The social media platform Instagram (IG) has been around for over ten years now. With more than 1.2 billion users worldwide, individuals and groups from all corners of the world are sharing everything from recipes and fitness tips to memes and political messages. Once considered merely a way for people to record and share their daily lives, the platform is now the online backbone for soft marketing, civil rights activism, mental health awareness, body positivity movements, and more.
Social media has often been vilified as being negative for mental health, particularly for impressionable teens who benchmark their self-worth against the images of seemingly perfect IG personalities. It has been linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety, bullying, and FOMO—fear of missing out. However, experts warn that correlation does not equal causation and newer studies have emerged to show the positive effects that the social media platform could have on its users. Not only using social media platforms like Instagram can elicit positive emotions that could lead to beneficial outcomes, but they can also be of remarkable utility in personal, financial, and social growth.
Not All Screen Time is Equal
Designed for self-expression, Instagram has been instrumental in creating a culture of acceptance for people from historically marginalized groups. A stellar example of this is how the platform was critical to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. In a time where entire communities were feeling unheard, the platform allowed advocates to document their acts of activism in real-time, even live-streaming videos from protests on their IG Stories. This engagement helped the movement to reach a wider audience and make a greater impact in the United States and beyond.
During the height of BLM in June 2020, IG users undertook a ‘blackout’, with about 28 million people posting plain black squares to their feeds as a show of support for the movement. During this time, many allies chose not to post personal content but instead forwarded posts from Black and colored creators to amplify colored voices. The accessibility of Instagram has not only enhanced education and activism with regards to Black rights but also created lasting momentum to keep the conversation going. Even now, #blacklivesmatter remains a trending hashtag on Instagram with over 27 million posts.
A similar phenomenon can be seen with another prominent fringe community. The hashtag #pride has 32 million posts and #LGBT has 42 million posts, which is no surprise on a platform that has always been an accepting space for diverse identities. While social media has often been criticized for creating a ‘compare and despair’ effect, the effect seems to be reversed for users from minority groups, who are fostering belonging and mutual support instead. This sense of digital community can have substantial positive mental health effects, particularly for users that are isolated from support systems in the physical world.
Find Your People
So, you might be cisgender, heterosexual, middle class, and of a majority race. Can IG still be a beneficial home for you? Of course! Even people who consider themselves pretty average have diverse hobbies and pursuits. The wonderful thing about social media is that you can join the rest of the world in your common interests or can celebrate the little things that make you unique. Plant parents can follow the hashtag #plantsofinstagram which has over 11 million posts, hungry vegans can check out the 25 million posts on #veganfood, and absolutely everyone can enjoy #catsofinstagram with over 165 million photos of furballs.
Meeting people with similar likes and passions is a big boon of social media. While you may start with only a handful of family or friends following your account, you can easily find other accounts that align with your interests and values. To expedite the process and increase post reach, some users like to buy Instagram views and ensure that they are making their presence known. Through leaving comments and striking up conversations with others, users can make genuine friendships and form social support networks that supplement their real-life relationships.
In these trying pandemic times, having someone to talk to is already a gift. But these digital connections offer more than just an empathetic ear to users. The acknowledgment of collective struggles can alleviate feelings of loneliness, foster constructive introspection, and boost morale. Self-love and self-care are trending topics on social media and many accounts post content to discuss and destigmatize mental health issues. From snappy illustrated quotes to short video pep talks, there are thriving IG communities full of people supporting one another.
Gold Mine for Financial Growth
It is safe to say that Instagram has played a monumental role in 21st-century pop culture and that’s precisely why its significance is valued in the corporate world. Accessible platforms like Instagram have changed how brands interact with their customers or audience rather, as companies increasingly strive to build communities around a beacon of their values and causes. Media presence is no longer a one-way street and marketing has taken the form of an ongoing dialogue in which the customer base does not shy away from making their demands and concerns known. This is valuable because businesses are closer to the customers more than ever before and active listening and engagement can provide more valuable data than hundreds of market research developed in departmental ivory towers.
The accessibility of platforms such as Instagram is not only beneficial to mega-corporations with towering marketing budgets, but it has also paved the way for small businesses to make a presence in the market with virtually no cost; With a clear strategy and careful planning, every business or freelancing individual has the potential to expand their customer base and increase their lead generation. Every artist, craftsman, or would-be-entrepreneur has become empowered to showcase their expertise and put their work out there to access markets that would not be possible without social media.
The over-saturation of the market, the enormous array of options it begets, and the waning trust resulting from decades of marketing measures in practice have given rise to the relatively new phenomenon of influencer marketing. The inter-connectivity social media provides allows for the formation of communities around niches and common interests.
Influencer marketing on Instagram is effective because influencers foster trust and respect in their communities and help others decide and choose what’s best for them. We can never be experts at everything so we need the guidance of those we trust in order to make more informed purchases. Instagram and social media marketing add the gentle touch of a friend’s recommendation to the already developed messaging by businesses in their marketing endeavors. Maybe that is why influencer marketing has become pivotal to many brands’ strategies. 39% of brands spend over 20% of their marketing budget on influencer marketing.
On the other side, social media like Instagram have caused and facilitated significant improvements in social responsibility and consumer power. Social media enforces transparency. “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it and the tree is the real thing”, said the late Abraham Lincoln. In the day and age when the media is more democratized than ever and words get across the globe in mere seconds, it is increasingly difficult to manipulate the shadow without pruning the tree. People hold corporations accountable for their actions regarding their social and environmental responsibilities. Lack of transparency and shady practices can blow fatal wounds to a company’s reputation. Businesses and their leaders cannot easily lead double lives.
Prior to social media, it was not possible for customers of a company to interact with each other, exchange their opinions, and broadcast their views. This has helped balance the dynamics and shift the power towards the consumers as the companies do not have the ultimate power to control the narrative like they used to. This, in turn, helps companies with great causes and genuine business practices get more recognition and that contributes to the advancement of the larger society with gradual positive changes. However, social media as a phenomenon is still considered to be in its infancy and there are a lot of unexplored aspects that unravel as we move forward.
At the end of the day, your angle on social media is intertwined with the reasons you use them for. You could fill your feed with picture-perfect models living in paradise or carefully curate a feed that inspires and encourages you. Social media can be used to aimlessly pass much valuable time or to build networks and meaningful relationships with noble causes. The beauty of social media is that users can completely tailor the content they view according to their wishes. Whether you want to meet other plant-obsessed people, pick up more political knowledge, or just soak up some cheerful vibes, ensure that you only consume content that makes you feel positive. As users become more media-savvy, we can look forward to less FOMO and more good vibes and personal growth.