After this week’s lesson about “intended audience” versus “real” audience, I took a look at the online site I use most often and analyzed what their possibly target demographics were when I first began to use them and what they might be like today. I think one of the most interesting examples of changing audience, is Instagram. Initially created as a simple photo sharing app with filters and witty taglines has morphed into a monstrous mix of influencers, celebrities, and businesses. Glancing over Instagram’s extensive wikipedia page and some articles with the creators, it is a bit difficult to find what the original intended audience was. My best guess is that Instagram was meant to target the same users as Facebook, because of their similar focus on the “social” aspect of the media. However, I did read that Instagram grew because of its iconic square photo format that was created specifically for mobile phones. This means the creators were likely focused on capturing the attention of any individual with a touch screen phone and that was likely going to be a younger demographic. It seems that Instagram did indeed get the attention of its audience. However, Instagram has grown over the years and after Facebook bought it in 2012, the platform has attracted a much more business focused outlook. The 2020 “real” audience is smart phone users that are looking for quick entertainment, a look into someone’s life (whether its presented realistically or not), and customers not just the “intended” audience of photo sharing users. The implementation of targeted ads and growing crowd of sponsored influencers showcase how Instagram has transformed from a simple photo sharing app, to a marketing and business tool with social media elements.
Now I definitely don’t have the brain power of two guys from Stanford backed with millions of dollars, so coming up with my own “thing” has been a little more difficult. One idea I mulled over was a COVID-19 webpage made specifically for Texas college students. I don’t think the layout would be to difficult as it would more heavily rely on the massive amount of information that can be included. Possibly topics like links to infections numbers (based on counties or university-specific numbers), health resources, safety information (from the CDC), mental health resources and more. I want to create a hub for students to find reliable information, without having to sift through six months’ worth of links and articles. However, I do see the downside to heavily devoting myself to something emotionally draining like that for the next month. I also thought about doing a simple Tracery tree that would allow users to find out a specific characteristic about themselves. It would be much simpler in concept, but much more complex in creation. I’d basically be creating a glorified Buzzfeed quiz because I wouldn’t be able to pick a intricate topic, but I will try to avoid the strangeness of that websites creations.
My brainstorming is far from over, but hopefully I can create something unique despite my limited skill set.
Posted In: Reflections