Jennifer Trang

UWRT 1103-021
October 2014
Assignment Two: The Narrative Research Paper

Introduction:
In 2013, Time Magazine listed a popular photo-sharing and video-sharing app, otherwise
known as Instagram, as Time's 50 Best Android Applications. Instagram is a social networking
site that uses photo-sharing and, later on in 2013, video-sharing as a way to connect with the
world. Its history and development goes back to 2010 in San Francisco when creators Kevin
Systrom and Mike Krieger decided to focus their Burbn project on mobile photography. This
would lead to the creation of the name "Instagram" as it is a blend of the words "instant camera"
and "telegram". Instagram met its start on October 6th, 2010 and two months later, the photosharing app had at least 1 million users. Since its launch in 2010, Instagram has over 200 million
users active on the app with at least over 55 million photos being uploaded each day. As of
today, the app continues to grow each day with more users and pictures being uploaded.
My personal relationship with Instagram dates back to when I got my first iPhone 4 in
2011. Instagram was one of the few mobile apps I downloaded onto my phone. Using Instagram
for the first time, I didn't understand its purpose since I saw it as nothing but a camera app that
came with photographic filters. However, it wasn't until 2012 when I began to see people from
my high school using the app to share their photos to followers or everyone who can see them. I
began following their footsteps by sharing photos, following users and receiving followers
altogether. Next thing I knew, I saw that Instagram was not just a camera app, it is a type of
social networking app that uses photo-sharing and video-sharing as a way to connect with the

Commented [JT1]: Jessica: I think that it was very

interesting the way you described how the app Instagram
was created and the inspiration behind the idea for the app,
that was a great inclusion in your introduction. I also loved
the way you talked about how the apps popularity has
grown over time, making it a great area of interest to study.
The amount of members on the site grew by almost 200
million in the time frame of 4 years, thats a great point to
start your paper on because it means that most people may
already have background knowledge on the topic you are
discussing in your paper. Great job.
Commented [JT2]: Sarah: It was a really good idea to put
what exactly Instagram is in the introduction to your paper
for people who dont know what that is. I also learned some
stuff from reading your introduction. For example, I didnt
know that Instagram was basically created from a mobile
phone photography project that a couple of guys put
together.
Commented [JT3]: Cassidy: Your introduction was really
interesting to me because I use Instagram everyday but I
know no background information on the app. It was really
interesting to hear where they came up with the name for
the app. I really think your introduction was great; very well
organized.
Commented [JT4]: Jessica: Although I really enjoyed
most of your introduction I didnt really feel like you told the
reader much about the actual app itself. You touched on the
subjects of when the app was made, the creators of
Instagram, and how much the app has grown, but I didnt
really read anything about what the app looks like or how it
is presented. I think that maybe you could include more
description about the design and the uses of the app,
maybe a little about the location of the different
components you can find on an Instagram feed.

world. Since using the app, Instagram has created a huge impact in my life. Because of it, I have
been able to showcase my daily life and photography as a way to express myself since people
rarely see this side of me.

Commented [JT5]: Sarah: When you are explaining your

personal relationship to Instagram you mention that it has
had a huge impact on your life. Why has it had such an
impact and how did it become that way? Do you prefer
Instagram over other social media sites such as twitter or
Facebook? If so, why is that? These are things you could
include in your personal relationship paragraph.

In the four years since its launch, Instagram has become a popular and successful social
media network and currently ranks at number 7 on the "Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking
Sites" by eBiz, along with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. Because of its popularity,
Instagram has created an impact and influence on today's society. However, it is not just
Instagram alone. Other social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and
many others are also creating influences and impacts in our world today. Those influences and
impacts could be positive or negative effects of people using the app, change in advertisement or
marketing, and the popularity of social media. In this paper, I plan on exploring the far-reaching
implications of Instagram and other social media networks.
Literature Review:
Every research and sources that focuses on Instagram or any social networks all agree
that social media is a growing industry that has created a huge impact on todays society. With
social media becoming a popular trend, it has conducted many researchers to do research on this
specific field. Even though they focus on the same social media networks, they all research on
different areas of social media. Research in social media all cover different topics such as the
impact of social media usage, social media influence on businesses and marketing, and the
growing popularity of Instagram and other social media networks.
Research on social media covers a lot of topics but most of them usually focus on the
influences and popularity of social media. Among those who focused on the influences and
popularity are researchers like Abbott, Donaghey, Hare, and Hopkins (2013), Reuben (2008),

Commented [JT6]: Zach: Your introduction is flawless.

Im trying to find things to suggest, but I cant. I guess I can
say you should change advertisement to advertising
Commented [JT7]: Sarah: Your last paragraph in your
introduction seems a little out of place or out of order. I
would put that paragraph before the personal relationship
paragraph. It just seems that at first you talk about the
origin of the APP then you jump to a personal aspect then
jump back to the growth of the APP. Try to work on your
organization.
Commented [JT8]: Jessica: I really liked your literature
review section, I thought that it was very strong and you
presented your information neatly and organized. It was
really well written and you put bold emphasis on the names
of the important researchers for your field of study. I love
the way you connected all the thought and opinions of the
researchers in your section, each idea flowed really well into
the next. Great job.

Caoduro (2014), Ferrara, Interdonato, and Tagarelli (2014), Kaplan and Haenlein (2010),
Hanna, Rohm, and Crittenden (2011) and Trang (2014). Researchers Abbott, Donaghey,
Hare, and Hopkins, Ferrara, Interdonato, and Tagarelli all focus on Instagram and its popularity.
One of the research groups (Abbott and others) wrote about the industry panel held by Bonds
Univ. Library with social media experts that covered topics about the popularity of Instagram
while the other research group (Ferrara and others) focused on understanding human behavior
and interactions on Instagram. Researchers Reuben, Caoduro, Kaplan, Haenlein, Hanna, Rohm,
and Crittenden mainly focus on the influences that Instagram and social media have created.
Caoduro explored the emergence of photo filter and effect applications that were heavily
influenced by Instagram and other photo filter apps while researchers Reuben, Kaplan, Haenlein,
Hannah, Rohm, and Crittenden focused on how social media has influenced businesses and
companies to use social media networks for marketing strategies. In my personal observations
(Trang, 2014), I observed three separate observations of my own Instagram home feed and
conducted an interview with someone who also uses Instagram. My observations touched on
how users use social media and how it has impacted them. Also, the interview includes questions
that relate to the impact of using social media.
Not all research and articles have focused on the popularity and influences social media
has created within todays society. There are some that have dealt with this certain topic-- social
media usage of children, teens, young adults, etc. Among those who have focused on this
particular topic are researchers like OKeeffe and Clarke-Pearson (Pediatrics, 2011) and
Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, and Zickhur (Pew Research Center, 2010). Both sources all focus on
social media usage among teens and children however, they do not exactly cover the same thing.
Researchers from Pediatrics covered the benefits (socializing, communication) and risks

Commented [JT9]: Cassidy: I also liked in the next section

how you went over the different types of research that
people have done concerning social media. I also like how
you included the years the research was conducted so we
can see a trend in the research and how it varies as social
media become more extensive.

(cyberbullying, harassment) of younger people using social media and pediatricians position to
help families understand social media networks and to encourage healthy use and urge parents
to monitor for potential problems with cyberbullying, Facebook depression, sexting, and
inappropriate content. Researchers from Pew Research Center also deal with social media usage
of teens however, unlike the researchers from Pediatrics, they focus on the findings about
internet and social media usage among teens and young adults and includes data from conducted
surveys that were taken in 2009.
Entering a Conversation:
In todays world, it is agreeable to say that many social media networks such as
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, is the largest growing platform of communications. Every
day, it continues to rise to popularity with tons of people being active on social networking sites
and more people joining to become a part of this remarkable phenomenon. Because of the
popularity, it has positively influenced many companies, businesses, and organizations to use
social media as a marketing technique for promoting and advertising purposes. Many users,

Commented [JT10]: Sarah: I noticed that you have

started a lot of your sentences with the word because.
Maybe you can find a way to reword your sentences so you
dont have to begin it with because. There isnt anything
wrong with that it just sounds a little fun and kind of like the
sentence before it just never stopped.

especially teens and young adults, are using and viewing social networks daily, thus prompting
companies, businesses, and organizations to use social media to reach to consumers and share to
them about an event, product, company, or brand. Because traditional advertising is no longer in
use, its time to rely on social media networks as a technique to use for marketing.
Many companies and businesses use social media for advertisement but each social
networking websites have different ways for them to promote their products. On Facebook, it
allows companies to go above and beyond with advertising. Facebook pages allow products to
provide videos, pictures, and long descriptions. On Twitter, even though its not as detailed as
Facebook, it allows companies to promote using short messages since this social networking

Commented [JT11]: Cassidy: One that you could add in

your Whats New? section could be a price comparison.
What is the price difference are businesses experiencing by
using social media as opposed to what they would
experience if they were making tv commercials or using
print ads? Is it dramatically lower, and could this be an
additional reason businesses are using social media as a
form of advertisement?

website only allows a 140 character limit. However, it serves as a good way for advertising since
Twitter has many users using the app daily. On Instagram, marketers uses this mobile app to
advertise their products through photo-sharing and messages. Instagram, however, is proved to
be more successful with marketing since, with at least over 200 million users active, many
companies are now using this mobile app as a marketing strategy. However, its not just
companies that are using these strategies on social media sites to promote and advertise in order
to get products to sell. There are individual users, like artists and photographers, that use social
networking sites, like Instagram, to promote their work.

Commented [JT12]: Jessica: In your paper you say that

Instagram is the most popular app compared to sites like
Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, however
you do not explain why it is that Instagram became so
popular all of the sudden and what makes the site better
than the others. Maybe try and include some more details
about the uses of other sites and compare them to the uses
of Instagram, this way readers can see what is so different
about Instagram that makes it more popular to the public
then all the other social media sites.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, Instagram has over 200 million users as of
October 2014. Among those 200 million users are either artists, photographers, or anyone who
has an interest in the art area. To express their interest to the world, they post theirs photos or
videos of that particular interest to their followers or anyone that has access to their profile.
Other than expressing their interests through photo-sharing, artists use this as a way to reach out
to their followers to get them to most likely spread the word about them (the artist) and advertise
their work or products, just like businesses and companies. But, how does individual artists use
Instagram or any social media platforms to promote their work?
There are many ways for individual artists to use social media networks to promote their
work. But the question is: how do they do it? To start off, lets use photographers as an example.
Photographer is a person who practices in photography or in other words, a person who makes a
business of taking pictures. They can use any social networking websites to advertise their work
to everyone but the best way to do it is on Instagram, a photo and video sharing app. Instagram
allows photographers to upload photos of their photography skills and share them to followers
and those who can see them. In order to advertise or promote their work, photographers can add

Commented [JT13]: Cassidy: I like how you talked about

photographers and how its beneficial to them to use
instagram to advertise their art work. I also liked how you
talked about your own photography and how you use
Instagram for that purpose as well. It shows that you know
from experience and that you know what you are talking
about.

captions to their pictures that can be straightforward telling their followers to check out their
work. It can catch a users attention to check out the photographers photography skills and may
ask that photographer to do a photo shoot. Another great way is to add hashtags in the captions.
Adding hashtags, which should relate to the picture you posted, is a great way to get new
followers to find and follow you. It helps with advertising your work to everyone and may lead
to a fan base dedicated to you if your photography becomes popular.
Its no surprise that social media is becoming a marketing strategy for businesses,
companies, and individual artists. With social media continuing to grow more successful and
popular, and creating more new social network sites or apps, companies and individual artists
will most likely continue using social media to promote their products or works. Teens and
young adults are usually the ones active in social media, so using platforms like Instagram or
Facebook for promoting products is a great way to build sales for companies since they usually
aim for customers around that age range. Model(s) I can suggest for photographers to use to
promote their work is to upload their own pictures on a regular basis, promote your website or
blog that contains your photography, and most of all, keep it professional. Ive never had

Commented [JT14]: Zach: Maybe talk about how these

young adult/teenage social media differs from adult
social media, such as Linkedin. How advertisers have not
used these types of social media anywhere near as much as
the teenage versions. How advertising to teens and adults
differ.

experience with using Instagram to promote my work but using this social media app will be a
good way to market my work, and most importantly, helping me start my photography business.
In my opinion, I believe that using social media for advertisement is a great way to drive sales
for businesses and attracting new customers.
Conclusion:
As a reminder, this paper served to analyze my topic proposal, which was to explore the
far-reaching implications of social media. The purpose of this paper was to explore the
significance of the influence of social media with the help from the nine sources I collected prior

Commented [JT15]: Zach: You could definitely talk about

the downside of social media and how it impacts people
negatively. Maybe about Snapchat and the negative
connotation surrounding it. How it is a dedicated sexting
app and it should not be allowed. I actually remember being
at SOAR and someone telling us that we should be ashamed
for all having it.
Commented [JT16]: Sarah: I really like your conclusion.
Its short and sweet and to the point and also covers all the
points what were needed. You could probably add a few
more sentences if you wanted to be thorough but I feel like
youve pretty much got it. I dont have any complaints for
that!

to writing this paper. In my new contribution to the sources, I talked about how individual
artists use social media to promote their work. In this contribution, I included businesses and
companies using social media for marketing strategies. I used photographers as an example on
how they would use social media, or more specifically Instagram, to promote their work. The
importance of my new contribution is that with social media continuing to grow every day, it
continues to become a marketing strategy for businesses, companies, and individual artists. It has
also influenced many individual users, besides artists, to use Instagram or any social media
networks to promote their work.
The far-reaching implications of social media is an important topic that is widely talked
about today. Social media is a growing platform of communication and a wide variety of users,
especially teens and young adults, are using it daily. I believe that one should care about this
topic because of how social media continues to influence todays society, businesses, etc. By

Commented [JT17]: Zach: You could give examples of

how much better a company does after incorporating social
media marketing into their company. Maybe use statistics
that are publicly available. That is really only if you want to
make the point about how wealth is greatly increased for
most companies that use social media.
Commented [JT18]: Jessica: The first paragraph of your
conclusion was right to the point, you gave your readers a
list of everything that they should have gathered while
reading through your paper. I think that this is a very bold
inclusion in your conclusion; however, I think that it makes
your first paragraph a bit too wordy. It sounds almost like
the reader is reading a step by step list, though it is very
precise and includes all the needed material I would break
the list up a bit by adding some details about each point in
between them.

understanding the impacts and influences social media continues to create, it helps people gain
more knowledge about this area of research. Today, researchers continue to research further into
social media and its influence to our society. Further area of research suggestions can be how
social media apps, specifically Instagram, continue to influence other social media apps. Maybe
another one can be if using social media as a marketing strategy can really benefit companies and
businesses.
Annotated Bibliography:
Wendy Abbott, Jessie Donaghey, Joanna Hare, and Peta Hopkins (2013). An Instagram is Worth
a Thousand Words. Retrieved from Emerald Insight: Library High Tech News.

This article/paper describes the industry panel session that was hosted by Bonds
University Library. The panel discussed the topics about Instagrams rise to
popularity, engagement with followers, and the risks, limitation, and disadvantages of
using the app. The panel session included a professional photographer, an internet
marketing expert, a social media expert, a librarian and a social mediasavvy student

Commented [JT19]: Cassidy: In the conclusion you

mentioned some possible areas for further research but I
think you could add some specific questions that you think
would be important to address pertaining to the issue. I
would think of maybe one or two specific questions that
you are curious and add them to the conclusion. This will
get people to think about some specific examples of things
that can be researched in the future.
Commented [JT20]: Zach: Your content in the conclusion
is outstanding, but you leave us with only one or two
questions. You might consider adding another one or two
just to really make the reader think about this paper even
once they are done reading it.

Gwenn Schurgin OKeeffe, Kathleen Clarke-Pearson, and Council on Communications and

Media (2011). The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. Retrieved
from Pediatrics.

This article talks about the use of social media and how it has impacted on children,
families, adolescents, etc. It includes the benefits and risks of youth using social
media networks. Even though its not Instagram related, but it deals with the impact
that all social media networking services have on the youth population.

Rachel Reuben (2008). The Use of Social Media in Higher Education for Marketing and
Communications: A Guide for Professionals in Higher Education. Retrieved from Fullerton.

This article talks about colleges and universities embracing the idea of using social
media as a component for marketing. It includes several examples of social media
networks and how it plays a role in marketing. It also includes the concerns of using
social media for marketing and references to other sites on more about social media
marketing.

Elena Caoduro (2014). Photo Filter Apps: Understanding Analogue Nostalgia in the New Media
Ecology. Retrieved from Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA.

This article focuses on the rise of photo filters and effect applications use on photo
filter apps, like Instagram. The entire article has a huge focus on Instagram since its
a good example of a photo filter app. This article aims to explain new directions in
the changing system of media.

Emilio Ferrara and Roberto Interdonato (2014). Online Popularity and Topical Interests through
the Lens of Instagram. Retrieved from Cornell University Library.

This article mainly focuses on Instagram and its popularity. The article talks about
these three topics: to understand human behavior dynamics, specifically users and
content popularity; the mechanisms of users' interactions in online environments; and
how collective trends emerge from individuals' topical interests. It includes statistics
and data on Instagram media dataset (likes, comments, tags, etc).

Amanda Lenhart, Kristen Purcell, Aaron Smith, and Kathryn Zickhur (2010). Social Media &
Mobile Internet Use among Teen and Young Adults. Retrieved from ERIC.

This article is a research that talks about the use of social networking by teens and
young adults. It mentions how blogging has decline in popularity among teens and
adults since 2006 when the social media became a hit. It includes data and surveys
from June 26 to September 24, 2009 of 800 adolescents between the ages of 12-17.

Andreas M. Kaplan and Michael Haenlein (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and
opportunities of Social Media. Retrieved from Indiana University, Kelley School of Business.

This article describes and clarifies about what social media is. It describes the
challenges and opportunities of social media and divided them into specific categories
by characteristics: collaborative projects, blogs, content communities, social
networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. It also includes ten
pieces of advice for companies if they use social media.

Richard Hanna, Andrew Rohm, and Victoria L. Crittenden (2011). Were all connected: The
power of the social media ecosystem. Retrieved from Indiana University, Kelley School of
Business.

This article deals with companies and organizations using social media as a marketing
strategy in an effort to reach for consumers where they live online. It offers a
systematic way of understanding online social media since companies dont
understand how to do it effectively and used the 2010 Grammy Awards as an
example. The article concluded with lessons on using social media a s marketing
communications strategy.

Jennifer Trang (2014). Assignment One Discourse Observations Analysis.

This observation notes include three separate observations, three separate days for at
least one hour, on my Instagram home feed. The observations includes a descriptions
of each posts by users on my home feed, whether its about their daily lives,
photography, etc. Included in this assignment was key terms with examples and an
interview with one of the actors from my Instagram home feed.