes a victim of this cyber vulnerabilities. On Instagram, one connects not an only ally, but also a user with organized networks who explore for vulnerable prey and particularly children.

In social media, a user may be attacked or harmed either emotionally or physically hence a vulnerability using the above discussed demographic elements, in this section is exhaustively assessing the possibilities of vulnerability from them and give recommendations.

From the above discussion on demographic elements, an individual will give their information on Instagram but they do not care about the security implications. Since users provide their information and also about companies, which hackers use to jump into organizations. Below are some of the vulnerabilities one is exposed to while using Instagram.

Identification in real life-when every user is creating an Instagram account provides data which make them possible to be identified in real life thus posing vulnerability, these data include first and last name, photo, marital status, e-mail address, IP address, pseudonym among other information e.g. in our ideal visitor who gave all his data and also the location on Instagram as well as posting of their photos can be easily identified in real life.

Blackmailing-by providing your age on Instagram a grown-up can take advantage of a minor and propose, later meet the child where he/she gets an opportunity to harass the child sexually. The child can then be blackmailed by the adult, who menace to forward photos to their school, parents, or their friends. This gives the adult control, letting him/her continue the harassment, for example, an ideal Instagram user who indicates her age is 16 years female located in region A, an adult male located in the same region can access the user's account and be able to have her details which he later uses to organize the meeting.

Identity theft-it involves using other details to make a transaction or gaining any other advantage, this is a serious vulnerability on Instagram. It only requires minimal key information to succeed. Name, age, location, and date birth, address, and employment status are key information one provides on Instagram site is magnificent fodder for identity theft. Nothing provided on Instagram is secure therefore any user providing his information must be very careful. The best security is not providing any private.e.g a company can have an account on Instagram for marketing purposes but competing companies can use the information to create another account to destroy its name.

Inappropriate communication-Instagram being part of social-networking a lot of information is passed through it, however, is no method of identifying fake accounts hackers can use the platform to make inaccurate communication, for example in a competitive bid a company may lose the participation in the bid. The prospects for Instagram to provide inappropriate information makes it advisable to confirm the accuracy of the information from several provenances.

Instagram adds a modern and vast data source to be looked for information about a client’s competition/persons of interest. Always a question of logic sets in of the information selected from Instagram, as with any other internet source that depends on the user to post information on self.

Threats and Attacks Assessment on InstagramA threat can either be a statement or an action to cause pain to the targeted person such action is so rampant on Instagram from my assessment am going to discuss several threats that may arise from an ideal visitor on Instagram platform. Most of the threats arising from Instagram are a result of the personal information one provides while creating an account e.g. name, age, location among other private information needed.

Among the threats identified in this paper include:

• Like jacking.
• Fake giveaways.
• Affiliate scams.
• Fake followers.
• Phishing attempts using fake links.
• Social engineering.

Like Jacking

An Instagram user is made to click or like a particular webpage without their knowledge and this is a very common threat a webpage just appears while scrolling through the Instagram site. Like jacking operates in two layers the back layer with a like button.e.g users using Instagram may see an alluring image showing a video of am, amazing body transformation on clicking the post it brings up a splash page which is coded.

Fake Giveaways

Marketers on Instagram use competition as a way of earning likes traffic and clicks. Instagram competitions are popular and come up with a lot of socialization however some come in the form of fake giveaways specifically created to trick users into giving out private information.

Affiliate Scams

Any fraud is to make money. When scammers are not making money they will always come up with a way of tricking people. With Instagram and other social media platforms, affiliate programs are always a source of cash.It is an incentive program whereby a company pays an affiliate to navigate traffic or new subscribers to its platform. Let's say, for example, an ideal user is scrolling Instagram and sees an advert giving a gift card for an exclusive entire store to the first 10 people to enter their email address the user upon providing the email can be used to hack their accounts and forwarding spam messages to their email.

Fake Followers

People may create accounts using concocted email addresses and then sold to real Instagram users as a method of magnifying an Instagram celebrity’s or influencer’s popularity and social reach. These bots can befriend an Instagram user to send private texts with spams or phishing attempts, while others want to steal their password or infect the user with a virus (Ghozali et al., 2019).

Phishing Attempts Using Fake Links

Somebody pretending to be from a recognized company may send a message to an ideal Instagram user with intentions of the...