Thursday, September 12, 2013

Instagram and 'The Envy Spiral'



A study conducted by German researchers at Humboldt University in Berlin suggests that the proliferation of social information available on platforms like Facebook and Instagram demonstrates a direct correlation with feelings of envy and general dissatisfaction with life. Users reported feeling "frustrated and exhausted" after using Facebook, with envy being the most frequently cited cause of these emotions.  

A high proportion reported feeling envious of peers' social mobility or status, highlighting "social upward comparison" as the root of their envy. A significant share of respondents also admitted to feeling lonely and/or isolated after using Facebook. Lack of attention in the form of likes and comments contributed to feelings of frustration over using the platform. 

Many of the symptoms reported in this study of Facebook users may be found on Instagram. The need for  affirmation and feelings of isolation, envy, social comparison, life dissatisfaction and insecurity are endemic to the Instagram  experience, which relies on users' vanities and desire to build reputations through evidentiary visual narratives. 

South Africa in Digital | DMMA Data

Infographic-EM-DMMA-Report-July2013

Source: DMMA Report

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Photorank | How Do You Match Up as an Influencer on Instagram?




Photorank is a site developed by crowd-sourced photo-sharing start-up, Olapic. The design is simple: using an algorithm, the site measures individual photo-sharers' global online influence based on reputation. The more followers, 'likes' and comments an account has, the higher the ranking score. 

The algorithm uses three criteria to calculate rankings: 

Reach: indicated by audience responses to a user's content, including likes, re-tweets, comments and follows. This demonstrates that a user is influencing a wider public.

Activity: posting a high frequency of good quality content demonstrates a positive degree of activity on a platform. 

Quality: content should be high-quality in order to achieve a higher ranking on the site. Regular likes or re-tweets confirm that high-quality content is being posted.  

The system analyses a great deal of user-generated photos to determine user value across multiple photo-sharing platforms. These include Instagram, Flickr, Twitter, Picplz and Facebook. 


Read the full article on Mashable

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Gramfeed | Loch Ness Monster Quest Enchants Instagrammers


The Instagram Blog offers an interesting perspective on creating time-sensitive visual narratives with digital images. One of Instagram's location pages, hosted by GramFeed, tells the story of Instagrammers' search for the mythical Loch Ness Monster in the Scottish Highlands. 
Even if you're not there in person, you can still follow their adventures as they document the quest for 'Nessie' using only their cell-phone cameras and the Instagram application. This is an important exercise in developing 'networked presence' on a mobile application. Users are invited to document and share experiences with an online community of image-sharers and bloggers. Each user adds to a cumulative gallery or 'stockpile' of images to create a collage of media which the public can access and share.