Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, offers users the opportunity to share photos and videos. The platform also allows users to add filters and captions to their posts. It has a feature called Stories, which lets people post images or videos that disappear in 24 hours.
College students document their lives for thousands of followers. These photos and videos can promote unhealthy lifestyles that contribute to mental health conditions.
It’s a platform for self-expression
Instagram is a multi-media social media platform with photo filters, video editing, direct messaging and live streaming. It has more than 700 million users and has an active community of young people who document their daily lives on the app. It also provides a variety of other tools, including IGTV, which lets users create videos up to 60 minutes and features automatic captioning via stickers. Instagram recently introduced Reels, a feature that allows users to create short-form videos similar to TikTok.
Instagram also has a strong presence in higher education example, where students use the app to connect with faculty and staff. Many of them enjoy seeing campus events on Instagram, and 45 percent report liking student social media takeovers.
It’s a platform for networking
Instagram is a social networking app that allows users to post photos and videos. It is a great tool for students because it allows them to make connections with other people, including potential employers. In addition, it gives them an opportunity to show off their creativity and skills.
The study employed an online survey and descriptive statistics to examine the use of Instagram in a sample of colleged’enseignement généraletprofessionnel(CEGEP) students. The results showed that there were strong associations between the profile of using Instagram for the adoption of health and well-being behaviors and sociodemographic variables, such as age group and monthly income.
Another reason why many students use Instagram is because it can help them connect with their favorite brands. Many social media influencers and companies encourage their followers to tag them in posts. Although they won’t respond to everyone, it can lead to a 1:1 relationship and increase their brand awareness. These relationships can also be used for recruitment and retention.
It’s a platform for learning
If you are a college student, Instagram can be an excellent platform for sharing multimedia content with your classmates. You can also use it to make learning fun and engaging. In addition, it can be a great tool for sharing photo essays.
Despite their reliance on social media, students also know its negative impact on their mental health. A recent study in Current Psychiatry Reports found that young people are particularly susceptible to the endless onslaught of lifestyle and body propaganda promoted by these platforms.
A network analysis was applied to verify associations between the Instagram use profile for the adoption of behaviors related to health and well-being, the formative context of the students according to their gender, monthly income, and the semester they were attending (nodes 4, 5, and 6). Among women, the higher the monthly income, the greater the association between following DIs that produce health and wellness content on Instagram and the belief that these DIs present a body standard that can be achieved by them.
Instagram is a platform where college students can share their lives with thousands of people. They post POV videos of their experiences on campus and document unspoken truths about life as a student. In addition, many of these young people use social media to connect with mental health resources and communities.
Instagram has come a long way since its inception. The app started out as a photo-sharing app but now features video-making, storytelling, and even live broadcasting. It has also expanded its content to include lifestyle and body propaganda.
To analyze the behavior of students using Instagram as a resource for the adoption of behaviors related to health, we conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study with a sample of 162 undergraduate students. We used descriptive statistics and artificial network analysis to verify the relationships between the use profile and sociodemographic aspects, such as gender, age, monthly income, and semester attended by the students.
The results indicate that, despite differences in the frequency of adopting behaviors, both men and women have positive relationships with the nodes 4 (following DIs), 5 (frequency of accessing Instagram to search for health and well-being content), and 6 (adoption of those behaviors). The relationship between these variables is stronger for women than for men.