As someone who recently went through the process of finding a roommate for college, I turned to Instagram to try and gain an insight in to a complete stranger’s life. Whenever I meet someone new, one of the first things I search for is their Instagram page. Such a social media platform plays a large role in my life, and in my peers as well.
Why I Joined and Updates Made
I first joined the platform in 2013 during a class field trip to Washington D.C. My friends at the time insisted that I get one, as it would be the app that wouldn’t be just a fad -- and they were right. During my first couple of months posting, I shared MANY moments from my personal life. Pictures of my family, pets, and best friends took up a large part of my profile and I posted multiple times a week. However, as I transitioned into high school and began to gain more followers, many of whom I did not know very well, I re-focused my profile to concentrate more on me as an individual. I began posting more about the sports I was in, activities I would do in my free time, and vacations I went on. Now, I use my Instagram to share my successes and fun times, spent with my friends and family in both Chicago and Forth Worth. As the focus of my personal profile began to change, so did the Instagram platform itself. It constantly updated the different materials that could be posted such as videos or albums, and most recently added the function of “stories” as well as profiles. In essence, it combined the ideas of multiple successful apps such as Facebook, Vine, Snapchat and combined all functions into one. This aided me in my desire to diversify the content of my profile. Within the past year, I have posted videos from football games, albums from formals, and stories for a friend's birthday. I should also mention that I do not post very often. I try to post about once or twice a month. This is mostly because I do not always have something I think is special enough to post and because I do not want to overwhelm the feeds of my followers. So although I have posted these pictures a while ago timewise, they are pretty recent on my profile.
Who I Share With
Although I do have other social media platforms that I use such as Snapchat and Facebook, Instagram is by far the one that consumes most of my time. It is the easiest way for me to send and receive information from a large group of individuals, as it is the platform in which I have the most followers. Facebook is the platform that I use mainly to stay in touch with older family members, and Snapchat to stay in touch with my close friends. However, Instagram for me is used for connecting with adults, close friends, acquaintances and even strangers. I choose to keep my account private, mostly because I enjoy knowing who my audience is. It gives me some security to know that complete strangers are not viewing my page and discovering any personal information.
TCU, AXO, and Dad!
The first picture I want to analyze is of my dad and I at a TCU football game. I posted this picture to show family and friends that he came down to visit me, and that we both love supporting the frogs. He came down from Chicago for the weekend to enjoy the “Dad’s Weekend” that was hosted by my sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. Throughout the weekend we took several pictures, mostly due to the fact that we knew if we did not update my mom we would be in big trouble! In the picture, you can see the front of the Amon G. Carter stadium, the horned frog statue, multiple shades of purple, sunglasses, an AXO button and the “go frogs” sign being thrown up by both of us. I did not feel the need to tag TCU in the location box, as I had already established that I attended TCU in previous posts and there were many factors within the background of the picture hinting to it. I used ethos, my credibility of being a TCU student, to convey a message to my followers that I was huge fan of the Horned Frogs football team. Ethos can also been seen in my caption where I mention that my Dad has been practicing his "go frogs" sign for months-- something only people close to him (such as me) would know. I also see that I utilized pathos, appeal to emotion, by sharing a photo with my dad in it. Posting with my dad is something that I do not do often, so sharing a simple appreciation post for him was something that was out of my ordinary posts. I appealed to the emotion of my friends, as they know of the close relationship I have with my dad, and to strangers by showing them how much I valued having my dad visit. Lastly, I used logos (logic) to convey the message that I love the new school I attend by going to the sporting events, the sorority I joined by wearing a button of our letters, and the warm November weather of Texas with my sunglasses. Overall, I wanted to convey the message that I am having a great time at my new school, and despite being far away from home, my relationships with my family have held strong. Through including many different elements in the post, I achieve conveying both of these messages as a whole to my audience.
All Eyes On Me
Next, I want to analyze a picture of myself that I posted while back home over winter break. This picture was taken on a day trip that I took to downtown Chicago with my friend, Clare, from high school. We decided to plan a day taking the train into the city and going to the contemporary art museum, which was a place neither one of us had visited before. This was quite the adventure as it was 17 degrees out that day. After viewing many pieces in the museum, I found the art behind me to really stand out amongst others. Clare and I took a few minutes to take pictures of each other in front of the wall from different angles and exploring the new portrait mode on the iPhone. The main message I was trying to convey throughout this specific post was that I love exploring aspects of the city which I am from with friends. I enjoy spending time wandering through the different sights of Chicago, including art museums, even when it is absolutely freezing outside. Again, some specific rhetorical appeals can be found in this post. I use logos by posing with my coat on to show how cold it was--even inside the museum. My ethos in this post in being a native Chicagoan and showing my followers the art of my home city. I have seen posts of this wall by many tourists, as well. However, I have noticed that they tend to simply post a picture of the wall only, or of part of their face. By placing myself clearly in the picture, associated with the wall, I establish that I am not just visiting. Lastly, I believe that I convey emotion through my soft smile as I share with my audience my enjoyment and happiness from getting to spend a day in the city catching up with an old friend. Although Clare is not pictured in the post, I tagged her username in the corner to indicate she was with me on this adventure. I understand that the rhetorical appeals are not as evident in this post. However, I wanted to share at least one post from over winter break, and I thought that this one had the most substance.
Wrapping Up
Looking back, Instagram partially contributes to how I made some friends during high school, and even during my first couple of semesters at college. Being able to go up to a stranger and say: “I think we follower each other on Instagram,” is a great conversation starter. It is as if they already know a part of you and your life experiences. The content of what I post is determined by the effect I believe the components of my profile will have on my future. Before posting, I often find myself thinking "is this something I want to share with others and remember in the future?". Instagram is a very powerful tool to relay messages through. I hope that the substance that I provide in the two posts shown above, and others, communicates my love for the two places that I live in, and how I value the people that surround me.