A M A N D A D U N C A N
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My Photo Album 

“Instagram is for spontaneous posts only," “Posting on instagram takes too much time," and “My posts are too boring to post on Instagram” are all common misconceptions when using Instagram. Sure, many people post aesthetically pleasing pictures on Instagram that glamorize many individuals' lifestyles, but realistically there are billions of people using Instagram today that do not think about edits, captions, locations, and emojis. I believe that Instagram should stop being looked at in a negative light by both old and young people alike because it offers numerous benefits. Instagram has been used since 2010 by over 600 million people. I was a little late to the Instagram “game” in comparison to my friends, probably because my mom thought it would be best to not provide me with a phone until the eighth grade (so embarrassing). I moved from Connecticut to Arizona in eighth grade and, to this day, I think Instagram saved many of my friendships. I know that sounds pathetic, but when you move across the country, the world doesn’t stop. Life goes on. It was a way for me to see what my best friends had going on in their lives. 
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Just like trends change in fashion, cars, and electronics, trends most definitely change on Instagram as well. When looking back at my older pictures from the beginning of high school, I would add borders around my pictures. Sure, at the time that was the “cool” thing to do, but now it would be seen as socially "unacceptable" to still add those. Today I will post a picture with no border but an edit instead using other apps such as Visco or HUJI. While the trends continue to change on Instagram, I see my audience changing from my old friends to my new ones. However, even when the trends continued to change, my purpose on Instagram never did. I want my audience to view me as free-spirited and adventurous through my posts. I believe my friends from my high school as well as my friends in college enjoy seeing my posts because it is a way to keep up with the changes in my life. However, it is not a one way street. This demonstrates a participatory affordance of Instagram where you can interact with the digital device in a way where it benefits both parties. My mom would say I am “addicted” to Instagram because of how often I am on it. I check it every day and most days more than once. My response to my mom has always remained the same: “So what?”
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Since I have been at TCU, I find myself posting more because of the new adventures, opportunities, and friends that I am making. However, I never want to leave behind my friends from high school. Recently when I went back to Scottsdale, Arizona, for Christmas break, I posted a picture with my four best friends from high school. This picture couldn't depict our friendship better. That night we took many pictures attempting to take the perfect one. However, this one is my personal favorite because it is perfectly imperfect, also known as “candid” in Instagram terms. I believe seeing raw or unedited pictures on Instagram explains our friendship so much more. All of us, mouths open, laughing depicts a more believable night spent with my best friends. I find it very helpful to tag my friends in the picture because, not only does it alert them that I posted a picture of them, but it can connect my new friends at TCU to my old life. It connects my two lives by adding a link back to their profile where my friends can now follow each other.  It can draw them in while allowing my Instagram to feel just a bit more personal. Behind every picture on my Instagram, there is a reason why I posted it, whether that is demonstrated by my caption, who I am with, or my location. Specifically this picture is important because the location I included at the top, Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. Not only does including the location depict my adventurous personality, but it also has many benefits. By adding a location, otherwise known as geotagging, I am also adding a photo to my photo map. A photo map is the way Instagram organizes your photos that have been tagged with a location. This is an advantage because it displays a general map of all the places I have been over the years which I find astonishing when looking back on my experiences. This provided creditability of where we were that night. Logos is the most common rhetorical appeal used when I was posting this image. The date plays an important role in this picture: December 29th, 2017. I posted this on a specific day because exactly a year prior, I posted a similar ice skating picture at the same place with the same group of girls. My reasoning for doing this was to show the tradition we have as a friend group.

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Now that you all are able to see who my friends are from high school, I want you all to meet my best friend Katelyn from TCU. I find it important to have a balance between my two different groups of friends to show no one is replaceable. This picture was taken at a fraternity mixer known as WoodStock. Yes thats right the same Woodstock from 1969 was recreated right here in Texas! To attain the same credibility as my last post, I included the location as Woodstock Festival. I think locations are a great way to explain what I am wearing in the picture as well as tie in the caption. In the image I am wearing a wide sleeve top and a flower crown to show my audience the trends during this time period. When people were scrolling through on February 5th, 2018 when I uploaded this image I wanted to convince my audience that I was back in 1969. One of the ways I attempted to do this was with the edit. I used an app called HUJI to have a sunny glow on the picture as well as include a false date from '98 in the bottom right corner. This reasoning can also be seen as logos because I appealed to my audience with the edit. Through this filter and tint, I am attempting to accomplish my own trademark. I find that using the same filter, from visco, allows my posts to be easily recognizable. It also makes my overall feed look cohesive and portrays my overall free-spirited mood. My purpose of using this filter is to depict my free bold personality because it brightens the image and brings out all the warm colors. I wanted my audience to recognize my ability to elicit emotions through this post with our faces smooshed together, beaming with joy. I thought of "Groovy” as my caption for this post, and I believe it is simple and sweet while still depicting the decade. My captions are often brief and not very creative because I strongly believe a picture is worth a thousand words.

I find myself often posting many pictures that I know I will want to reminisce about. I know there are other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter that can do just about the same thing; however, I believe there are many affordances that make Instagram different. Instagram's main affordance is the ability to store vast amounts of information and photographs that are able to be reached easily. On a larger scale, Instagram is reminiscent of photo albums. It also has a simple design that allows it to be user friendly and very manageable through the four main sections at the bottom of the app. I touched on how Instagram has the ability to connect my two separate lives which is shown to be true through the interactions of my audience on the posts. On the post with my friend Katelyn you can see how @juliawatrous, my best friend from Connecticut, commented "cute girls!!!!" on a picture with my best friend for TCU. I want my Instagram page to portray me as the same free-spirited, adventurous girl no matter where I am in the world.  I really hope that Instagram is still around in a few decades, because even when my old pictures get deleted when the newest iPhone comes out, I want to be able to have all my most special pictures in one spot when looking back on my life.
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