Social Media
This paper is an analysis of how Instagram, one of the world’s biggest communication platforms, affects interpersonal relationships and communication. Instagram is changing the digital space, creating a shift in the avenues and methods by which news is being communicated. The more time people spend on social media, the more they interact in the space and thus diminishing one-on-one interactions. The world today chooses more virtual interactions than they do physical ones. Twitter has, in the past, been more characterized as a source of getting news than it is a social media network. The administration of twitter has structured the format of the social media application as a news platform. It is now more focused on receiving and delivering news than on receiving social posts from individual handles and platforms. According to research by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, social media has been recognized as a significant source of news that is widely used in the world today. On the flip side, it is not Twitter that came on top with regards to being the top news site but Facebook. This article is, however, focused on how Instagram will soon take over twitter in the digital space to become the world’s leading source of news.
Young people worldwide have turned to emerge social media platforms as their primary source of information. This has mainly been seen during this period of the coronavirus pandemic. New social media platforms have gained popularity to become one of the go-to sources of news and information. Research conducted in April across six countries proved that almost a quarter of the population has been using Whatsapp, a messaging application, to get news about the covid-19 virus pandemic. A lot of the younger demographic was, however, noticed to be receiving communication from Instagram and Snapchat. One of the greatest dangers of using and depending on social media platforms as a source of information is the increasing rise and spread of misinformation. Almost sixty percent of the population was worried about the legitimacy of the content that was online. Another forty percent was concerned with the fact that the information being provided was misinformation. This has stemmed from the fact that the social media sites have made it easier for people to share information online, and the rapid growth in numbers that have been experienced in the place in the recent past. There was tremendous growth in the misinformation in these sites, especially during the 2016 elections in the United States and recently after the killing of George Floyd.
The use of Instagram as an application to share photos has increased rapidly, doubling its coverage on the news since 2018. If this trend is anything to buy, then there is a high likelihood that it can surpass the use of Twitter in delivering news to the masses. The trend has dramatically increased, especially among young people. In the United Kingdom, it is estimated that around twenty-five percent of the young people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four have used the site in receiving information during this period of the covid-19 pandemic. This is an excellent improvement in the application considering the number of people that do not trust social media platforms as a reliable source of receiving information.
A survey that had been conducted showed that 59% of the people that responded trusted news companies and National governments. Over a third of the people that responded to the survey were on Instagram, and an average of two-thirds of them were people under the age of twenty-five. The popularity among young people has become immense as they respond well to the stories and the visual images that have been presented in the platform. There has been an improvement in climate change due to the stories that have been shared on Instagram. The novel coronavirus and the movement on Black Lives Matter have also received large engagements in the site. Some scholars have suggested that it is not necessary that Instagram replaces Twitter to become the primary source of news but that users can significantly combine the use of Instagram with Twitter or Instagram and Facebook.
Facebook owns Instagram. It is noted that every week Facebook reaches 85% of its users. The company has proven to dominate the industry in the ways by which they present stories that are told. The firm also owns the Whatsapp messaging app. The coronavirus pandemic has also somewhat boosted the reliability of social media sites for news. There has been a notable decline in the authenticity of the traditional media during this period and thus stimulating the use and reliability of social media sites for information.
In summation, based on the trends in the world today, it is noted that there has been a considerable rise in the number of people that have subscribed to the usage of social media. With the growing loss of trust in news organizations and traditional media at large, the society and especially the young people are turning to social media as a source by which they can receive news. The coronavirus pandemic and the matters are affecting social injustices that have led to the rapid trust and reliability of Instagram due to the positive change it has brought in places like the United States and the world at large. There is a considerable possibility of a rise in the use of Instagram, together with other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. However, this does not rule out the fact it is highly likely that Instagram can surpass Twitter in offering news to the masses.