Affordances of communication in technology: Instagram.

Affordances of communication in technology: Instagram

Instagram is a huge public social networking site that is only accessible through an app on a smartphone or tablet, which significantly affects the persuasion to buy certain products that aid this type of communication and social networking via the internet, which is a great marketing technique for companies that sell this kind of technology, for example Apple. It is great for the younger generation because a high proportion of young people possess a smartphone and/or a tablet, therefore this age group are more likely to use it, but nevertheless, it also encourages the older generation to buy new technology to be able to connect using this developed social networking app.

Instagram encorporates mixed mode, which include qualilites of speech and writing, as you can post pictures, videos and writing. This includes comments on posts and also private messages through 'Instagram direct'. This allows more personal types of messages with private pictures, but also messages that the person alows to be public. Commenting on photos can have constraints, because you may not always understand the exact tone of what the person is trying to say as you cannot make a judgement on their paralinguistical features, such as body language. However, emoticons allow you to comment using different faces that can allow the recipient to get a better understanding of what you are saying and what you mean when you comment or send a message. This makes it easier for the reader to acknowledge sarcasm, irony or even just a change in tone.

The picture on the left shows private communication through Instagram. As you can see, the user who has sent the message hasn't chosen to send a picture with the message, however this function allows you to send an unliminited amount of pictures and messages privately. The user has also send emoticons to express the emotion witgh the messagek, and you cab also see how long ago that the message was sent on the right hand side.

The picture on the right shows public communication through Instagram, and shows how writing, emoticons and links to other pages are used on one post. This is used by the process of 'tagging', which notifies another user to look at the particular post they are being directed to. The emoticons are used to express feelings and emotions that the commenter wants the recipient to understand, which is very effective.