During this week’s commentary, we watched a video and read information regarding social media outlets, especially, Facebook. As I continued to read I thought about another social media outlet that has taken technological communication to a new level, Instagram. Since it was first established in 2010, Instagram has been able to accumulate a billion users on their application and continues to grow since they have been bought by the founder of Facebook (Evans, 2018). I believe Instagram’s popularity came to be due to social cognitive theory of mass communication and vicarious learning. After learning how people have made careers out of posting on Instagram and how to gain a large following, Instagram blew up. Posting on Instagram has proven to have more advantages than disadvantages. For instance, those who post “good-looking, edited, photographs,” gain a large following because they portray aspects of a lifestyle that most people strive for (Evans, 2018). After gaining this following, people began to feel as though they have an influence on others because they persuade their followers on where to go, what to buy, and how to do something. These people become known as “influencers,” and they are the main promoters of social media outlets today.
As we learned, social cognitive theory indicated that there are four processes that need to take place in order for vicarious learning to occur (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2016). In terms of the first process, attention, people only post images on Instagram that they know look appealing and will capture the attention of the audience that is scrolling. Most people on Instagram only post the most glamorous parts of their life. Instead of posting a picture in sweats watching TV, they post bikini pics in tropical locations. Furthermore, when it comes to advertising on Instagram, ‘influencers’ find creative ways to target their followers and sell a product, whether it be an experiment, special effects, or personal testimony.
For the second and third process known as the representational and behavioral production processes, people need to remember and learn how to perform the modeled behavior and tend to rehearse it and visualize it into their lives (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2016). After seeing a post on Instagram, people tend to remember those posts that caught their eye and think of the details of the picture and how they can replicate it. Nowadays, there are all kinds of tools, tutorials, and tricks that can be found to teach people how to edit, fix, or format their posts in the most appealing ways. I personally have a page of notes on my phone with a list of edits that can be applied to pictures to make them ‘pop’ more. Another example is a famous post that has been replicated various times and is made by those who visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Those who visit this famous landmark tend to recreate a pose of them trying to lift up the tower.
Lastly, the motivational process states “people do not perform every behavior they observe; rather they perform those behaviors that they are motivated to perform” (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2016). To add to the point, people tend to imitate behavior that is rewarded or without punishment, instead of behavior that is punished or disadvantageous. Posting on Instagram has little punishment depending on what you post. Although Instagram has some guidelines, accounts that go against these guidelines are often taken down, but no tangible repercussions occur, seeing as how they are able to make a new account. Furthermore, after seeing how others like them have been able to gather a following and become successful off their posts, Instagram gives its users another motivating factor to partake in their application. Because Instagram also keeps track of other people’s actions towards your account, it gives users a sense of satisfaction when they post a picture that appeals to others.
All in all, although Instagram may seem harmless, I believe it has a very strong influential hold on today’s generation and has become a new societal norm. Nowadays, after meeting someone new, one immediately goes to Instagram to look them up and try to learn more about them. People see Instagram as a window into other people’s lives, however it should be remembered that this window is only showing the best part of someone’s life and not the adversity that may come with it.
References
Evans, B. G. (2018, September 25). Instagram: The dog that launched a social media giant.
BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45640386
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology :
Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications.