Would you ever give your avatar(s) an Instagram?

[Gopi Passiflora]

I wouldn't, although I could imagine what that would be like.

[YeonaV]

Well that's an interesting idea. I never thought of that! Maybe I might. 

[Rolig Loon]

I'm not sure what my avatar would find to do with it.

[WillowTenage]

Nah, I already have youtube and flickr.   Also I have the second life blog thing, which I use every once in a while.

[Nextio]

I probably would if i had enough time.  It's hard enough trying to balance my real life and social media.  

[Scylla Rhiadra]

How this different from giving your avatar Flickr (higher resolution pics), Facebook (got one, haven't used it in years), or Twitter (as per FB)?

It's a serious question: what are the advantages of Instagram? I don't have an account RL or SL.

[Rolig Loon]

3 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

It's a serious question: what are the advantages of Instagram? I don't have an account RL or SL.

I don't either, and I avoid FB and refuse to have anything to do with Twitter.  So is there a compelling reason to want Instagram?  I join you in being curious, but not enough to experiment.

[Fox Wijaya]

FB is next to a data drain ( they know it is you!) tricky... if you get even a little report your account will be closed. It's not allowed to use game personality.
Only as subpage( sort of display name)  you can use it for your account

[MoiraKathleen]

I don't even have Flickr any longer, I've never had FB or Twitter for my avatar either.  I can't imagine why I would want Instagram (which I don't have in RL either). 

This site is really the only place where I'm social at all and the only place I post a few of the pictures I take. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

I'm not the Instagram type - RL or SL

[Nextio]

3 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

How this different from giving your avatar Flickr (higher resolution pics), Facebook (got one, haven't used it in years), or Twitter (as per FB)?

It's a serious question: what are the advantages of Instagram? I don't have an account RL or SL.

Instagram is a huge platform especially among younger audiences, photographers, artists, celebs, musicians, fashion, influencers, etc.  You can set up hashtags making it easier for people to find you.  It also has a cleaner UI compared to FB or Twitter.  You can practically upload limitless photos and videos too.  Instant feedback with notifications.  Private or public accounts.

It takes getting used to at first, but once you learn how to navigate, it becomes a superior platform compared to FB and Twitter.  The only downside is that nudity is not allowed and it makes it difficult for SL users who want to share photos like that.

In my opinion though, Flickr is still superior when it comes to photo sharing and detailed information.  The only problem with Flickr is that it's not popular within the social media world.  It's basically in it's own sphere and your audience is smaller.  There's also the upload limit too which sucks if you upload a lot.

If you don't upload nudity or don't care about detailed photo information, then i would suggest switching to Instagram.

Oh, and there's also Tumblr, but it's going through some turmoil right now due to their recent ban on porn and nudity.

Edited June 1, 2019 by Nextio

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

I'm not personally interested in Instagram, so don't know much about it, but isn't it owned by Facebook? If so, does it have the same issues with "fictional" accounts? 

[Nextio]

2 minutes ago, Sylvia Tamalyn said:

I'm not personally interested in Instagram, so don't know much about it, but isn't it owned by Facebook? If so, does it have the same issues with "fictional" accounts? 

Yeah, it's owned by FB, but i've never seen Facebook or any promotion of FB on IG, so they are practically separate entities. 

You can use any name you want on IG and can change it whenever you want (iirc).  You can't have two names though, but you can use underscores and periods.  For example, you could try using Sylvia.Tamalyn or Sylvia_Tamalyn, or other variations such as Sylvia.Tamalyn_.

[Maitimo]

I don't even have Instagram for myself in RL, I use Flickr and a standalone blog (which I haven't posted to in a couple months). The more options I have, the less I seem to post in any of them.

 

[Shauna Greymoon]

I've seen people do it for their OCs, but not in SL. I'd do it if I had friends who did! But I think without that social component I'd just lose interest. Like I did with my tumblr. 

All you'd need is an android emulator like MEmu so you could post from your desktop. 

Edited June 2, 2019 by Shauna Greymoon

[Scylla Rhiadra]

5 hours ago, Nextio said:

The only problem with Flickr is that it's not popular within the social media world.  It's basically in it's own sphere and your audience is smaller.

Thank you for this!

I'm still uncertain, though, what the point of an Instagram account might be? I know that there is a reasonably substantial community of SL residents on Flickr; is there a similar community on Instagram? Or is the idea to raise the profile of SL itself on the platform?

A sort of side note: I wonder if My Second Life (which was actually quite popular, at least among people I knew, which it started) might have worked better had it included the ability to upload larger images from your computer, rather than merely small snapshots directly from in-world? It might have become, perhaps, the go-to for sharing high quality images of the platform?

It also might have worked better had it be been better integrated with in-world communication tools -- but none of the other social media programs has that either, of course.

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

11 hours ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

I wouldn't, although I could imagine what that would be like.

That's what Flickr is for.

6 hours ago, Nextio said:

In my opinion though, Flickr is still superior when it comes to photo sharing and detailed information.  The only problem with Flickr is that it's not popular within the social media world.  It's basically in it's own sphere and your audience is smaller.  There's also the upload limit too which sucks if you upload a lot.

Flickr IS popular with the SL fashion/pixel vanity community.  And while Flickr free users are limited to their most recent 1000 photos, that's still a lot...and quite a few of the SL fashion/pixel vanity community has gone Pro with their Flickr accounts which removes that limit.

[Ren Toxx]

No. Years ago I was a competent if uninspired photographer, but I’m too rusty now.

[Ginger Cloud]

A number of SL bloggers and photographers mirror their work on instagram and honestly, at a glance, it looks great because an aspirational image feed for avatars is not far from the ideal of an instagram influencer. It fits!

There is an appeal to the idea of a social media account that is entirely my avatar. Instagram would be the place to do it. I’m on Flickr. Dawn doesn’t know what flickr is, she’s eating avocado toast and posting to snap and insta #blessed #yolo #livingmybestlife 

 

[Cakewithfruit]

No, to be remunerated enterprise collect too much information about you.

[Bree Giffen]

SL clubs, stores, parks, gardens, etc, should build specific photo opportunities where people can stand in a certain area and take a photo of themselves. This is done all the time in real life places like the Pike Place Market in Seattle which has this huge neon sign that people can take a picture of themselves that says, "Hey, look I'm at the Pike Place Market!". SL creators need to keep in mind the people making selfies and to people needing to fill their instagrams. 

[callistanull]

Maybe. I'd RP her as having one and posting pictures to it. Making a real one to post pictures to might be worth it, might not be. It's a lot of work, and also would add some fun activity and be an opportunity to show things I've made. So right now I have too much else going on, would consider it later.

[Blaise Glendevon]

An in-character 'gram might be entertaining as a project.

[Maitimo]

19 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Thank you for this!

I'm still uncertain, though, what the point of an Instagram account might be?

My guess is it's because Instagram is primarily geared towards image posts.

But Flickr already does that better, and there's already a huge SL community on Flickr, so I don't really see the point in gong anywhere else.

I think Linden Lab missed out on a great opportunity by not developing the "My Second Life" profile feed, as Scylla said. If it had the option of uploading high-res images I would probably have used that instead of Flickr. And now I have to be really careful which images I upload because free Flickr accounts only get 1000 pics now. MySL is a built-in social media platform that could have been a great success, I'm surprised that it never caught on.

Edited June 3, 2019 by Matty Luminos

[Ginger Cloud]

Another angle is its far easier to manage an Instagram account on mobile, the whole platform is geared to that. So you have that connection to your SL social media in the palm of your hand, throwing likes and follows and comments and whatever else people do to gin up followers. Yes flickr has an app but it can't compete in terms of UX. 500k posts tagged #secondlife and many more related hashtags at 10, 20, 50k did surprise me!

Edited June 3, 2019 by cicelydawn