The Power of Instagram

 Trends in social media are constantly changing. Currently, the big social media trend is instagram. Instagram is a picture app that applies filters to pictures (or not, #nofilter), and posts them into a easy to view thread on their app. Additionally, instagram makes it so that their biggest presence is on smartphones, not traditional outlets such as computers.

The article for today talked about the power of pictures. Pictures can influence our opinions and ideologies, as well as tell stories. Instagram has played off of these ideas.

They say that a picture is worth 1,000 words, and instagram proves that this is the case. Some people have even decided that they would rather only have an instagram instead of other social media sites or would rather have instagram be their primary social medium. That is to say that people would rather look at a stream of photos to see what is going on in the world and in their friends lives, than look at a stream of words with some photos mixed in.

The concept of the filters also plays up the power of instagram. People are attracted to instagram because they can take possibly bland pictures and spice them up with the instagram filters. The average photographer instantly becomes Ansel Adams. Not everyone can be a master of speech. But with instagram anyone that can find a beautiful tree can be a master of photography. 

Finally, looking at photos is easy. It accesses the blank canvas of a persons mind and allows them to create their own picture. Words are what they are, but pictures allow the viewer to create their own caption.

Will instagram take over the social media game? Have they mastered the concept of the human brain being more attracted to photos than words?

Is it too easy?

Carr’s article on whether Google is making us stupid is a question that I have been wondering a lot about since I interned in Washington. Based on my experiences, I tend to agree with most of what Carr is saying. I believe that digital media and technology may not be making us less intelligent, but seems to be making us more narrow minded and less informed. To me, this is just as alarming.

What is concerning is that, because of technology, information is now as easy to attain as clicking a button. What pops up may not be completely factual, but who would not want to find an answer that they are satisfied with so quickly and effortlessly?

Another concern is the prevalence of biased information. People now have easy access to television stations, blogs and new outlets that share their beliefs, and because of this people have stopped looking anywhere else for their information. This phenomenon, in my opinion, is causing people to become more narrow minded than ever. Sites such as Wikipedia tie all of this together. On Wikipedia, I could have my PhD and be the smartest man on any given subject. Which raises the question of why I am able to have such power. Sadly, however, this is the case.

Access to information is a blessing and a curse. It allows us to have access to more information than ever, while also giving us access to more misinformation than ever. So while Carr claims that Google is making us more stupid, I would rephrase that statement slightly. I believe that Google is making us more narrow minded, while also making us more informed. In a way, Google is like the drug dealer and we are the buyers. It enables us and tells us what we want to hear.

DQs: Is Google “an enabler”?

Are people too lazy to look beyond the first page?