Instagram is one of the most used social media platforms worldwide. It launched in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger; then, Facebook bought the platform in 2012. Today, it plays a massive part in our daily lives. Some people literally can not live a day by spending a lot of time on Instagram. At this point, you might be thinking that at this point, Instagram is turning into an addiction for these people, and you might be right. But will it always be like this? What if Instagram did not exist?
Let’s give you some numbers to think about. According to eMarketer’s search shows that the platform will reach 112.5 million U.S. users worldwide by the end of 2021. They also predict the network will reach 117.2 million U.S. users in 2021. Another company called Statista indicated that Instagram has more than 1 billion active users monthly, and 500 million users check in on Instagram every single day. So what would happen if Instagram disappeared all of a sudden?
What Would We Do If Instagram Did Not Exist?
In a world where Instagram suddenly disappears, we can safely say that our daily habits would change radically. In contrast, people would use some other existing social media platforms to show their photos. If those social media networks do not fully meet people’s desire to share pictures, this demand will make developers produce an Instagram-like app.
Because if there is no application to share your photos online, people would have to show their photos in original albums. It wouldn’t be as cool as showing a photo on the phone; printing a photo and putting it into an album is time-consuming and probably boring.
Unlike other social media applications, Instagram only focuses on photo or video-sharing, and it caused us to gain interesting habits in our lives. Apart from us becoming addicted to digital media, Instagram brings ease too. For example, it has been a perfect online storage area for our memories. Imagine that you have hundreds of physical albums that only includes the printed versions of your Instagram posts and stories. Now that would be a real struggle. We would probably have to dedicate a room for storing those albums.
The Good and Bad Sides of Instagram
Photo Editing
With Instagram, we can quickly find a photo of our friends and us. So it is a great tool to have nostalgia feelings. But think about it, we usually edit these photos by applying various filters that Instagram offers, or take a further step and edit our face and body features! So it is safe to say that many “memories” that we store on Instagram are fake memories. In a world where these kinds of applications do not exist, we would have maybe fewer photos because it requires money, but they would be 100% real. Editing, also known as “Facetuning,” is one thing that Instagram users complain about the most.
Printer-Free Memories
Imagine that you show your photos to each other manually, that you always carry at least two photo albums with you, as this will take more time, and it will be slower to get likes and comments from people one by one. You may already say that Instagram is stealing a lot of time from our lives, but wouldn’t it take us more time to take a photo properly and print it? Moreover, even with immediate results with polaroid cameras, it would not be possible to edit it as we want. Because people want to make each one of their photos look more appealing on Instagram, there are dozens of mobile photo editing applications in the market today.
The Instafoodies
Some users on Instagram have made it a habit to share pictures of their food before eating. But it kills the vibe of a dinner together with friends; it is a waste of time by reading the comments and also a disrespectful manner to other people at the dinner table. If other people at the dining table are not lost in their world with their mobile phones, of course, in this example, if Instagram did not exist, the meals would be more joyful, there would be more laughs, and you would have better communication with your friends.
Instabloggers
One of its most important aspects to talk about is Instablogging. A large segment of people makes money, and they became famous thanks to Instagram. So what if Instagram did not exist? Of course, their lives would be different forever. One of the most trendy jobs nowadays is being a ‘blogger.’ But if there is no such app like that, there are no products, clothes, and places to promote. They would probably choose a basic job. Boring, right?
Instagram is a Time Killer
One of the most vital topics we should mention here is time. Instagram is highly addictive and time-consuming to use. We can say that this is one of the worst sides of it, apart from making people question their body image. This addiction steals a lot of time from people’s daily lives. Time is very valuable in the age we live in. If a person uses the time he or she spends on Instagram for more useful things, its absence would mean the worlds for his or her friends and family.
Fake People
When we finally see people we know on Instagram in real life, we cannot recognize them. They are shorter than they appear in the photo, their noses are longer, or their hair lighter. Perhaps we would have been able to recognize them if it did not boost the usage of editing apps like Photoshop, Facetune, Picsart, etc.
A Fun Fact
According to scientists’ research, there is a strong connection between Instagram and the nucleus accumbens (the reward center) of the brain. When positive feedback is taken on the platform, this part of the brain starts to work as the person receives more positive feedback like Instagram comments, shares, and likes, the activity in the reward center of the brain increases at the same rate.
To Conclude Instagram
As you can see, apart from some big negatives, most of the problems we face happen because of the userbase. If people didn’t want to show themselves differently from what they originally are, maybe Instagram would be a simple place where we become inspired by others’ photos.
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In this article, we mentioned our thoughts about what would happen if Instagram did not exist. We hope that reading these facts can help you by making you think about how much time do we spend on social media. We would like to remind you that you can also share your thoughts regarding social media with us in the comments section below. If you want to read more about other social media-related topics, check the Instagram Support blog. You can also get more information by checking this video out recorded by Carly Burr:
1 Comment
If Instagram did not exist I would probably have had less friends. And by less, I mean way less!