UTAH TECH UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE | March 28, 2024

Instagram connects people with similar interests

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I will never apologize for selfies.

Selfies are not just about posting ridiculous photos of oneself. There is so much more to the selfie culture.

I love the ability to pull up an application and see what the people I care about are doing (bonus points because I don’t have to scroll through suggested pages, game requests and “Like if you love your mommy” posts like Facebook).

Instagram allows people from all over the world to share their lives with friends and family via pictures no matter how far apart they may be. What’s not to love about that?

Even if you share your life through selfies, your followers are still seeing you for who you are. They are seeing the good, the bad and maybe even the ugly. A selfie is not a curse on society; it’s people showing themselves for who they are.

Instagram allows people to put themselves out there and say, “This is me,” in a way they may not have been able to before. Add that to the hashtags people with similar interests can use to find those pictures, and it lets both parties know they are not alone on this big crazy planet.

The self-esteem that accompanies the Instagram culture is not always tied to the comments but more to the idea of being connected. Social interaction is a key part of being human. Who’s to say it’s wrong if I prefer to connect by showing people who I am in pictures?

Although social media ebbs and flows, Instagram has the added benefit of being one of the few social photo sharing sites on the Internet. Now that it’s available on all platforms (computer, smartphone and tablet), even those who don’t have access to smartphones can maintain an Instagram if they have a computer with a webcam. It’s an easy way to document your life in pictures, and that’s why Instagram is here to stay.

You can post status after status on Facebook chronicling your life. You can try to fit your life into 140 characters on Twitter, but as the old saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words.

So go on, #dixiebabes, post pictures of those #dogsofinstagram and your #throwbackthursdays, selfie it up, hashtag away and share your story.