Instagram

Photography has been used as a social rite, engaging a wider spectrum of people that are becoming more and more involved in social media.

Social media has created an opportunity for audiences to act as a participatory, allowing ordinary people to express their diverse opinion on issues of common concern, thus creating a shared ‘mediated’ experience online. One particular social media site that allows amateur photographers to capture the essence of the “everdayness”, is Instagram. Instagram was launched in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and has been a booming software ever since. It is a free social media network, used by majority of individuals on smart phones, that enables users to take photographs instantaneously on their phone, apply editing filters and upload the image to their profile page to be viewed by their “followers”. Instagram today has approximately 150 million regular users which has brought together the value of community media and the convergence of a shared experience.