“Why is Instagram so Popular?”

With more than a billion subscribers, undoubtedly, Instagram is among the famous social networking platforms in the globe. In fact, the platform is third in popularity that is slightly behind Facebook and YouTube. Since its inception in 2010, Instagram has continuously grown, trampling most of its competitors, such as Twitter and Snapchat (DeMers, 2017). The social platform’s growth can be attributed to its way of embracing new features as well as evolving. Notably, in recent times, the platform is the most attractive network for individuals who enjoy socializing via visuals, particularly on their respective gadgets. The company’s popularity can be attributed to its user-friendliness, visual nature, and functionality.

Arguably, Instagram is immensely user-friendly. Its app is characterized by a simple interface that individuals understand and use easily, irrespective of their age. An excellent user interface is friendly to the eye, ultra-fine and straightforward, all which Instagram is. One is not required to be a computer expert to navigate through Instagram. Consequently, the company is also regularly introducing new as well as improved features such as Instagram TV, Stories, and filters, among others. Consequently, the firm offers users easy-to-follow guidelines entailing how to utilize the new features upon logging in. According to Cole (2018), Instagram feed is among the favorite features in the app, which is easy to use among many people. The user-friendliness has made the social platform popular all over the world.

Instagram’s popularity is also attributed to its visual nature. People tend to prefer to collect and interpret information via sight, a reason why visual marketing is rapidly growing in the recent era. Instagram has a great appeal to visual nature. In fact, almost the entire newsfeed space is usually covered by an image. Besides, captions are covered after a particular length, making them inferior to the pictures. The fact that the platform’s images are reduced to a specific uniform format improves its degree of formality in relation to the experience. According to McNely (2012), images are significant to the platform’s top users to the extent that people are struggling to use editing apps to improve the quality of their images to gain popularity. As such, its visual nature has also made Instagram popular.

Finally, Instagram’s functionality has contributed significantly to its popularity. The socializing platform is mobile-exclusive and allows individuals to instantly edit pictures they take as they try to post them on the platform. Such a feature makes Instagram, an in-the-moment app, which is highly attractive to many individuals. Moreover, the platform is the only platform that enables individuals to enjoy popularity in a meaningful manner. It actually offers users an opportunity to gain immediate popularity with other people. Its integration with other platforms such as Facebook provides account holders a larger platform to depict their photography skills. Equally, the platform is ideal for different professionals such as designers, artists, bloggers, and stylists, among others. Therefore, its increased functionality has also made it popular.

Overall, Instagram is popular due to its user-friendliness, visual nature, as well as functionality. The social networking platform is characterized by many simplified features that enhance its usability. Equally, Instagram prioritizes images as opposed to captions, a factor that is highly attracting many people. Besides, Instagram is connected to many other sites, a factor that increases its functions. Many people prefer using the site, as it enables them to do many functions and reach many people. As such, Instagram is continuously becoming popular.

References

McNely, B. J. (2012). Shaping organizational image-power through images: Case histories of Instagram. In 2012 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference(pp. 1-8). IEEE.

Cole, J. (2018). Why is Instagram so popular? We asked active users to explain. Thought Catalog. Retrieved from https://thoughtcatalog.com/james-cole/2018/09/why-is-instagram-so-popular/

DeMers, J. (2017). Why Instagram is the top social platform for engagement (and how to use it). Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2017/03/28/why-instagram-is-the-top-social-platform-for-engagement-and-how-to-use-it/#7f918d5036bd

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