By now, everyone has seen, or at least heard, about Instagram debuting their new feature, Stories. These stories are posted by the user for all their followers to see and disappear after 24 hours. Sound familiar? That’s because that is the exact basis for Snapchat. Everyone was getting frustrated with Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. People were taking to Instagram to post on their stories their frustration about Instagram copying Snapchat and even posting their Snapchat usernames in hopes of pushing their followers to just follow them there.
Think about it: everyone is complaining about Instagram’s new feature, but they are doing so on said feature. Most of the stories I viewed were the people I follow complaining about Instagram being a copycat. Yet, they are using the feature. Honestly, I think it was a smart move on Instagram’s part. Instagram is a social medium that is meant to be all about photo sharing, and this is the perfect way to share pictures without double- or triple-posting. Besides, we all know that double- and triple-posting in the best way to lose followers.
Instagram posted on their blog about introducing stories, and their reasoning is that “Instagram has always been a place to share the moments you want to remember. Now you can share your highlights and everything in between, too.” Doesn’t it make sense to add another way to share memories with your followers? These ones are just more in the moment, rather than a day or two old and no filters.
I know that I recently talked about deleting Snapchat and now, here I am, supporting Instagram. But, from the standpoint of someone who wants to work with social media one day, this was a smart move. There is more continuity with the people I follow. I see their pictures and then I get to be almost immersed in their life, all on one app. Personally, Instagram’s stories are much easier to use than Snapchat, which is constantly switching up where everything is. I am still constantly pushing the wrong button or swiping the wrong way when trying to find something. It’s also nice to really be able to get to know the people I follow, in a sense. I don’t have many people on Snapchat; only those I know in real life or the few celebrities that have posted their Snapchat all over the place. Here, I can connect with more brands, more celebrities and more people.
I’m not going to deny it and say that Instagram ripped off Snapchat, but isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Besides, we live in a world where it’s every (wo)man, or social media, for itself. Instagram is just doing what it needs to do to stay alive. I think that over time, as they figure out where Stories fits into their app and how well it does, it could become highly successful. But for now, it is going to be Snapchat’s competitor. I’m really curious to see how this all turns out and what Instagram does to combat all the negativity it has gotten so far.
