Instagram Literature & Language Essay Research Paper (Essay Sample)

How Instagram is Changing Travel
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How Instagram is Changing Travel
Originally developed by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2010, Instagram (IG) stands out among the leading video-sharing and social networking services. Currently, it is owned by Facebook, which acquired it at the cost of US$1 billion in cash and stock in April 2012. Functioning on a software application, IG allows individuals to upload photos and videos to the network which can then be viewed by all other users or a list of pre-approved friends based on pre-set search criteria. Among other features, users can tag locations, like others’ photos, comment on others’ posts, and view trending topics (Rajczak, 2015). Because of the high popularity and engagement on Instagram, may travelers select journey locations, plan, and move using the information on IG.
An analysis by Vimarc (2019) indicated that IG has at least eight hundred million monthly users. Of these, five hundred million people log in daily and participate actively in reading, viewing content, uploading pictures and videos, and making comments. Compared to other social media websites and applications, it remains at the top in terms of engagement. This limit of involvement is placed at ten times more than Facebook, fifty-four times more than Pinterest, and eighty-four times more than Twitter. Perhaps, the leading reason for these overwhelming statistics is the fact that IG is a visual platform where users will upload memorable images and videos. This high level of involvement makes IG likely to influence travel as people who visit the platform frequently will likely make decisions based on what they have seen on IG.