Instagram, launched in 2010 as a platform for sharing photos and videos, has rapidly spread, gaining widespread popularity among young people around the world. Over the years, it has gone through several stages of evolution, both in terms of functionality and adaptation to user habits.
The most significant turning point occurred in 2016, when the platform underwent a complete restyling, featuring a new visual appearance, a renewed logo and a redesigned graphic interface with the aim of highlighting the contents and minimizing the distractions.
The constant introduction of new features has enriched the experience of using Instagram, making it a point of reference for creative expression and sharing meaningful moments.
However, behind the filter of perfect selfies and seemingly ideal lives, there is a disturbing phenomenon: the increasing pressure that young people face to post high-quality content.
Fleeing from social media - The rise of alternative platforms
The constant pursuit of perfection has created an environment of continuous social pressure among young people, giving rise to a culture of comparison and competition.
Many feel intimidated by the implicit competition in trying to maintain a high standard of content. As a result, instead of sharing authentic, true or even imperfect moments, they prefer to abstain from posting to avoid being judged or, worse, ignored.
A growing trend is the search for privacy and intimacy within private groups, which allow sharing content only with a small circle of friends or trusted people. This way, they can escape the pressure of meeting the expectations of a wide audience of followers and freely share their experiences with selected people.
Platforms themselves are responding to this trend, seeking to adopt measures to promote greater authenticity, provide tools for controlling time spent, and improve online security
However, the search for more intimate and private environments has led to the emergence of closed platforms and groups where users can only participate by invitation or approval. These enclosed spaces offer a stronger sense of belonging, create more cohesive communities, and allow for deeper, more meaningful conversations.
Among the platforms of this type that are gaining more and more popularity we remember:
- BeReal: a platform Launched in 2020, it focuses on connecting people through authentic and meaningful conversations. It is designed to encourage its users to share real experiences and have sincere discussions. Once a day, the user receives a notification saying "time to be real" and has 2 minutes available to take and publish an authentic snapshot of their daily life.
- Discord: a voice and text communication platform primarily designed for video game lovers, but also used for other purposes. Users can create chat servers, participate in voice conversations, and send text messages.
- Telegram: an instant messaging app that allows users to send messages, attachments of various kinds, make voice calls and video calls. It's known for its security and privacy, with features like optional end-to-end encryption and the ability to send self-destructing messages. Telegram also supports chat groups and public channels.
- Reddit: a community-based social media and content aggregation platform. Users can share texts, links, images and videos across different subject areas called "subreddits". Other users can rate content based on its relevance and participate in discussions through comments. Reddit is known for its diversity of topics and active communities.
- Medium: an online blogging platform that allows users to publish and share articles on a wide range of topics. Users can follow authors, leave comments, and "like" articles.
Conclusions:
The emergence of closed spaces and the monetization of communities represent a new phase in the evolution of social media. It will be interesting to observe how this evolution will influence the social media landscape and how the different actors involved will respond.
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