WHY INSTAGRAM REELS ARE SO POPULAR

WHY INSTAGRAM INTRODUCED REELS

I’m sure you have heard about Tik Tok. It is a short video uploading platform where creators upload videos ranging from 15-30 seconds. The Instagram reels are Instagram’s response to tik tok. But why use Instagram reels if you are using Tik Tok? It makes no sense, right?
Think about it yourself. You took a lot of time building upon your Tik Tok page, and then you just start all over again on another platform. All your time goes to waste, right? Influencers do not want to change platforms and start from 0 all over again. Hence this reels feature was a clever idea. Now, users from tik-tok find it a TON easier to switch to this platform.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

An average influencer who has over 200k followers on Instagram may get some promising startups or companies advertising their products via them.
Reels bring about so many trends. These trends are followed by so many Instagram users who, in return, have exposure to many viewers, which increases the reach of the account from which the reel is posted.
Hence creating a chain reaction that increases the reach of a certain account.

And once the reach is at a certain level where the audience is getting influenced by the creator, various companies bring their advertisements to the account owner and sponsor their reels. Hence this reel thing can be seen as part-time work too, which is creditable.

WHY IT IS SO POPULAR

1) IT BECOMES ADDICTIVE

According to Philipp Lorenz-Sprees of Max Planck Institute for Human Development, “Content is increasing in volume, which exhausts our attention and our urge for ‘newness’ causes us to switch between topics more regularly collectively. Hence, these platforms have created this format that precisely fits this time frame. On Instagram reels, you can scroll through millions of 10-15 seconds long videos effortlessly.”
Our body has a mechanism of rewarding ourselves after the completion of any action we justify as fruitful. Our brain feels rewarded whenever we do something that makes us feel pleasured. Getting/acquiring information is also such an action that pleases us.

Due to that, our brain triggers our internal reward mechanism, which is done by the hormone cum neurotransmitter or the reward chemical DOPAMINE. This chemical mediates pleasure in the brain, which in turn stimulates one’s body to seek those same activities to seek pleasure.
So, this neurotransmitter creates a feedback mechanism that makes you repeat the activity you performed, resulting in pleasure. Hence when you don’t like a video, you will constantly keep on scrolling to get to the video you like. This results in you scrolling through a large number of reels in a few minutes or so.

2) THE ALGORITHM SHOWS YOU WHAT YOU LIKE

Instagram is run on codes and algorithms based on a user’s profile likes and dislikes. It maintains its feed by filtering millions of posts by the hashtags and tagged accounts on the platform. And based on your searches, your feed gets refreshed, and the feed shows you posts and reels that you might actually be interested in.

Hence, it enhances a user’s daily experience on the platform and keeps you entertained throughout, which leads to you spending more time on the platform because you are getting recommended on the topics that actually are related to your site of interest.

HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE MIND?

Usage of social media has been described as one of the prime causes of cyber security threats and cyberbullying. All these cases are going up day by day, and also, there are so many reported cases of cyber scams and frauds—all of these link usage of social media platforms to various mental illnesses.
Anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and numerous other disorders contribute to the increased amount of social media consumption. Continuous usage of social media has already rendered the attention span of human beings very less. This decline will go on with the increasing amount of consumption.

MY OPINION

Readers, remember there is a world outside this screen you stay glued to. You might think that these short videos are harmless, but now you know the consequences. You shall find a way to get away from this virtual world, talk to some good old friend, talk to a loved one, go for a nature’s trail, pick up hobbies, etc. to deviate yourself from this virtual world and find a way to reconnect to the real world.

Thank you for your time and patience, and also congratulation because you have read an article with a read time of atleast 4-5 mins!
A study reveals that the attention span of an average human being is less than 10 seconds (I bet it’s lower than 8 seconds, though), so you are already on the right track!!