Pros and Cons of Instagram In 2023

This remains a debate whether Instagram has more valuable impact and pros than cons. The truth is, on the technical front, it has more pros than cons. However, if you co-relate the pros and cons with your well-being, Instagram has an equal capacity to make a user highly productive and efficient in their life, and to make them addictive and demoralised. 

As the tagline of Instagram says—’A simple, fun & creative way to capture, edit & share photos, videos & messages with friends & family’—it is indeed an interacting platform where billions of users can actively participate for the purpose of entertainment, revenues, education and learning. It has been a decade since it marked its impact in people worldwide. Over the years, Instagram has only made its features more interacting, user-friendly and collaborative. 

For example, with the ban of the famous Chinese social media app—TikTok, Instagram soon capitalised on this opportunity to introduce a similar feature— ‘Reels’ in the app. This attempt to collaborate with the TikTok community witnessed a sudden increase in its users and engagement on a global basis. The increase in users was also due to its marketing and revenue policies which were of immense help for people stuck in their home during the pandemic. 

However, a common question that remains in everyone’s mind is— “What are the pros and cons of using Instagram?”. While it may be tricky for someone naïve to know this, you may find the answer to this question in the following segments. 

What are the Pros of using Instagram?

There are several macro and micro benefits that this platform has in mankind. To be specific, following are the major pros that Instagram is based on.

• Highly user-interacting interface and visual:

One of the reasons behind Instagram’s high success rate is its interface and visual that has been built in such a manner that more users are interested to join the community, compared to other social media platforms. It has a regularly-updated mode of features such as filters, GIFs, stickers, music, etc. which make user’s experience more meaningful and worthwhile. 

Besides, Instagram protects the quality of pictures and videos when uploaded and do not pixelate them. This is of high priority for content creators and influencers. Due to its high quality and robust performance, it is one of the most used apps as of today.

• Revenues and Promotion:

It is a great platform to advertise and promote your brand of products. It is in high demand among the digital entrepreneurs, fashion, lifestyle and educational influencers, globally acknowledged business partners, etc. The sole reason why people from all strata are readily participating in promotions and advertisements is because Instagram has a highly rewarding and lucrative revenue policy. 

Besides, it has audience for all sorts of content, i.e., you have a large target audience which can help you boost your marketing. Communication and negotiation are also made easy in this interactive interface. It also allows the users to create business profiles and sponsor them for better reachability according to the user’s preference. 

• Privacy policies:

Instagram has a strict set of terms and conditions and privacy policies for its accounts—be it business based or a personal handle. Even if you allow your profile to be public, other users or viewers cannot download your profile picture or posts. If you have a private account, there is no way any third-party app or hacker can bypass the security. The content of your profile in this case will strictly be limited to your pre-approved followers. A high security and privacy policies are rarely maintained in other trending social media platforms.

What are the Cons of using Instagram?

Although, the cons are not as crucial and of high weightage as the pros, in order to maximise its efficiency and utility, Instagram must take proper actions to fix the below-listed bugs.

• Functionally limited to mobile phones: 

When you open Instagram on your laptop or computer, apart from the wider visual representation, there is no more extra features or changes that you will experience. Since, it is primarily built for connecting with people and sharing content with a target audience, added features for other devices such as tablets, PC and TV should be incorporated.

• Chats cannot be searched by keywords:

Unlike other trending social media platforms and messengers, Instagram does not allow you to search chats based on keywords. This creates quite a chaos when users try to find information through their chat history. It is a time-consuming task when you cannot search information by keywords.

• Privacy cannot be edited specifically for any post:

You cannot specifically edit the privacy settings for a definite post. Either you have to make all your posts public or all hidden from the viewers. There is no differential editing option available as of now. You can however, change the viewing option for stories by creating a ‘Close Friends’ list. If you share content on your stories using this option, only those specified users will be able to view them.

Step-wise guide on how to ensure Instagram does not have a negative impact on you? 

Although, Instagram is mostly a happy place where people can share emotions, words and thoughts via photos and videos with the rest of the world, it can become an ill habit. Constant consumption of contents and being connected with the standard of life displayed on the app can have impacts on your mental health. It can also drive you towards an immediate addiction. However, by following these steps, you can be in a balance. 

• Be mindful of what you choose to see. 
• Set a specific time limit on your phone for surfing and scrolling over Instagram. Typically, keep it between 1-2 hours.
• Do not check the app from time to time.
• Disable notifications. This will give you the control and enable you to watch content when you want, not when you get nudged. 
• Do not compare your standards of living with what you see on the app. This may make you demoralised.

Concluding remarks:

It is never easy to specify the exact impact or pros and cons of using Instagram on our lives. Because it is a relative question which depends entirely on the user and how they are consuming or utilising contents. But, if you are in control, it has a vast number of pros from which you and your family can be benefitted.

Also Read:

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• Spam Mean On Instagram
• How To See Who Recently Followed on Instagram?