Life Changes, Instagram Changes Too

I can remember when I first heard about Instagram. I was in 7th grade and I was a manager for our JV softball team. I sat and listened while all the older girls talked about this new platform and what their usernames are. When I got home that night, I immediately pulled out my iPod touch, made an account, and I have logged into Instagram every day since.

Instagram has many benefits. It's an easy way to keep up with friends, it's a way people can express themselves creatively, and it's a way to meet new people. It way created for these reasons and a few more but I don't believe it was ever intended for what it has become.

Instagram has changed the way people view the world. People have made their living solely because of Instagram by becoming an influencer with millions of followers and promoting their lifestyle and companies which endorse them or creating a company based promoting these influencers. Instagram is the new billboard: post an advertisement, pay Instagram to have it promoted, get more views than you would on an interstate highway.

While Instagram has done good like promote causes and allowed people to express themselves while keeping up with friends and family, Instagram like any other social media platform has its dangers.

My brother just turned 12 years old in January. For his birthday, all he wanted was an iPhone and he's a good boy so of course my mom was a genie in a bottle and granted him his wish. The first thing he wanted help with was setting up an Instagram account, not adding contacts or taking pictures. So, with parents permission, I set up an account for him and was sure to put it on a private setting so random people couldn't see his posts. Two weeks later he came to me with his Instagram account and showed me that another random account had taken a screenshot of one of his pictures and reposted it on their account.  Even though he was on private and we thought his posts would be safe, somehow this still happened.

When you're 12 years old, you don't give much thought into your future career. However, the pictures and videos someone posts and reposts from the time they create their account could have an impact on their future career.  At 12, you don't think about the future consequences of your current actions but now children must.

What was made to be another way to keep up with friends and family has turned into a new way of shopping, a new career, a new news source. Instagram continues to change and society continues to love it. I don't believe Instagram will go out of style for a long, long time.