Day two delved further into the course prompt:

‘How do the affordances of Instagram affect the way that photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network?’

Today we discussed the term ‘affordance’ and the way it correlates to our overarching hypothesis. As I understand through this week’s readings, Donald Norman created the term to highlight the communication process between an object and the person. Affordances can be related to emotional and cognitive contexts. 

In regards to Instagram, the main affordance would be the user generated system with the platform. The purpose of Instagram (to me) is a social media app that allows users to share photos and videos of their lives that they have created to show not only their friends, but also connect with other people who share similar interests. 

If you were to ask me what I think people use instagram for it would be personal validation. The people I follow use it as a platform to sell or sell themselves on. Instagram affords the ability to keep up with who we now know as social media ‘influencers’ and we get a play-by-play of their ‘normal’ day, as a means of relatability. Instagram has become a business hub, with mass profit opportunities at the next available swipe up #productplacement! Advertisers now use paid ads throughs sponsorship of users with a large following, and the use of hashtags offer content from other users that share similar interests.       However, if you were to compare the affordances of Instagram on the basis of a ‘regular’ person who uses the app voluntarily without income would differ.

 

Credit: @graciepiscopo    

Credit: Shani Grimmond

 

In the lecture we also spoke about constraints. In this case, the primary issue for Instagram lies within the user control discussion. It is clearly apparent that Instagram discourages the use of hyperlinking and multitasking from the app, forcing a user to stay on its app for as long as possible. Moreover, freedom to add links to your bio (which in itself is the ideal place to link) it harshly dictated. In my opinion, this is a constraint; as a small business partner I am not able to post freely because the platform believes I will pull users off the app – thus I can see my user engagement clicks off almost instantly after getting frustrated with the system.