This weekly tutorial we had an amusing discussion about the similarities and differences on blogs and Instagram. It is a very relevant topic in the 21st Century considering that these two kinds of media have a very large audience. Another interesting part is that both media are dealing with stalking in one way another – or at least a modern way of stalking. Instagram is almost like a little sister to blogs and the two kind of media share a lot of similarities. But the numbers of the blog readers are falling while over one billion people use Instagram frequently. It makes me wonder about the development of the networked media.

Why is it that especially young people rather want to look at several random selfies instead of reading more in-depth posts about the writer’s experiences and everyday life? What needs do these media actually satisfy?

Well, I do not think that I am the right person to answer these questions. But let me just share some reflections on the Instagram/blogging topic.

In these days people want to know everything about everyone, but how do they get all this information from a beautiful selfie on a beach? Or a short video that only lasts 24 hours? According to Dr. Sabine Niederer’s research people prefer to watch and engage with visual content and that is exactly the thing that Instagram is all about.

One of the main differences between the two kind of media is the limitation of words and images on Instagram. On Instagram, the consumption seems to be short and quick which I think is adapted to our everyday lives. Today we often get distracted and want to find something else interesting. I think our new habits are connected to our choice of platform and media. In my opinion Instagram is made for smartphones whereas blogs are more a laptop-thing. The blog trend came early (around the mid 1990s) where people used laptops to surf online and it was therefore a natural thing to sit longer reading in-depth blogposts. It did not do anything if the post was long and filled the whole screen. Today young people do not use a lot of time on their laptops if it is not YouTube or Netflix that steals their time. Long blogposts will simply be at the expense of something else. Therefore, the blogs are not totally costumed the young people’s habits and their preferred platforms.

Another essential thing is how the content is accessed. Many years ago, people had to ‘pull’ information out from people to get to know things about them. With the genesis of theblogs people did not have to lead conversations about other people’s experiences and everyday life – they could simply just read it online. The ‘stalking’ got easier as a result of the push effect. Now Instagram has made it even easier than before. I my opinion there exists a double pull effect because the algorithm ensures that people get all the information that they need.

So, if you like fast and short news that will be costumised specially for you – you are a real instagrammer. If you are more into in-depth text pieces – you are more the blogger-type. If you just like to talk to people and not being an online stalker – you are either a part of the Amish community or just over fifty years old. Or maybe not.

 

Niederer, S 2018, Networked images: Visual methodologies for the digital age. Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam.