Researchers can tell how old you are based on your Instagram likes.
.. There are plenty of adults who use the social photo-sharing platform, but deleting photos that aren’t well-liked enough is a distinct behavior among teens who use the site, according to researchers at Penn State University.
.. Adults also post more diverse topics, which may be a reflection of disposable income that allows for vacation or travel, Lee suggests.
.. Maybe because, as one 14-year-old explained, Instagram is basically over and everyone is Snapchatting instead.
.. A basic taxonomy of Twitter faves would have to include the following uses, at least:
• When you genuinely like the tweet
• When you genuinely don’t like the tweet; also known as a “hate fave”
• When you want to mark a tweet to revisit it later
• When you want to acknowledge that you’ve seen a tweet, but without text; also known as the farewell fave
..My colleague Megan Garber has delved into these shades of like, and the farewell fave in particular, in more detail. “With a single click, I can do something that is actually extremely difficult to do in the digital context: end a conversation,”
“Young women dominate Instagram and visual platforms in general. Instagram gives you the power to modify your appearance in a way that’s practically on par with makeup and other beauty products,” said Rachel Simmons, a gender researcher who has written extensively on teen girls, referring to the flattering tools that make photos look flawless.
.. Katrin Tiidenberg, sociologist and Internet scholar at Tallinn University, says more women may use Instagram because mothers, in particular, have historically been responsible for family photos in many cultures.
.. Tiidenberg says dates back to the 19th century, when upper class women took pictures of their family and friends and made elaborate albums that included paintings, drawings, and cutouts from photos.
.. This is where Instagram can veer into the territory of envy baiting and plays into the trap of chasing “effortless perfection”—a term coined by Duke University researchers in 2003 to capture the pressure women feel to be beautiful, in shape, popular, intelligent, and accomplished without any visible effort to put forth. In reality, of course, maintaining an enviable Instagram feed—perfectly staged vacation photos with the sun hitting you just so, or the ultimate flattering selfie that showcases your best side—does take a lot of work. Read: many snaps of the camera from different angles and then running them through the right filter.