Introduction

Over the past decade, social media platforms have been consistently evolving to what is has become now. In the contemporary age, community is shifting, but it is alive and well on the internet. Social media and online media have enabled people to stay connected and support one another (Hampton and Wellman, 2018). Instagram is an example that can be examined, Instagram is an American photo and video-sharing social media platform. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. The social networking service was first launched on the 6 of December 2010. Instagram is a predominantly visual platform, and its main objective is to enable the public users to share and distribute images and videos with one another. The original version of Instagram back in 2010 was a mobile photo-sharing social media platform that enabled users to edit their images with a variety of filters, which were the main differences when compared with other social media platforms in the early days. It is believed that Instagram’s early success was due to its launch around the same time as the iPhone 4, which had a decent enough camera at the time to replace the typical point-and-shoot camera of the day. When defining what a community is all about, it is a group of people living in similar places, community can also be described when people possess a particular set of similar characteristics. The ideological basis of a community relates to people searching for a sense of belonging especially in modern society (Delanty, 2018, p. 2). In this conference paper, the topic that has been chosen is, through social media platforms like Instagram, communities are experiencing a shift in the way people socially interact and communicate. An explanation as to why that is the case is simply because Instagram has slowly become popular and is now an essential part of people’s lives. The introduction of new and advanced digital technologies and innovations has enabled people to interact out of convenience now socially and that has opened to door for a new and improved way to build communities.

The evolution of social media platforms resulted in a shift in communities. Communities are now commonly built through social media. Online interactions have been modified and has flourished, it has provided people with many various social platforms and sites to be able to connect with their close ones and companies, and various entities. People can now share and distribute any form of information they want through social media sites. Social media could reach out to a wider range of individuals globally and that has enabled for easier community buildings and social interactions. During the preindustrial era community, “consisted of relatively few social ties that were densely interconnected and organized around a limited number of social contexts” (Hampton, 2016). Nowadays, communities are commonly formed on the internet. Commonly known as the Urban-industrial community, it is a network that is loosely knit, with few strong ties and many weak ones, organized around multiple foci that may become active, defunct, and replaced as the life course progresses (Hampton, 2016). A few examples of the phenomenon include the rural-to-urban transition, the loss of traditional social ties, new forms of transportation, and communication technology that have made it easier for people to bypass time and space restrictions and leave relationships behind as people move from jobs, places, or interests to others (Hampton, 2016). Instagram is a prime example of an urban industrial community. Along with the advancement in technologies and innovations such as the smartphones, it allowed people to have access to social media platforms within the palm of their hands anytime and anywhere they want. Instagram has provided users with better communication and collaboration experiences. It has functions such as direct messages, stories and allows users to post photos and videos, this has enabled for communication and collaboration to be much more convenient. On top of that, Instagram users are able to communicate with friends and colleagues by featuring them on their own Instagram account, users can insert a brief caption on their posts as well. Instagram users can either create an original post or even ‘regram” it to suit their preferences. In general, Instagram is a fun and informal way to meet new people and communicate. For collaborations, Instagram has a big section that allows people to post their email address. By doing so, it becomes easier to manage collaborations. Furthermore, the rise of urban industrialism has provided an increased in mobility and freedom from the constraints of time and space (Hampton, 2015).

The introduction of new communication technologies and innovations has led to communities being far more reliant on social media platforms as it is now seen as their main communication medium. With new technologies introduced, it has changed the way people socially communicate and that has led to the shift in the way communities are built. Over the past decade, these communication devices fundamentally modified the way people would communicate and interact with one another. The beneficiary party for this were social media platforms. Instagram was consistently coming up with “cool and new” features to entice their consumers from its competitors like Facebook and Twitter, it would alter the way people socialize as social media became the new communication medium and had the potential to “transform the structure of the community” (Hampton, 2016, p. 102). Innovations such as the iPhone by Apple and Android by Samsung has enabled Instagram to be easily accessed by users. The increased potential for mobility, the reduced constraints of time and space, and separation from traditional social bonds distinguish the premodern from the modern era (Hampton, 2016, p. 102). As previously mentioned, Instagram is one of the many social media platforms responsible for creating the urban-industrial community. However, this does not necessarily mean that it has negatively affected social change. However, it is believed to be the opposite, along with the digital technologies invented, social media sites including Instagram has enabled communications among people to be “instantaneous and increasingly free from the boundaries of space of places” (Hampton, 2016, p. 107). As people are consistently searching for ways to improve digital communication technologies, it is only a matter of time before people are above to find solutions of modify it again. These communication technologies have provided users with better mobility as well as “reduce the costs of interacting across time and space” (Hampton, 2016, p. 118). It has allowed users to have far more convenient access to Instagram which has resulted in an advance in communication among people from all around the world.

Social media platforms have played a huge part in everyone’s daily lives. However, the importance the social media has not been fully discussed. Social media platforms like Instagram have enabled users to retrieve as well as distribute information via photos, videos, captions, and comments and that has played a huge role in the shift of community buildings. It has transformed the way people socially interact. Relating with the modern community being an online community, social media sites like Instagram has enabled the incidental consumption of news to exist on social media, this is largely because of the online information practices that the younger generations use. With social media on the horizon, majority of the people in this urban-industrial community would typically rely heavily on their social media accounts as their main source for information. Social media have become more popular because they have an increased exposure to current events information because of their popularity (Boczkowski et al., 2017). Social media has had a huge impact on people’s life, this is largely due to the introduction of smartphones almost a decade ago. Smartphones have enabled users to have access to the internet wherever and whenever they wish to. This has had a significant impact on the mobility and conveniency that people previously were not exposed to. Having access to the internet meant that social media sites became easier to use and that consequently changed the way people socially communicate ever since. The modern community has officially been converted itself into a predominantly online community as many individuals as well as businesses would go onto the internet frequently, and along with that, social media has provided many people with the platform to converse with others from all around the world, enabling the ability to continue to stay connected as well as support each other.

In the period of meta modernity, Instagram has had a huge impact on many people’s lives. With a variety of modifications introduced into the app, it has now become one of the most influential apps in this modern generation. It has significantly changed how people live their lives. The pursuit of perfection has led to the rise of cosmetic surgeries inspired by Instagram filters and the popularity of desserts so big that they don’t fit in your mouth, but perfectly fit into a square posted on social media (Tait, 2020). Instagram has provided people with the platform to express their own personal emotions as well as portray their identity to the world. Additionally, it has help make community building far more convenient as users are able to receive and distribute emotional support towards one another. Instagram’s objective was to “build a community that valued art and creativity” (Tait, 2020). When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world, it had massive implications to the world as people saw social media as an opportunity to create businesses such as workout classes, releasing video tutorials and many others. This enabled people to channel the creative side of theirs and people saw this as an opportunity to start up their very own businesses. This has brought upon the new age of social media, the impact that social media platforms have had on people has been drastic. it can be said that Instagram is now a part of everyone, and it is an essential tool when talking about how the urban-industrial community communicates and socializes.

Conclusion

To conclude from everything that has been shared, Instagram, just like its competitors, has been consistently evolving ever since its introduction to the community. These social media platforms have radically changed the manner of which people in the modern society communicate as well as build community connections. With social media platforms such Instagram playing an essential role in people’s daily lives. Dating back to the preindustrial community when social media never existed, socializing was far more simplistic. However, comparing it to the urban-industrial community which is the present, socializing has been made convenient and people are able to build communities easier than before. Social media has brought upon the shift of communities as it has transformed into a predominantly online community. It was understood that the advances in digital technologies as well as innovation was part of the reason for the increased in usage of social media. Moving forward, social media sites have become a part of everybody’s daily lifestyle, it has positively impacted the world as it has revolutionized how information is being consumed and distributed. People are now able to socialize with anyone they wish to through social media platforms like Instagram, and this has positively impacted community buildings as people are now given the platform to voice out their own thoughts. It is and will always be a complex topic for debate.

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Through social media platforms like Instagram, communities are experiencing a shift in the way people socially interact and communicate PDF

Reference List

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Hampton, K. N., & Wellman, B. (2018). Lost and Saved . . . Again: The Moral Panic about the Loss of Community Takes Hold of Social Media. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 47(6), 643–651. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094306118805415

Tait, A. (2020). How Instagram changed our world. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/03/how-instagram-changed-our-world