Category: Instagram

In modern realities, people are forced to stay away from each other, and for the majority, social platforms are the only opportunity to communicate with the world. Nevertheless, young people are prone to quickly develop an inferiority complex from the imposed standards of wealth, beauty, and success displayed on social media. Nowadays, being an active Instagram user has become a competition to showcase a life that does not exist. Thus, Instagram promotes life standards heavily detached from reality and becomes the reason for depression, social anxiety, and low self-esteem development in the younger generation.

In the conditions of a lack of physical interaction, people have to resort to virtual communication. Collective mental health seems to benefit from it: one may highlight that social media has become a wellspring for political activism, allowing people with similar views to meet and unite. In particular, the movements such as Black Lives Matter or #MeToo emerged due to the Internet; they both fight for the social change that the public has been waiting for many years. Besides, Bekalu et al. discovered that routine non-excessive social media use positively affects human well-being and increases happiness as it compensates for the lack of real-life communication (78). However, the researchers avoid admitting that, in most cases, public network services manipulate human consciousness, mostly immature minds, as they involuntarily promote creating illusory pictures of life that users willingly believe.

Instagram is one of the most popular formats of personal interaction among people today. Nonetheless, the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) proclaimed the platform to have the most dangerous effect on youths mental health (19). The order of social media from less to more harmful, according to the study, is as follows: Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram (Royal Society for Public Health 18). It is widely accepted that Instagram has a specific unwritten format. One must be beautifully and fashionably dressed in the photo with a good-looking background, eat and drink esthetic food only. It all encourages the content that promotes false beauty and living standards, which exerts pressure on individuals.

The network has turned into a factory of illusions; it forces people to live not the way they want but to seem what they are not. Vivid photos from the accounts of stars, popular fitness models, and travelers on social networks often do not correspond to the average persons relatively dull everyday life. The problem under consideration is open to discussion, as one might point to studies, which manifest the positive effect of Instagrams good life modeling on youth through inspiration and role-modeling (Meier et al. 722). Except, Instagram algorithms encourage users to post only perfectly edited and staged visuals so that they are liked and do not disappear from the feed. Thus, a luxurious life is invented, a priori declaring everyone who does not follow it as losers.

Instagram, in particular, makes young people feel anxious and dissatisfied with their bodies. According to the RSPH report, girls significantly compare themselves to pictures created on Instagram using special filters and are out of touch with reality (11). The study quotes one respondent: Instagram easily makes girls and women feel like their bodies are not good enough as people add filters and edit their photos to make them look perfect (Royal Society for Public Health 10). People, in general, tend to compare themselves and other individuals. Moreover, their ideas about happiness may vary considerably, but the desire to be no worse embedded in the depths of the psyche can depreciate the system of personal values and make one doubt their significance.

Someone elses life, exposed, seems brighter and more intense than ones own, precisely according to the principle by which the grass on the other side is always greener. Research provided by Ozimek and Bierhoff has shown that social media-generated FOMO  fear of missing something exciting, accompanied by chronic nervous tension  can lower a persons self-esteem and lead to anxiety and depression (1120). Therefore, instead of inspiring, colorful images can provoke teenagers to consider their lives miserable compared to others.

Initially made to call for communication, social network services trigger the opposite desire  to go into a shell, hide, and communicate with the world only through an account. The experiment conducted by Primack et al. showed that the more people are online, the more lonely and isolated they feel (7). If friends post photos together and communicate without one of their friends, it makes the latter feel lonely. As Covert and Stefanone admit, if a person is not accepted into a group, they feel rejected and, naturally, experience negative emotions (11). The excess of emotions, in turn, slows down thoughts and prevents individuals from reasoning. Furthermore, since frequent isolation is fraught with health and psychological problems, it is essential to remind people about the effects of social media on the brain.

In a world that is actively digitalizing, social media is becoming a vital mode of communication. Social media, however, can give erroneous information about users and real-life phenomena. Virtual life does not coincide with real life, and in these contradictions, a persons mental health cannot but be affected heavily. Society cannot blame Instagram or other platforms for the decline in mental health: it is not the social networks themselves that affect the psyche, but the content people consume. However, social networks can hurt those who are particularly vulnerable emotionally, including teenagers or those who already have weaknesses, particularly people with a problematic attitude towards their bodies. The power of social media today is too great to be frivolous about its impact on human health; thus, more research is needed to obtain more detailed data on the health effects of social media.

Works Cited

Bekalu, Mesfin A., et al. Association of Social Media Use with Social Well-Being, Positive Mental Health, and Self-Rated Health: Disentangling Routine Use from Emotional Connection to Use. Health Education & Behavior, vol. 46, no. 2, 2019, pp. 6980. Sage Journals.

Covert, Jessica M., and Michael A. Stefanone. Does Rejection Still Hurt? Examining the Effects of Network Attention and Exposure to Online Social Exclusion. Social Science Computer Review, vol. 38, no. 2, 2018, pp. 117.

Meier, Adrian, et al. Instagram Inspiration: How Upward Comparison on Social Network Sites Can Contribute to Well-Being. Journal of Communication, vol. 70, no. 5, 2020, pp. 721743.

Ozimek, Phillip, and Hans-Werner Bierhoff. All My Online-Friends Are Better Than MeThree Studies About Ability-Based Comparative Social Media Use, Self-Esteem, and Depressive Tendencies. Behaviour & Information Technology, vol. 39, no. 10, 2020, pp. 11101123. ProQuest.

Primack, Brian A., et al. Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation among Young Adults in the U.S. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 53, no. 1, 2017, pp. 18. ScienceDirect,

Royal Society for Public Health. Status of Mind: Social Media and Young Peoples Mental Health and Wellbeing. RSPH, 2017.

Product Selection

The company is a successful start-up technology enterprise that focuses on creating innovative products for food and beverage preparation and storage that allow people to create quality products at home. A new product has been developed which appeals to the adult beverage community. This widely appraised kitchen utility takes store-bought beer and processes it to enhance flavor and create the exquisite micro-foam usually found inexpensive, high-quality beverages that cannot be brought home. Management believes this product can appeal to the vast consumer market and raise the profits and outreach of the company. The products design, utility, and purpose present an opportunity for an extensive marketing campaign because it satisfies the demand for high-quality and mobility at an affordable price.

Campaign Purpose

Instagram is considered the contemporary advertising platform amongst social media platforms. Focus groups have described Instagram advertisements as appealing and engaging which is key to attracting customer interest. They are not commonly perceived as unwanted and aggressive commercials unlike other media platforms (Love, 2015). The concept of framing is a theoretical approach to advertising in social media. The customer exposed to a message in advertising frames begins to form an attitude towards the brand based on product knowledge and personal involvement. On Instagram, visual symbolism is critical as the process of customer perceptions and relationship to the brand shifts from simple awareness to absolute loyalty (Lavoie, 2015).

The main purpose of the campaign is to promote the brand and its new innovative product within the kitchen appliance, alcoholic drinks, and food technology markets. A successful social media campaign for a non-general product often requires finding a niche market where the product will generate consumer interest. The targeted demographic would be anyone aged 21 and over in the United States and Europe as the most affluent markets.

Millennials should be targeted as they exhibit a combination of consistent alcohol intake, interest in technology, and susceptibility to visual branding. Instagram allows selecting targeted audiences based on followed pages and likes. Therefore, investing in advertising to casual drinkers and craft beer enthusiasts can be beneficial. The psychographic information provided by Instagram allows the group of people based on interests and behaviors. The behavioral patterns are subconscious to a regular user but analyzing psychographic information can reveal deeply personal needs and trends that the company can target. The presented product will fulfill the peoples need for improved quality alcoholic drinks without the necessity to socialize and overpay at bars.

Instagram Contest

The contest should not be implemented immediately at the start of the campaign. It is important to gain interest and following for the product through basic posts and paid advertisements. Followers can be enticed through announcements that announce an upcoming contest and giveaway. Soon after, the contest should be posted. It should be a simple but visually attractive image that shows the product being used in a home setting with a social group of people drinking the produced beverage.

It is possible to include a caption such as this season, you do not have to leave your home. Similar to other social media platforms, Instagram utilizes hashtags which can become trends or a way to see collections of images based on a topic. The marketing team should come up with a catchy and relevant hashtag for the contest.

The image post caption should describe the rules of the competition which ask users to do several things to win a deluxe custom gift set with the product and a months supply of craft beer. The company can partner with a beer brand to advertise the product as well as gain access to their customer base. Relevant links to the product website and reviews should be included in the description. Instagram users will be asked to like the post, follow the brand page on Instagram and Facebook.

This move allows for a wider audience to be reached through future posts and advertisements. Finally, the users will be asked to post a creative image with a specific hashtag of how or why they would use the product. It will lead to user engagement on Instagram, thus spreading to the users followers who might have similar tastes. Also, it will cause people to evaluate their need for the product, which means they might explore the company website or relevant resources to determine the products functions. By establishing a sense of need for the product through participation in the contest, users may be inclined to purchase it for themselves or as a gift later.

Campaign Metrics

Instagram has tools and 3^rd-party software that help to measure the success of advertisement campaigns. The most relevant to this campaign would be to gauge the number of followers gained from the campaign as it is part of the contest. There is a metric that allows measuring user engagement by analyzing the number of likes and comments on a post. It is possible to analyze the hashtag performance which highlights the engagement and the discovery rate. Finally, the metric analyzing referral traffic from Instagram to the product website is crucial for tracking the return on investment of social media advertising (Instagram, 2017).

Campaign Benefits

The modern Instagram audience is based on the visual culture which follows the psychological process of instantaneous glances as the person swipes quickly through the images. Only something unusual and sensational will catch the consumers attention for more than a brief second. If consumers are drawn to an Instagram page or brand, it is likely they will follow it to see more images. Successful marketing campaigns focus on the brand-building aspect of Instagram so that more people are exposed to the company and its products. In turn, this results in rising sales, revenues, and word-of-mouth advertising. User participation allows creating a carefully crafted culture around the brand which is appealing for attracting new customers that will loyally buy the product (Carah & Shaul, 2016).

Visually demonstrating the product and its functions helps to build the customers trust. It appeals to their subconscious which is heavily influenced by the demand for satisfying desires. A futuristic design of the utility producing an enhanced version of a popular beverage serves as a trigger for the customer to participate in the contest, potentially buy the product, and follow the brand.

Active Versus Passive Marketing

There are various frameworks for advertising techniques that a company must consider when conducting a marketing campaign. Passive marketing consists of placing an advertisement or mention in any general media. Further, consumers may notice it and act on it if it is relevant to their needs. There is no targeted market or customer engagement as any general consumer will be exposed to the advertisement. Meanwhile, active marketing includes using interactive, platforms (such as Instagram) to target the consumers as well as engage in consistent advertisement and user interaction. It focuses on building popularity and provide continuous updates to those interested in the company or product (Joel, 2013).

The company can use passive marketing by creating a well-designed website page for the product and using necessary technology resources to appear in search engines when relevant keywords are entered. It is possible to place an advertisement with Google that will determine to show it to potential customers based on its user interest algorithms. This type of passive marketing requires little input after initial development while reaching potential customers through anticipatory tactics that provide up-to-date information.

References

Carah, N., & Shaul, M. (2016). Brands and Instagram: Point, tap, swipe, glance. Mobile Media and Communication, 4(1), 69-84. Web.

Joel, M. (2013). Two terms marketers need for todays media landscape. Web.

Instagram. (2017). Build your business on Instagram. Web.

Lavoie, K. (2015). Instagram and branding: A case study of Dunkin Donuts. Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 6(2), 79-90. Web.

Love, K. (2015). Social media and the evolution of social advertising through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Web.

Introduction

Confinement of photographs to a square silhouette was unheard of until Instagram emerged. Instagram is an online service that facilitates photo-sharing and social networking. It allows users to take pictures, filter them using digital filters, and then share them on social networking sites of their choice.

Company background

The advent of Instagram brought a new experience for social networking enthusiasts. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger developed it in 2010 to improve social networking (Lux, 2010). The service was originally unavailable to many people because it was limited to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch only.

At the time, it had very few users. However, after adapting it for use in Android operating system in 2012, its popularity rose. Statistics showed that Instagram users increased to 100 million in 2012 after its introduction to the Android operating system (Lux, 2010).

After its adoption for android, more than 1 million users downloaded Instagram on the first day. In April 2012, Facebook acquired it at a price of approximately $1 billion dollars.

Industry background

The social networking industry has grown tremendously for the last few years. Each entrant tries to develop unique services that will guarantee its dominance on the market. Some dynamics of the social media include ranking and content (Lux, 2010).

It is important for participants to possess knowledge on the strategy used by competitors in order to develop a strategy that will facilitate dominance and competition.

In addition, content is important. This includes what is on offer, its quality, value, variety, amount of activity, and its effectiveness (Lux, 2010). These aspects determine success in the industry.

E-business/ IT background

Instagram is unique from other photo sharing and social networking sites because of its technology. It mainly focuses on photo sharing. Instagram uses a combination of SQL and NoSQL technologies and open source applications.

Mai technologies include an operating system, load balancing, WSGI, data storage, task queue, and monitoring (Lux, 2010). Other technologies used include Sentry, Pingdom, PagerDuty, Gearman, Pyapns, and Vmtouch among others.

Analysis

Instagram is facing several challenges. First, there is stiff competition from other photo-sharing services. These include Pixlr-O-Matic, PicPlz, Hipster, and StreamZoo (Henry, 2012).

Secondly, their new privacy rules will make it less appealing than it was before acquisition by Facebook. Instagram can now sell users photographs to third parties without the consent of users.

Thirdly, better services have been developed that provide better services than Instagram. For example, Pixlr-O-Matic has 68 digital filters while Instagram has 18 (Henry, 2012). In addition, it has additional features that Instagram misses. This makes it more appealing than Instagram.

Instagram is a highly feasible idea comparing its success after its launch. Currently, it has over 100 million users. Instagram possesses ability to generate revenue. For example, it recently diversified its services to include a product that enables users to view feds on the web (Henry, 2012).

This has made assess to user content easier, an opened an avenue for Instagram to make money. Instagram has more opportunities to generate revenue through advertisements even though it does not generate any revenue currently.

Its business model is based on the fact that people love images and might spend a lot of time on the internet. This will give advertisers opportunity to market their brands.

Recommendation

Instagram is an excellent service that has a bright future. It does not currently generate revenue but with new products under development, it will start generating income soon. Even though alternatives such as Pixlr-O-Matic, PicPlz, Hipster, and StreamZoo exist, they are not as popular as Instagram (Henry, 2012).

Its 100mmillion users imply availability of more opportunities for investors. This makes it a viable business that people should invest in.

Conclusion

Instagram is one of the e-business start-ups that have taken the world by surprise. Instagram allows capture and sharing of photographs on social networking sites. Since its acquisition by facebook, many things have changed that will affect it prominence.

Its new privacy rules are unappealing and may affect its popularity. Instagram is a viable start-up business that has a bright future despite stiff competition.

References

Henry, A. (2012). Dont bother with Instagram: here are some better alternatives. Web.

Lux, K. (2010). Whats Instagram and why is it so popular? Web.

Social media has become an integral part of our life, with an estimate of 2.3 billion active users. Rather than connecting to friends, family, news, and colleagues, people are using social media to connect to marketers, companies, and brands. Unlike the past, where marketers advertised and hoped for the best, social media gives an opportunity to engage the clients in real-time. Before investing in social media marketing, brands need to understand the social media objectives, useful sites, develop a banner ad, strategies to use, and the metrics to measure the success of the social media campaign.

Choosing the right social media channel is ideal for the success of social media marketing. The choice should be influenced by the target audience and the most likely platform they use. Instagram has a wide range of users, i.e., all classes of income earners. It is ideal for Colonized Coffee as long as the buyers are willing and able to pay. Since Facebook is a mobile app, it will be easy to offer real-time feedback to clients. Analyzing approaches used by competitors is significant before developing the content to use.

Most companies struggle to define clear objectives for their social media activities. Creating awareness for Colonized Coffee will reduce the sales process and increase market share. It is necessary to analyze the brand positioning strategies and understand the impact of social media marketing on the brand. For the brand uniqueness, create original content, personalize promotion, aim for the target audience, and profile prospectively. Uniqueness is significant in attracting the attention of the audience.

Increasing the social media community and accurately targeting a potential audience is a significant objective of social media marketing. To reduce annoyance ads in social media, marketers should target prospective customers. In the case of Colonized Coffee, selecting probable clients and popping up the ad in their profiles would be ideal rather than allowing the pop-ups in every social media user. Brand image and popularity improve as the number of followers increases.

Strengthening engagement strategies increases customer loyalty. Marketers primary objective is to create a pool of clients and maintain a long-lasting connection with the customers. Engaging influential social media followers will increase the Colonized Coffee awareness to many people. Brand Ambassadors with a high level of engagement is an effective social media strategy that can be used.

Metrics are put in place to learn what is successful, what needs to be amended, and how to improve it. Determine the social media goals before reacting to comments and tweets posted on the brand. Social media is used for several purposes, from broadcasting news to engaging customers in creating brand images (Soedarsono et al., 2020). Identifying what to be achieved is significant in determining if the efforts put into social media marketing are worth it. At the start of the campaign, create metrics to measure marketing goals. In the case of Colonized Coffee, tracking the number of customers increasing over a period is a vital metric to understand the impact of social media marketing.

Social media platforms have provided an advanced marketing strategy with less effort required. Social media networks have changed from being communication channels only to marketing places. With a good understanding of the targeted audience and marketing goals, social media offers a real-time platform to improve the image of a brand (Soedarsono et al., 2020). Depending on the target audience and the most likely platform they use frequently, marketers can track the improvement of a brand and offer real-time feedback to clients. Since the Colonized Coffee products are affordable to many, using social media and, more specifically, Instagram for marketing purposes will be ideal.

The Valentines Day Instagram marketing campaign for Colonized Coffee will include the promotion of the post that acknowledges and engages customers to buy a cup of coffee and receive another cup for free later. Coffee is a type of drink that suits casual, business, or romantic dates (Kurniawan & Rewindinar, 2021). Since Valentines Day is a day that celebrates couples or people that are in love with each other, having a cup of coffee together and paying less is an attractive option for many couples. Therefore, the campaign will target both male and female audiences aged from 18 to 30. The psychographic information will include marital status as mainly, the campaign targets unmarried couples or single people who frequent coffee shops, restaurants, or other food joints.

The post for the Instagram campaign of Colonized Coffee will look like this. The engagement strategies for such a post will include likes and comments, where users can tag their friends, partners, or loved ones which whom they would like to share the cup of coffee.

The progress of the campaign will be measured with metrics such as followers growth rate, comments per post, engagement per follower, and reach. Followers growth rate is one of the least significant ones because seeing the promo post does not have a goal of encouraging users to subscribe to the account (Robertson, 2018). However, growth in followers can be one of the consequences of a successful campaign. Secondly, comments per post also can act as indicators of peoples reactions. Although there is not much to comments, some users might use the comment section as a way to express their reaction or as a way to invite somebody for a cup of coffee by tagging them. Engagement per follower is an important metric as many posts on Instagram remain unseen due to the constant development and changes in the platforms algorithms (Robertson, 2018). For businesses who want to promote their product, this metric is essential as it represents the number of followers who have seen the post. Finally, there is a reach metric that represents the number of people who had seen the post in general. This is also important as it may be a representation of how well the post was incorporated into the algorithm so that the post got recommended to users who do not know or follow the account.

Using an Instagram campaign as an active marketing strategy is beneficial to businesses such as Colonized Coffee. The coffee industry is a challenging market because of the stiff competition and wide variety of small and large companies that basically offer the same product. Therefore, applying active marketing and creative social media campaigns is an effective way to gain a competitive advantage (Dharmayanti & Darma, 2020). The difference between active and passive marketing is that inactive marketing campaigns are mainly in the time span that they are aimed at. Active marketing implies a short-term campaign, such as a special Valentines Day offer, while passive campaigns are aimed at long-term advertisements. There are instances where passive marketing strategy would work for the Colonized Coffee company as well. For example, placing a native advertisement that would attract customers that may share businesses values or interests of the companys audience.

References

Dharmayanti, P. D., & Darma, G. S. (2020). The use of Instagram in coffee shop. International Research Journal of Management, IT and Social Sciences, 7(4), 48-56.

Kurniawan, M. S., & Rewindinar, R. (2021). Point Coffees Digital Communication Strategies through Post Feeds Instagram. International Journal of Social Science and Business, 5(4).

Robertson, M. (2018). Instagram Marketing: How to Grow Your Instagram Page And Gain Millions of Followers Quickly With Step-by-Step Social Media Marketing Strategies.

Soedarsono, D. K., Mohamad, B., Adamu, A. A., & Pradita, K. A. (2020). Managing Digital Marketing Communication of Coffee Shop Using Instagram. International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies, 14(5).

This essay will explore and uncover the complex issues that contest the representation of women via social media. Through strong contrast and discussion, the essay will attempt to educate in hopes of inspiring the reader to actively engage in strong political design. This essay will reference Kim Kardashian’s KKW Beauty campaign for her ‘Flashing Lights Collection.’ The campaign explores the complexities surrounding self-sexualization via social media and the effects this has on influencing visual culture. This example will be strongly juxtaposed to Sara Andreasson’s illustration titled “GRL PWR”. However, through semiotic analysis of the illustration reveals the difficulties surrounding the representation of women and the improvements that need to be made. It is important to note, the positive progress and accomplishments made by past feminist groups regarding the representation of women. However, we must re-evaluate the current position to continuously work towards closing the patriarchal gendered bias gap.

Throughout history, the visual representation of females continues to support the patriarchal ideas that are deeply ingrained into the visual culture. The representation of women within mainstream media often subjects females to the male gaze and simply renders them as sex objects for the patriarchy’s own pleasure. Furthermore, women are often depicted to be heavily reliant on the male protagonist, always needing their assistance. Through the sexualization of the female figure, it allows the patriarchy to remain in control, with males and females having vastly different experiences within society. The supremacy of the patriarchy would be destroyed if women achieved gender equality in today’s political environment. The increased usage of social media, via platforms such as Instagram, has only increased the prevalence of the poor representation of women. On a worldwide scale, one billion people use Instagram monthly. Within the political landscape, managing and maintaining social media presents is becoming more vital in creating a social status for contemporary society. Using this platform, people can now create a profile with the perceived perfected image, acceptable for social consumption. However, the usage of social media by developing minds has major ramifications, that directly impact self-construction, specifically among female users. Designers often don’t realize or neglect to understand the impact the poor representation can have on both women and men subsisting within the visual culture. In the ever-changing politically charged environment, designers must increasingly know their own individual impact indirectly influencing the visual landscape.

Influencers on Instagram, such as Kim Kardashian with 139 million followers, fundamentally form the direct content that influences the visual culture of contemporary society. Her social media reach is dramatically vast, but what is her role in creating a political design? Gender bias can clearly be represented through Kim Kardashian’s KKW Beauty campaign. The campaign was shot by David LaChapelle in 2018 for the Flashing Lights Collection. (See figure 1) Kim Kardashian posted the photo on her personal Instagram account, receiving over 2 million ‘likes’. The photograph depicts a male figure holding up a mirror, whilst Kim stares into it. The main focus of the photography is the accentuation of Kim’s body, clearly making her an object for others to consume. Although both figures are strongly sexualized throughout the campaign, different gender connotations are extracted from the photograph by the audience. The male’s body is viewed as strong, authoritative, and commanding; while Kim’s body is viewed as delicate and dependant. Via social media, women are far more likely to be presented as dependant with their physical appearance viewed primarily. This is clearly shown in the photograph posted on Instagram and clearly aligns with the key ideologies discussed around the traditional representation of women. This showcases the strong prevalence of the poor representations of women that exist within social media and the attention it draws. Social media provides the perfect platform for brands to capitalize, however, the continuous sexualization of women via social media is beginning to impact body confidence. Furthermore, studies also suggest that the increased objectification of women via social media has led to a greater prevalence and acceptance of sexual violence against women. Kim Kardashian has released an object for others to consume, without adding any value to the political feminist design. Influencers with such a vast reach, need to reconsider their political stance and act appropriately in order to positively impact their visual landscape.

It is important to note the complexities surrounding the representation of women in the media. Some argue, through the lens of third-wave feminism, the female figure has the power, through creating sexual liberation. Kim Kardashian has embraced her sexuality and representing herself how she sees fit, thus redefining femininity. The sexual liberation that continues to inspire women to reclaim their bodies from the patriarchy remains vital. However, the increased dependence on social media for social expression and acceptance has increased self-sexualization by users, females in particular. There is now an increase in peer pressure forced onto young females to self-sexualize in order to be accepted into particular social groups. Women are taught to be aware of their appearance while balancing trying not to arouse a male’s “unruly and potentially dangerous sexual appetite”. This clearly expresses the patriarchal hierarchy that not only exists but thrives within social media. Social media designers must be aware of the message they are sending and the impact these can have on developing minds.

Evermore, we are progressing into an era defined by ‘post-feminism’, coined by Angela McRobbie. The young populace is no longer deeply connected with feminism and its key ideologies, believing that gender equality has been accomplished. This is evident through the 2014 trending #womenagainstfeminism, in which users posted photos stating why they no longer need feminism. This movement has meant that young educated women have become desensitized by the sexualization of women due to the increased prevalence via social media. This has only increased the occurrence and support for brands that continuously sexualize and objectify women. This should only further motivate designers to produce feminist political design, in order to continue the fight for gender equality. Together designers must further educate themselves and reinterpret the important information for consumers to learn. The role of the designer is becoming increasingly more important as the political environment becomes more complex. Thus, within the ever-changing political landscape, designers have a direct influence on changing the populace’s understanding of the representation of women in mainstream media.

In order to influence the political landscape, designers must harness the reach and influence social media has within contemporary society. Social media now allows information to be shared almost immediately, allowing the general populace to be instantly aware of current affairs. Designers must use this notion to educate and draw attention to their own personal political agendas in order to inspire social change within their visual culture. A strong example of a designer inspiring social change is Sara Andreasson, with almost 70 thousand followers on Instagram. Andreasson particularly focuses on underlining issues surrounding feminist and queer theories. Referencing Andreasson’s 2017 illustration, titled ‘GRL PWR”, depicts a woman boxing, with ‘Girl Power’ appearing on screen. The illustration was posted to Andreasson’s personal Instagram account and has currently almost received 3,000 ‘likes’ and almost 10,000 views. The protagonist in the illustration is presented as a powerful and strong individual. The illustration is absent of any male figures, abolishing stereotypes of the female being dependant on the male figure. The protagonist in the illustration has a defined stare, watching the audience as she completes her task. This challenges the male gaze, as the protagonist is not presented as passive to be consumed by the patriarchy’s desire. This illustration clearly contrasts the photograph posted on Kim Kardashian’s Instagram account. Andreasson has released an image into the visual culture, which inspires viewers to be powerful and independent. Andreasson’s work provides a sound example of how just one Instagram post that tackles a political issue can alter the broader social sphere.

However, within the ever-changing political landscape, some argue that Andreasson’s work plays into the key ideologies of the patriarchy. In order to remain powerful, why does one have to be presented as masculine? The figure in Andreasson’s illustration is drawn to having exaggerated stereotypical masculine qualities. Andreasson states through her work, that she aims to challenge the gendered qualities embedded in society, by referencing the male figure when illustrating females. The term masculine is usually used to describe a dominant male, being both brave and un-emotional. Whilst femininity is usually aligned with someone with passive qualities, highly emotional, and is physically desirable. Andreasson is redefining masculinity, however, she is stating in order to be recognized as powerful within the mainstream marginalized society, female figures must have male-like qualities. This supports the patriarchal hierarchy and further embeds stereotypical gender qualities in contemporary society. However, through discussion, it is important to celebrate designers, like Andreasson, who are pioneers in creating a conversation within the new world of social media. It is imperative not to destabilize Andreasson’s practice, but instead, continue the debate on the positive representation of women and how designers can achieve this. Her work is evidence for the feminist movement, however, serves as an example of the improvements that can be made by designers in their political landscape.

Another complexity within this illustration is that Andreasson was commissioned by Adidas StellaSport, to complete an illustration for their campaign. The illustration raises ethical concerns referencing Adidas’s marketing strategy, in which they simply follow “prime time feminism”. Adidas has intended to affiliate its brand with feminist theories, in order to attract socially charged consumers following Andreasson on Instagram. Campaigns that support such movements often receive a large number of views, with the campaigns often going viral. Adidas understands the power of social media and has aimed to capitalize and exploit feminist theories. Brands often simply support feminism on a surface level, often having a deep patriarchal organizational structure. For example, Adidas only has one female on their Executive Board. Consumers must be aware of their own buying power and consider every purchase as a political one. Consumers must distinguish the difference between companies that are simply following trends and those who make authentic attempts to create social change. Designers must strive to continue their pursuit of the positive representation of women via social media. Designers must remember the consequences the poor representation of women has on shaping their core ideologies and continue their support after the conclusion of a social trend.

As discussed, the positive representation of women via social media is a complex and ever-changing social issue, that doesn’t produce one simple answer. However, McRobbie states that the populace can be inspired to fight for gender equality in order to rewrite the patriarchy, through clever political design. This can be achieved through correctly informing and educating the designer, in hopes of them using the information to design for political action. As a future project, I propose an educational lecture led by industry leaders lobbying for feminist issues. (See figure 3) The aim of the day is to educate designers on both the importance and complexities surrounding the representation of women through design and social media. I hope that the day would inspire designers to design and illustrate social change within their political landscape. The day would include open discussions and workshops from industry leaders, including Michaela Webb, creative director at Studio Round, and Nicole Aguirre Corbett, Chief Executive Officer at Worn Studio. Both studios pride themselves in redefining the patriarchal notions that are deeply embedded in the design industry. The day would also include workshops by Jane Connory, discussing the importance of networking with other females, and how to include more women within the design industry. Each designer will begin to gain their own individual perspective on how to positively represent women. In turn, they would then reinterpret this information, implementing their new knowledge in their own individual design practice, positively affecting their immediate landscape.

It is easy to identify the poor representation of women within contemporary visual culture, however, there is no one answer in identifying what a positive representation consists of. Andreasson serves as a sound example, however, only highlights complex areas that need further redefining and improvement. I hope through this essay, the reader has gained new profound perspectives on the representation of women via social media. As consumers, we must support brands with politically charged core concepts. As designers, we must consistently discuss the complex political environment, allowing our findings to be the focus of our designs. Designers must present forward-thinking ideas to consumers and reject the ideas surrounding post-feminism, in order to continue to underline issues surrounding gender inequality. Political feminist design, that positively represents women has the power to confidently alter the visual culture. However, in order to achieve this goal, designers must pledge to consistently educate themselves on strong political issues that interest them. This will only lead to a more enriched and diverse visual broader social sphere.

Social media users in Indonesia is increasing today. There are around 59 million active Instagram users dominated by young adults age 18 to 24 years old. The purpose of this study is to understand the way couples using Instagram in developing their romantic relationships and reducing their uncertainty at the initiation stage of relationship development. The method used in this research was qualitative with a phenomenological research approach. The researcher interviewed two romantic couples, young adults who were active Instagram users – they are logging in daily and actively engaging on the platform. This study proves that the implementation of Knapp’s relational stage model is still applicable to today’s modern romantic relationship. The tangible difference lies in how the stranger gets acquaintance on Instagram at the initial approach – as they replace Facebook and face-to-face meetings, and how they show off their affection of ‘in relationship’. Further, the result indicates that Instagram is the most common means of passive uncertainty reduction strategies at the initiation stages of relationship development, followed by interactive strategies and last is active strategies.

According to Solomon & Theiss, interpersonal communication refers to the extract meanings process within two individuals in which one’s actions can influence another person’s action. Interpersonal communication often relates to a romantic relationship; when people romantically interested in someone, the appealing feelings toward each other are expressed by verbal or non-verbal communications. In today’s globalization era, social networking sites (SNS) play an important role in changing the way people communicate and develop their interpersonal relationships (Baym, 2010). Therefore, the way romantic couples communicate matters because it affects the integrity of relationships; whether it will be well developed, maintained or destroyed through communications.

Nowadays, most people are sharing their experiences online driven by the desire to get the most convenient, effective and quick medium to interact. Social media allow people to recreate face-to-face interaction by messaging, sharing, or posting online – it feels like a never-ending process (Farrugia, 2013). Smith & Duggan (2013) reports that 59% of internet users prefer to meet their prospective romantic partners online. Now, romantic relationship status can be also revealed at the second people screening through couples’ social media. In Indonesia, 56% of 268.2 million total populations of Indonesia are actively using social media as of January 2019. The nature of social media have huge power in Indonesia to digitally fact-check personal information, declare one’s romantic relationship status, and communicate between couples.

Furthermore, the researcher has chosen Instagram as an integral medium of romantic relationship development since Indonesia is the fourth leading country in the world in terms of the number of Instagram users. It is recorded that, as of July 2019, Indonesia has reached around 59 million active users. Additionally, Instagram is dominated by Indonesian young adults age 18 to 24 years old over 39% of total active users (NapoleonCat, 2019), conversely 55.8% of Facebook users consists of those age 30 to 35 years old. Instagram was founded in 2010 as the online application allowing people to connect with pictures, videos, messages, or comments in a very fascinating way. Data updated by 2019, Instagram now has 1B+ active monthly users and 500M+ daily stories around the world.

Referring to the fact that the application of most theoretical frameworks were evaluated on the basis of traditional interaction or face-to-face interaction. It is tremendously important to assess the role of Instagram in the development of a romantic relationship in young adults, like Facebook, Instagram is also supplementing traditional face-to-face interaction. Therefore, this research in-depth examines Instagram by using Knapp’s relationship development model as the grand theory that originally conceptualized by Knapp in 1978 and Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT) at the initiation stage as the topic-related theory that originally formulated by Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese in 1975.

Knapp’s relationship development model offers five stages of developing a relationship such as initiation, experimentation, intensifying, integration until it successfully becomes a formal relationship at the bonding stage. All people are involved in the romantic relationship must experience these stages as their relationship grows. So far, none of the previous studies analyze the whole application of Knapp’s relationship development model in the modern communication channels – the initiation stage and the bonding stage are the most reviewed stages by the scholars. Previous studies mostly examined the specific stage of Knapp’s relationship development model on Facebook, followed by any online dating sites such as Tinder, e-Harmony, Match, etc.

Furthermore, the researcher explores the application of Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT) at initial encounters of modern romantic relationships because social media play important roles to reduce uncertainty at the initiation stage especially as information-seeking tools. Uncertainty is uncomfortable (West & Turner, 2010:149). Thus, the research by Mongeau, Jacobsen & Donnerstein in 2007 as cited in West & Turner (2010:159) note that the primary goal of dating is reducing uncertainty. To evaluate uncertainty reduction strategies, the researcher has constructed three information-seeking strategies in initiating a new relationship. As described by Berger in Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application by West & Turner (2010:157), those strategies are: (a) passive strategies — in-depth searching and viewing prospective dates’ profile page without their knowing and typically doing in a careful way without leaving any sign of visits on wall posts or comments; (b) active strategies — asking the third party that may comment on their prospective dates’ past actions and behavior; (c) interactive strategies — involving two ways interaction to potential dates, it can be via phone, email or face to face.

This study aims to understand the way couples use Instagram in developing their romantic relationships and reducing their uncertainty at the initiation stage of relationship development. Based on the background of the study, the researcher constructs two research questions:

Furthermore, this study consists of three-level of contributions. Firstly, this study contributes to gain a practical understanding of the modern application of Knapp’s model relationship development and Uncertainty Reduction Theory. Secondly, this study continues existing yet fresh researches by Fox et al. that focuses on the role of Facebook in romantic relationship escalation and maintenance. This study makes a breakthrough – focus on the role of Instagram, relationship growth, and uncertainty reduction behaviors. It has to be challenging since none previous researches existed about relationship escalation and maintenance using Knapp’s relational stage model on Instagram. Thirdly, this research addresses specific contributions towards specific parties:

1. practical significant – romantic couples, to minimize the relationship dissolution threats using Instagram,
2. future researchers, to explore wider perspectives of the role of Instagram in romantic relationship development.

The scope of this research is qualitative descriptive research with the phenomenological approach focusing on examining Instagram using Knapp’s relationship development model as the grand theory and uncertainty reduction theory in the initiation stage as the topic-related theory. It considers two romantic couples that are currently in a romantic relationship who have an active Instagram account. The informants are the young adults age 18 to 24 years old which accounts for 39% of total active Indonesian Instagram users. In vivo coding is conducted to identify the informant’s experiences. The researcher does not further analyze the length of the relationship – does not matters whether the informants are either currently in short- or long-term relationships because this research merely acquires them to refer back to the time they knew each other until the moment they announced themselves together in relationship status. In addition to it, the other external factors such as family background, or individual past experiences in developing romantic relationships are not correlated with research questions.

Social media has become a big part of our lives today since it came out, it’s something which many people can’t live without anymore. Social media such as Instagram is known to be used for entertaining purposes but today for teenagers it isn’t used for entertaining purpose. Instagram is mostly used by teenagers to show off their beauty, luxury and all the things they have. Instagram has pros but it mostly has cons which are that social media is affecting teenagers body image and mental health, and it is an addictive app which is ruining teenagers’ lives.

Body image is one of the most important things in our life, it’s the way we view ourselves even though society has standards set for us. Social media such as Instagram has become a bad influence on an important topic like body image, teenagers are being pressured to change themselves and become something which they aren’t. Instagram is making many people concerned about why is social media affecting their teenage sons and daughters a lot. Celebrities and many famous influencers show off their bodies on Instagram, which many of them have done plastic surgeries and other types of surgeries on their bodies to make themselves look better. While teenagers are scrolling through celebrities and influencer’s Instagram pages, they look at the celebrities’ posting videos and pictures of the way they look, it makes them wonder about why can’t I look like that or even better than that. Research has found that “together, these results suggest that Instagram usage may negatively influence women’s appearance-related concerns and beliefs” (Fardouly, J. 2017), which means that Instagram is negatively influencing female teenagers based on their appearance.

Teenagers are comparing themselves to celebrities and influencers is one of the reasons which is making their life turn to a negative path. Body image is something which teenagers are afraid to talk about to someone it is also one of the reasons why teenagers have become depressed and are blaming themselves for the way they look, which they aren’t supposed to because looking in a certain is not what matters. Many teenagers hate the way they look after looking at other people’s pictures of them looking perfect. Body image has set a high standard for so many people which is one of the reasons why it is ruining their lives. The high standard which the society has set for people is another reason why the teenagers dress up in large clothes to cover up their bodies because they don’t look better or because they hate when someone looks at them and talks about them. Some teenagers don’t understand why the celebrities and influencers look good is because they are either good at editing their pictures, or they have someone who can edit the way they look to make them look nice and more natural by using a filter and other kinds of tools which are used for editing. As a result of the high standard being set for body image and other things for teenagers and other people, they are becoming victims of depression, anxiety, anger issues, and self-hatred, which isn’t supposed to happen because it’s way too much pressure on a teenager.

Mental health is another important thing many people have to face in their daily lives and it is causing more problems. Many teenagers are facing mental health which includes depression, anxiety, panic attack, and much more problems related to mental health in their everyday lives which no one can really notice until they’re opened up about properly to someone. Mental health has caused many people to give up on their lives, for example, committing suicide, not interacting with friends or family, and even zoning out everything and everyone around them. Social media is one of the reasons why many teenagers are facing mental health issues. Instagram is triggering mental health, for example, if someone doesn’t get a lot of likes on their picture that they have posted it will trigger their anxiety because of why they didn’t get a lot of likes like the other people around them are getting. Many teenagers are depressed because of their breakups or even friendships that are broken due to certain issues, they’ll be there physically but not mentally, they’ll stop talking to the rest of their friends and loved ones. Research has found that the people who post pictures it defines that some of them are depressed. They’ll post things that have darker colors, some even post stories about what’s going on in their lives. The research also stated that based on the person’s mood and mental health, the person who has depression will only go with darker colors such as grey or black.

The research also found out that “general practitioners were able to correctly rule out depression in non-depressed patients 81% of the time, but only diagnosed depressed patients correctly 42% of the time” (Reece A. G., Danforth C. M., 2017), which means that people who show themselves as that they are not depressed are the ones that have depression. They have also found out that a lot of likes on a picture can make teenagers happy or even sad. Instagram is causing fear within teenagers because every second new thing are uploaded and talked about, and it’s making them think that they’ll miss about the new things that posted or are going on social media. Instagram is also causing teenagers to feel sad because they see other people living their lives happily and are doing what they have planned for themselves. According to the research’s authors, they believe that if someone uses social media like Instagram more than two hours per day, it will affect their mental health, which will cause them to think about suicidal ideas. The research also says that teenagers who compare their happiness and things to their friends who post things online, it ends up affecting the persons their mental health the most because their close one is enjoying their life and they aren’t.

Another reason to believe why social media isn’t good for teenagers is that it causes addiction to your phone and social media like Instagram. Addiction to social media is bad, it will cause problems like sleep problems and mental health problems. According to the research, which did the survey, it states that “86% of students in Ontario visit social media sites daily and about 16 per cent spend five hours a day or more on social media” (‘Is Social Media Addictive?’, n.d., para. 3), which means that the students (teenagers) who are on social media like Instagram can use it for a long time it can be over five or more hours. For some students (teenagers) Instagram is help for them even if they facing mental health issues, Instagram is giving them motivation and fixing their mood, it also helps them concentrate on certain things. The research by the Canadian Mental Health Association discovered that if they used MRI scans to monitor the activity in the reward center of the brain, they can see how it affects teenagers when someone likes something on their social media, whether it will activate their reward part of the brain more or not. Social media is like a drug to the brain, which means that if someone doesn’t follow you or likes your photos and the things you have shared, your brain will have all kinds of thought but apart from that your mood will change from happy to sad or angry and you’ll be pressured by your brain if you are really focused at that one thing.

If the teenagers continue to spend a lot of time on Instagram it will affect their mental health and relations with their loved ones, for example, if the teenager doesn’t spend time around people their family and friends will notice and then they’ll tell them not to use it and it makes the teenager angry. Then the angry teenagers will be on their phone a lot more than they are supposed to be. The addiction to social will also cause the teenager to be distracted from school, homework, and assignments. Social media addiction will make teenagers fall behind in school, it will ruin their future. If students (teenagers) won’t pass classes they won’t be able to graduate from high school and won’t be able to have a chance to be in their dream or favorite program at college or university. If the teenager is always on their Instagram, it will affect the way they think or do things and they u won’t be able to control themselves from the addiction of getting likes or follows. The teenager will also become lazy which will change their body and then they’ll be depressed about their body image or even how they have a mental health problem just because of social media. The addiction will also cause sleeping problems for you, it will ruin the teenager’s day and night, and also it will cause problems for being focused in home, school or outside around everyone.

Instagram is a digital platform of photo and video sharing social networking service owned by Facebook, created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and originally launched on iOS in October 2010. With a total of 849.3 million users all over the world, it certainly makes Instagram the 3rd digital platform with the most users, under Facebook and Snapchat. Broadly speaking, it can indeed be said that women are more active in social media than men. Of course with the high level of activeness of women in social media, especially Instagram, there will be some differences between men and women in terms of language use both in captions and comments. This research was conducted to determine whether there are differences in language use when male and female upload a photo or video. There is a big difference in the use of English language in terms of Instagram posts by male and female

To begin with, the first difference comes from the use of slang words by men and women. Research has shown that men generally outline slang words or even ‘coarse’ or ‘dirty’ language. Men are considered to have an emotional level which is a bit lower than women. This causes men to rarely put words directly into the heart and instead consider these words as mere jokes. Men often use harsh words to tease their friends, or even use these words to call their own friends. Indeed, this is not something to be proud or imitated, but that is a fact that is happening on the ground.

In addition, Emoji is a Japanese term for image characters or emoticons used in Japanese electronic messages and Web pages. Originally meant pictograph, the literal word meaning ‘picture’ + ‘letter’. Emoticons are often used as an expression of something, melt the atmosphere that is too rigid, soften criticism, etc. A study from Rice University said, women were twice as likely to use emoticons in text messages than men. In the study, 100 percent of participants used emoticons, but they didn’t use them often. Only four percent of all messages contain one or more emoticons. This study also supports previous research that women are more expressive in nonverbal communication. The author found that women use more emoticons than men. But men use more varied emoticons to express themselves.

Moreover, research has shown that women more often use abbreviations both in commenting and as captions on their Instagram post. Words like WDYM (what do you mean), WDYT (what do you think), IYKYK (if you know, you know) they use very often. Research also found a reason behind the use of the word abbreviation. The women felt that using these words would save time and energy.

Abstract

This qualitative study was an attempt to explore the learners’ viewpoints on Instagram application in learning English language. The participants of the study involved 27 undergraduate ESL learners, who were enrolled in an Academic Communication course at a private university in Malaysia. A focus group discussion was conducted to collect the learners’ perspectives towards the use of Instagram in English language learning. The findings of the study revealed the learners enjoyed learning English via Instagram as it enabled them to enhance their English grammar as well as vocabularies. In addition, Instagram assisted them to develop their English language proficiency and communication skill through online meaningful interactions with their classmates. Finally, Instagram helped the learners to be more motivated to study English language. The implications of this study suggest practical and convenient ways of using Instagram to English language instructors and lecturers who are striving to improvise their language teaching pedagogy.

Introduction

The development of technology nowadays has caused a rapid emergence of social media that connects people from all over the world. What started as a platform to interact with others and express oneself has now expanded into something bigger than what people may have expected. The pervasiveness of social media lead learners to utilise them as learning tools or platforms to improve their language skills. According to El-Hussein, Osman, and Cronje (2010), mobile learning happens in learning conditions and spaces that consider the mobility of technology, learners, and learning. The technology and devices for mobile learning are wireless and they are open for public use. This enables the learners to adapt this usage into their learning (Traxler, 2007). Mobile learning has also been introduced as a new factor of learning process and learning method (Barhoumi & Rossi, 2013). It is evident for students to rely on mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablets in this modern era because they have become common to be applied in tertiary education. Besides the mainstream purpose of social networking through the applications such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, these applications are now also used for educational purposes. (Jimoyiannis, Tsiotakis, Roussinos, & Siorenta, 2013).

Instagram is used as a platform for 21st century learners to enhance their productivity of learning. Instagram is a mobile application which is available via the play store or for iPhone users via apple store. It enables people to take instant snapshots of appealing images, current activities which are going on live, upload pictures, text messaging, and even to post videos. Salomon (2013) stated that Instagram is a form of digital literacy which is used to aid in teaching process and enhance the quality of learning. Dewi, & Salam (2018) mentioned that students gain learning through Instagram and they are able to expand their learning time with various learning activities since learning in the classroom has limited timing which is not essential of productive learning. Instagram also enables learners to connect themselves in a meaningful way towards urban, diverse, and further goals in their future studying, teaching, and learning skills.

Solomon, (2013) stated that there would be some people who speak English as their second language tend to have some grammatical errors when commenting, posting a caption or a status and that is when learners’ inferiority in writing will emerge. Kurdi (2017.) suggested that a teacher should encourage the students that if writing habit is essential thus the grammatical competence. According to Richards and Schmidt (2010) “writing is the result of complex processes of planning, drafting, reviewing, and revising. It requires the brain to process many exposures or inputs and organize them into a well-structured written text”. Thus, when learners are about to post a caption, or comment they require grammatical thinking even though it involves writing a short sentence.

Even though Instagram has constrained functions, it tends to be valuable in language classrooms. Instagram offers a plenty of contextualized visual information that can provide help in English language classrooms. These guides are particularly valuable since they offer visual components that can be considered useful for visual learners. Additionally, utilizing Instagram in classrooms can help with making a socially associated network of learners. Associating on Instagram is essentially done through the like and remark capacities, which are not underestimated by Instagram clients. According to Vie (2008) another imperative basis for effectively using Instagram as a language learning tool is that Instagram is a usually utilized online networking outlet that youth students prefer to use. McBride (2009) believes that youthful students’ commonality with Instagram can be viewed as preference as it can reduce conceivable pressure caused by incorporating new devices into learning exercises.

Literature Review

Social media have now become applicable platforms for any learners from any field to perform mobile learning. Thus, many studies have been carried out on the impact of using social media such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and etcetera on language learning. There are many positive views from researches regarding the process of learning language via social media. EFL students were able to develop skills both in content and language knowledge through the use of Facebook (Eren, 2012; Shih, 2011). Besides, by using social media as learning tools, the students are able to not only connect and build a strong relationship with one another but also, with their teachers (Aydin, 2014). According to Idris & Ghani (2012) Facebook as one of the social media contributed in the construction of knowledge. In addition, Facebook has been able to promote incidental learning of language skills (Akhiar, Mydin, & Adi Kasuma, 2017; Kabilan, Ahmad, & Abidin, 2010), and many opportunities were afforded by Facebook for language teachers (Mahadi & Ubaidullah, 2010).

On the other hand, there are also negative aspects of social media in language learning. Firstly, teachers will have extra tasks to monitor the suitability of language and content (Shih, 2011) to ensure that the students do not come across any sensitive or controversial issues. In addition, social media are used for the purpose of sending and receiving information in an instant. Because of this, not much attention is paid when it comes to ensuring the proper use of English grammar structures. Therefore, the possibility of issues for students such as learning inaccurate language productions in online environment may arise (Kabilan, Ahmad, & Abidin, 2010). Furthermore, other issues such as hacking and leaking of private information may also arise (Gettman & Cortijo, 2015; Teclehaimanot & Hickman, 2011). Therefore, teachers need to evaluate and take precaution before implementing social media into language learning classroom. Teachers also need to contextualise their usage to match the students’ needs and learning abilities, as well as the set curriculums.

The results of a study by Musa, Lie, and Azman (2012) showed that many Malaysian students feel less confident while using social media. This is because they are concerned on their lack of skills in English language especially in grammar rules and structures. Chokwe (2015) stated that most students receive feedback from their peers while interacting with them on social media via posting pictures with captions. If a friend were to detect a grammar mistake, they would reach out to them (Akhiar, Mydin, & Adi Kasuma, 2017). In fact, social media enhance students’ interests to participate and interact with their peers. They are effective tools for them to discuss their task-related activities in order to improve their learning.

Mansor and Rahim (2017) mentioned that social networking pages encourage a sense of community and fostering a greater grasp of the concept discussed in class. It can be said that majority of the students perceived Social Networking Sites (SNSs) as potential tools that can help in education field. “Social media is also a platform for learners to express their thoughts more clearly while improving their English language at the same time (Plumb, 2013)”. The freedom to express their thoughts instead of saying it face to face in classrooms also helps boost their motivation as some do not have the confidence to talk in front of people. Khalitova and Gimaletdinova (2016) stated that Instagram can be used as an online instructive tool to help and upgrade learning EFL. Finally, Purwandari (2017) carried out a study on using Instagram to improve pupils’ writing through photographs and the results of his study demonstrated that the application of photographs in Instagram improved pupils’ writing skills in writing descriptive texts.

Method

The main aim of this study was to explore the learners’ perspectives on Instagram application on learning English language. This study involved 27 undergraduate ESL learners, who were enrolled in an Academic Communication course at a private university in Malaysia. All learners were already familiar with SNSs specifically Instagram as they had their personal Instagram accounts for personal purposes. For the purpose of this study, each learner was asked to set up a new Instagram account in order to communicate with each other based on different topics given by the lecturer. It is worth noting that the lecturer played the role as an observer and a facilitator. The data gathered via focus group discussion from all students in order to find out their perceptions towards using Instagram for learning English language. The learners were given the chance to discuss all the topics via their Instagram beside their class in order to experience learning through Instagram before participating in focus group discussion. The data were recorded using digital voice recorder and transcribed accordingly. Finally, the researchers coded the key quotes and sorted them into themes in order to analyse them via thematic analysis.

Findings and Discussion

According to the learners’ responses from the focus group discussions, Instagram helped them to improve their language proficiency as well as their communication with their classmates. They also stated that online discussions helped them learn from each other. In terms of grammar rules Instagram helped them to think twice before they post and come up with correct sentences. One of the learners stated: “basically, Instagram can improve my English because, it stimulates creativity for everyone who uses Instagram because whenever we want to post captions we have to think critically and make sure grammatically our sentences are correct. we actually can test our English skills specially grammar and try to improve them.” (learner 4)

Most of the learners pointed out that Instagram made them more motivated to learn English vocabularies and grammar rules. For instance, one learner mentioned: “Instagram motivates me for better learning in English as in terms of certain word or new vocabularies that I am not sure about. I would actually take those words and will actually Google them or even find them in the dictionary to understand their meaning and learn new English words.” (learner 12)

Two learners added: “I Instagram motivates me for learning a better English when I read the comments in English, I will be curious to learn more and more. This motivation helps me to improve my English learning. In fact, it is very fun to learn English via Instagram” (learner 21) “Based on my experience of learning English through Instagram, I will say that Instagram is very good for learning English where we can improve our vocabulary and grammar mistakes. So, it helps me to correct my mistakes that I have done before and I learn a lot of things through Instagram in terms of English skills.” (learner 25)

According to a study conducted by Akhiar, Mydin, & Adi Kasuma, (2017). “Instagram improves students’ language proficiency (75 percent) and enhances their communication with teachers and friends (70 percent). The findings of their study are in line with the findings of this study as most of the learners believed that Instagram helped them to improve their language proficiency as well as their communication with their classmates.

Rensburg and Thanh (2017) also believed that the application of Instagram is anticipated to increase students’ language learning outcome from their active involvement and constructive attitudes to supplementary learning activities. Furthermore, they stated that active engagement in SNSs generates a better English conversation atmosphere for the learners. In addition, a study by Al-Ali (2014) revealed similar results that Using Instagram helped redefine the language classroom as it allowed students to generate ideas for their writing activities with contextually relevant content and offered them a learning experience that they enjoyed.

This study explored the learners’ perspectives towards the use of Instagram in English language learning. The results of the study showed that the learners enjoyed learning English via Instagram and they found learning fun and enjoyable. According to the learners’ feedback, Instagram helped them to enhance their English grammar as well as vocabularies. They were able to correct their mistakes in terms of grammar and choice of word, based on their classmates’ supports. The learners also mentioned that Instagram assisted them to develop their language proficiency and communication skill.

Conclusion

it can be concluded that the learners had positive perceptions towards the integration of Instagram with the task-based language activities in Academic Communication course. In fact, The Instagram platform provided the learners with the opportunity to engage in meaningful interactions which improved their English language communication, language proficiency, grammar rules, and vocabularies. Instagram played a significant role in terms of learners’ motivation as it made them be eager to learn English language via interactions with their classmates. Therefore, it is highly recommended for teachers and lecturers to make the learning process more enjoyable and effective via using Instagram in order to enhance the students’ English language learning.

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Social networks have changed our ways of life, many think that for better and others for worse, but the fact is that it has been a revolution, and Instagram has been a determined actor in all this. Learn more about this social network below.

Instagram is a mobile application that allows users to upload content and share their lives through photos and videos. In many ways, the Instagram photo-sharing platform has been unique from the beginning, perhaps that’s why it has become so popular. Once a user takes a photo, he or she can choose a filter to customize the image and capture the moment perfectly. The purpose of the filters is to transform an amateur or mediocre mobile photo into an artistic and professional-looking image, and, although that task is not always achieved, the fact of being able to edit the photos just before publishing them and with very simple and intuitive options, was partly the secret of the success of this platform.

Now, perhaps the greatest value of Instagram is the possibility of capturing moments in real-time, it is something like the “Kodak moment” but even more instantaneous because it was not necessary to reveal the photo so that others could see it, so that the factor “real-time” played a lot in his favor. The instantaneity of sharing moments has naturally evolved into features that allow users to watch IG stories, fostering an intimate and dynamic way of staying connected. This conferred humanity and realism to the social network; it was what people were looking for.

Technology for Instagram began to develop in the city of San Francisco, when career programmers Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger chose to focus their Burbn project, a check-in HTML5 (basic web language) with multiple functions, on mobile photography. Burbn became too similar to Foursquare (a web-based service applied to social networks), and they both realized that they had gone too far. Burbn was then pivoted to focus more on sharing photos, and that’s how Instagram was born, a name that is a “portmanteau” (pun) between the terms “instant camera” and “telegram”.

In 2009, by then, the concept did not seem as novel as the sharing of photos was a key element in all social networks, which were already beginning to dominate the activity on the internet and were headed by a service as ‘complete’ as Facebook. But Instagram had something that Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or Hi5 didn’t have and it was that instant connection between the phone’s camera and the media. It was like having a cheaper Polaroid camera with an integrated elementary Photoshop … The idea was succulent and clear that it would attract many investors.

On March 5, 2010, Systrom closed a $ 500,000 round of financing with Baseline Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz while working on the platform (although, at that time, it was not yet called Instagram, as that name emerged virtually just before its launch). With that money, more staff could be hired: Josh Riedel joined the company in October as a community manager, Shayne Sweeney joined in November as a system engineer, and Jessica Zollman joined as a community evangelist in August 2011.

Kevin published the first Instagram photo, in the personal account he created to start the practices of the platform, on July 16, 2010. The image shows a dog taken from a higher perspective and improved with an X-PRO2 filter; The caption, which was written by his girlfriend, says the picture was taken in Mexico. Instagram was very primitive at the time, and little by little, features such as hashtags, new filters, video options, etc., were added.

On October 6, 2010, Instagram launched its official application for the iOS system, while, for the Android system, it was launched on April 3, 2012; That day alone had more than one million downloads.

In the search for more power in the field of social networks, Facebook made Instagram an offer it could not refuse: 1 billion dollars in cash and shares, with the right to maintain some administrative independence, in exchange for total ownership of the company. Recall that at that time, the market value of Instagram barely exceeded 500 million dollars, and in such a context, 1000 million is paradise.

On August 22, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission of the United States closed its antitrust investigation (a usual process in large operations like this one) and, finding no irregularity in the process, allowed the agreement to continue, and that was how September 6, 2012, Instagram began to be part of Facebook Inc. According to Wired magazine, the agreement compensated Kevin Systrom with four hundred million dollars.