Comprehensive Report: Instagram's Role in Social Networking

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Instagram, a prominent social networking platform. It begins with an introduction to Instagram, followed by a discussion on intellectual property protection within the platform. The report then delves into the benefits of using Instagram, such as increased business-consumer integration and targeted advertising. It also explores the limitations, including copyright issues, privacy concerns, and the potential for addiction and jealousy among users. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and references relevant sources.

Running head: SOCIAL NETWORKING
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Name of student
Name of university
Author’s note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................2
Discussion......................................................................................................................2
Intellectual property protection..................................................................................2
Benefits of Instagram.................................................................................................3
Limitations of Instagram............................................................................................4
Conclusion......................................................................................................................6
References......................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The introduction of the various kinds of social networking platforms has led to the
increase of the number of users visiting these platforms for various purposes. Instagram could
be considered as another social networking platform that is gaining popularity rapidly and
increased number of users are using this platform because of the availability of various kinds
of features. This report intends to analyse this social networking platform. A brief discussion
of the technology along with the various aspects of this technology has been mentioned in
this report. Lastly, this report concludes with an appropriate conclusion that summarises the
complete report.
Discussion
Intellectual property protection
Instagram could be considered as the free, online application of photo sharing as well
as the social media platforms that has been acquired by the company Facebook around 2012
(Alfonzo 2019). The Instagram application provides the users with the major functionalities
for editing as well as the uploading the photos as well as the short videos using the mobile
application. The users could easily add any caption to each of the posts that are made on this
platform and then use the hashtags as well as the location based geotags for indexing the
posts and then make them significantly searchable by the other users within this application.
Each of the post by the user mainly appears on the Instagram feeds of their followers and
could also be viewed by common public when they are tagged using the geotags as well as
the hashtags (Gaffar, Hendrayati and Ifandha 2016). When considering the intellectual
property protection of Instagram, it could be considered that Instagram is effectively
committed in helping the people as well as the organisation with the protection of their rights
of the intellectual property. The terms of use of Instagram does not allow the posting of any

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kind content that could violate the intellectual property rights of any other people that
includes the trademark and the copyright (Datta and Kaushik 2019). Copyright could be
considered as the legal rights that aims in seeking the protection of the authentic works of the
authorship.
Benefits of Instagram
With the increase of the number of users on the Instagram platform, the companies
and other sectors are intending to target the specific users through the social media platform
for selling their products and their services (Reece and Danforth 2017). According to recent
studies, it has been determined that over 50% of the population of several countries are
shoppers among the age of 19-28 who use the social media platform for conducting research
or even buying the health as well as the beauty products (Sheldon and Bryant 2016). Some of
the major benefits of Instagram platform are:
Increased integration of businesses and consumers: With over 25 million businesses
actively utilising the Instagram for marketing to the target audience, it could be observed that
there are obvious reasons why people are using this application for shopping. The increasing
network of the Instagram application is presently helping the brands as well as the retailers in
leveraging the visuals for improved description as well as the detailing of their products
(Tiggemann and Zaccardo 2018).
Easy to target audience: With the leveraging of this platform for the businesses, the
brands could easily target any specific section of the consumers and ensure that the product
details are appropriately provided to the users. Instagram provides the automated targeting
that provides the businesses with an appropriate headstart in the creation of the audience that
may be significantly interested in the brand (Manovich 2016). The preferences of the
consumers are analysed and then based on the data from the analysis of preferences, the

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consumers are provided with the accurate suggestions that might interest the users in visiting
the page of the brands.
Using the visual marketing features on Instagram: Retailers are presently developing
the proper understanding of the proper method of advertising for the shoppers on Instagram.
Along with the this, the retailers as well as the brands are developing the improved content on
Instagram as the size and features of the social media platform helps in gaining increased
consumers (De Veirman, Cauberghe and Hudders 2017).
Limitations of Instagram
Limitation to the availability: Instagram had been particularly developed for working
on the iOS and android systems. Even though several techs within the industry have
attempted in creating the online version or the online access, it gained minimum public
appeal. People or companies who are using this platform for marketing purposes, are mainly
affected with this aspect because without the availability of smartphone, the persons cannot
be reached (Ridgway and Clayton 2016).
Loss of the copyright to the pictures: The copyright infringement is considered as the
avenue that is used by most of the people when it is analysed that any other individual is
taking the credit of someone’s work. With the increased amount of users on the Instagram
applications, the number of photos released on this platform has increased significantly.
There are some situations when any malicious user has accessed the account of any
individual and gain various photos and videos. After gaining the videos or photos, they are
altered and claimed to be their personal photos.
Loss of privacy: When any photo or video has been uploaded on the social media
platform, then that video could be downloaded by any individual and altered according to
their needs (Waterloo et al. 2018). This could lead to significant harm to the individuals as

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this video or this photo could be used for malicious intentions. Instagram, like several other
applications, would automatically access and then track the location if the feature has not
been turned off in the phone. When the users are using the features of geotag to the photos,
the recording of data is automatically done and it could provide Instagram with the better idea
regarding where the time of any individual is mainly spent. With the analysis of the data of
the users based on the locations, Instagram then provides the specific suggestion associated
with that place constantly and attracting the users to various locations. With the use of
Instagram, the strangers as well as other people would gain the real time knowledge of the
location of anyone. It allows the constant sharing of location for the users. Instagram mainly
accesses significantly huge amount of data without allowing the people to have the
knowledge about the act. The information collected on the users could be used for several
things, and according to Instagram, it includes the helping with accessing the information
afterwards signing in, assisting in monitoring as well as improving the effectiveness of this
application, monitoring the metrics, detecting and then fixing the tech issues, automatically
updating the application as well as testing the new products as well as the features.
Increased sense of jealousy among the users: In the present times, with the increased
popularity of the social media platform and the availability of various editing tools, the users
are becoming significantly active in sharing the details of the daily activities on Instagram
that is causing significant sense of jealousy among the people. This jealousy has observed to
turn into something more where the users might end up hurting up each other. When any
picture or video has been altered by any malicious user and then released on the platform, it
leads to the significant trouble for the users.
Investment of time by users: Each of the Instagram user would admit that they are
developing particular kind of addiction to the application. With the development of various
kinds of site, the ability of increasing the follower on any account is becoming significantly

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easy. It takes up significantly huge time of the day spending long hours that could have been
used otherwise for any other purposes from the constant scrolling through the videos and the
pictures.
Conclusion
Therefore, it could be concluded from the above discussion that the introduction of
Instagram for the users has provided major benefits as well as limitations. Even though the
benefits are mainly huge, there are some limitations that cannot be ignored. The Instagram
application provides the users with the major functionalities for editing as well as the
uploading the photos as well as the short videos using the mobile application. With the
increase of the number of users on the Instagram platform, the companies and other sectors
are intending to target the specific users through the social media platform for selling their
products and their services. According to recent studies, it has been determined. With the
leveraging of this platform for the businesses, the brands could easily target any specific
section of the consumers and ensure that the product details are appropriately provided to the
users.

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References
Alfonzo, P., 2019. . Instagram in the Library. Library Technology Reports, 55(2), p.33.
Datta, B. and Kaushik, P., 2019. Brand Awareness through Instagram Advertising. Asian
Journal of Management, 10(2), pp.100-108.
Reece, A.G. and Danforth, C.M., 2017. Instagram photos reveal predictive markers of
depression. EPJ Data Science, 6(1), pp.1-12.
Sheldon, P. and Bryant, K., 2016. Instagram: Motives for its use and relationship to
narcissism and contextual age. Computers in human Behavior, 58, pp.89-97.
Tiggemann, M. and Zaccardo, M., 2018. ‘Strong is the new skinny’: A content analysis of#
fitspiration images on Instagram. Journal of health psychology, 23(8), pp.1003-1011.
Manovich, L., 2016. Instagram and contemporary image. Manovich. net, New York.
De Veirman, M., Cauberghe, V. and Hudders, L., 2017. Marketing through Instagram
influencers: the impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand
attitude. International Journal of Advertising, 36(5), pp.798-828.
Ridgway, J.L. and Clayton, R.B., 2016. Instagram unfiltered: Exploring associations of body
image satisfaction, Instagram# selfie posting, and negative romantic relationship
outcomes. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 19(1), pp.2-7.
Waterloo, S.F., Baumgartner, S.E., Peter, J. and Valkenburg, P.M., 2018. Norms of online
expressions of emotion: Comparing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp. new
media & society, 20(5), pp.1813-1831.

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Gaffar, V., Hendrayati, H. and Ifandha, M.H.F., 2016, August. Comparative Analysis of
Facebook and Instagram as Web Promotion Tools. In 2016 Global Conference on Business,
Management and Entrepreneurship. Atlantis Press.