The Impact of Mobile Internet and Social Media on Everyday Life - Essay Sample

Introduction

Majority of the world population today consider the natural aspect of the internet to everyday life. Technology and smartphones popularity has rapidly influenced the improvement of portable internet. People nowadays are more constantly online because of the performance of the mobile web. Additionally, the internet has made it possible for the development and rise of social media platforms. The platforms are an essential part of the usage of internet through interaction and sharing among individuals. A popular platform that is most recently in use is Instagram, whereby it is a multi-channel platform established in 2010. The creation of it was by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and it can be available in both a desktop site and mobile application. It was launched in October 2010; however, Facebook bought it in April 2012 for about one billion United States dollars. The focus of Instagram's business line is on sharing videos and photos. The platform has immensely changed the mode in which individuals see the world while operating the line of business. Instagram epistemic evaluation across the globe constitutes and facilitates critical elements on the lives of all individual users by interactive two-way communication.

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Throughout the years, Instagram has made several modifications to its platform with the adoption of digital filters since the original launch. Since it was launched, the number of users has rapidly grown as well as uploads by users taking photos quickly, tweaking them with filters and sharing the updates. The immensely popular application Instagram has a variety of users with about ninety percent of them being under thirty-five years of age and women instituting to the large number than men (Hu, Manikonda, & Kambhampati, 2014). Instagram has a range of editing tools and use of hashtags whereby, through selfies, users can perfect the pictures they take and post. Hashtags help users to include themselves in the online platform with trending topics. Users also can be able to pinpoint and tag their current location with the introduced geotags in the application. Instagram is connected to profiles from other social media platforms, and this makes it easy and allows their users to share photos in each platform. In 2012 they launched an explore tab for variation of trending topics and most-liked photos. Users can discover this variation and have information on hot topics on a global scale. Instagram 'stories' is the latest introduced feature in 2016 that permits users to post boomerangs, videos, camera roll photographs and live videos to their posts (Senft & Baym, 2015). The feature has a deadline of twenty-four hours for the stories after sharing with followers.

Instagram, as a media platform, can help business people by making it possible for them to communicate and get in touch while they are at a distance. The invention of the application has offered the right of admission to users in watching pictures. Such images can be advantageous to businesspersons because it will take seconds to spread and be able to reach many individuals as possible. Platforms such as Instagram reduce the amount of money that a person can use with other options to promote their product and services (Li, 2017). Campaigns execution for organizations' advertising can be established by the sustainable social media platform of Instagram. Operations in promoting campaign for youthful generation from businesses can deploy services with media platforms such as in this case Instagram because it is convenient and a majority of the generation spend most of their times in the internet surfing. Businesses through the application have the prospect to advance in a successful partnership regardless of customer age and their geographical locations. Companies on the app can draw awareness by the upload of advertisements for the target spectators. From consumer's side, there is the capability from the company to respond to any issues that arise. A study conducted by Lee on business connections with social media shows that Instagram plays a central role in boosting companies across the world (Lee, 2013). Through still and moving images, the platform facilitates the effective sharing of information.

The use of Instagram has significantly influenced users' lives. Many of them do not go a day without exploring other user's content while checking and uploading their own social media profiles regardless of whether they follow or know each other. It can be argued that there are positive effects on Instagram user's lives by allowing them to stay up to date through photo and story updates to their family and friend members (Senft & Baym, 2015). Through private messages and comments, users are entirely able to interact with one another and report any issue on the same with the help of report option on the application. A positive outlook is shown by this and supports the awareness that the majority of Instagram users and the contents are positive.

Along with this, Instagram brings closeness to celebrities because almost every one of them has an Instagram account (Phua, Lin, & Lim, 2018). Users can follow their stars and keep up with their daily lives, such as where they are, what they are wearing, and what they are doing. Celebrity fashions through the application can promote their brands such as fitness, clothing and recipes to their followers and in turn, gain followers for celebrity. However, there can be negative impacts on Instagram use. Concerning mental health, Instagram users can harm their self-image and have mental health problems. The users can be concerned with body image and without appreciation on the same have issues with self-confidence, anxiety and depression. Social media world news does travel fast, and users use Instagram as naturalized propaganda tools to bring down people they dislike (Kohn, 2017). Individuals who use the application are of different personalities whereby they can be vulnerable to the feedbacks, especially those motivated by interpersonal relatedness. Parents should learn to help the young in correspondence to vast Instagram users by the youths.

The Instagram epistemic evaluation across the globe has facilitated vital elements on the lives of all individual users. Social media is an attractive part of the community and in people's lives like in this case, Instagram. The application can establish a friendship, and through it, individuals can look for work connections and instantly share images and videos. Instagram is advantageous to society because it holds people together, but also there should be a consideration on how people use this platform for its positive and negative impacts.

Annotated Bibliography

Hu, Y., Manikonda, L., & Kambhampati, S. (2014, May). What we Instagram: A first analysis of Instagram photo content and user types. In Eighth International AAAI conference on weblogs and social media.

Note: The author identifies the different types of contents on Instagram via data and clustering.

Kohn, A. (2017). Instagram as a naturalized propaganda tool: The Israel Defense Forces Web site and the phenomenon of shared values. Convergence, 23(2), 197-213.

Note: This article is a case study of the Israel Defense Force on Instagram, which discusses the use of Instagram as propagandas.

Lee, E. (2013). Impacts of social media on consumer behavior: decision-making process.

Note: The author explains the impact of social media on consumer decision process and information search adoption on social media rather than mass media.

Li, Z. (2017). Theorizing Instagram: Ontology, Epistemology, and Aesthetics. Topic: how well does Instagram helps us acquire knowledge?

Note: The essay talks about Instagram through the lens of film and media to examine the app's essential values and influences. It has a section that looks the epistemological aspect of the users' experiences.

Phua, J., Lin, J. S. E., & Lim, D. J. (2018). Understanding consumer engagement with celebrity-endorsed E-Cigarette advertising on Instagram. Computers in Human Behavior, 84, 93-102.

Note: The article talks specifically about the E-Cigarette advertisings on Instagram and is helpful because of its analysis of what kind of true or false beliefs Instagram ads promote.

Senft, T. M., & Baym, N. K. (2015). What does the selfie say? Investigating a global phenomenon. International journal of communication, 9(Feature), 1588-1606.

Note: The author talks about the different aspects of selfies on social media, which also brings up discussions about posting photos on Instagram.