Executive Summary

This study researched the main applications for photo sharing as well as photo editing amongst students of DePaul University. Moreover, our study investigated what the most popular technological service among DePaul students is to view, upload, and enhance photos; as well as what type of device (smart phone or digital camera) was used to take pictures and what kind of device (smart phone or computer) was used to enhance photos. In addition, our study further researched the application, Instagram. Specifically as to the reasons why college students used Instagram and their motives behind doing so. Furthermore, our study researched questions such as what type of pictures are uploaded; with whom are photos shared; as well as what type of mean(s) is obtained from photo sharing and viewing. This included social engagement with other users; building creative skills; as well as business related means such as promoting ones business with visually satisfying images of their product. Previous studies have focused on similar topics that revolve around the growing industry of Instagram in contrast to other social media networks. Other studies have gone in depth as to the reasons behind Instagram's popularity and the aspects in which motivate its users to continue their service. Our study included an online survey sent via email to a few fellow DePaul classmates. To complete our final study on DePaul students and their usage and opinions of Instagram, we performed a convenience sampling method, using friends, roommates, and classmates that partook in our research. In regards to our research, limitations are relatively seen in our survey design, specifically with having questions that may ignore potential correspondents who do not use Instagram. Additionally, our survey only included a limited sample of DePaul students in comparison to the university's total enrollment of undergraduate and graduate students and as a result may not accurately represent the entire population of DePaul.

Our study was designed to seek answers to two hypotheses that we created for our group project. Our results surprisingly coincided very well with what we had predicted and hypothesized prior to our survey. Our first hypothesis stated, "DePaul students are more likely to interact with friends and family on Instagram rather than unfamiliar people." This hypothesis was proven to be true, from our survey results, we saw that a wide majority of respondents answered that they followed Instagram accounts that were mostly their friends and family. Over 60% of surveyors responded that their majority of people they followed were their friends and family members, as opposed to celebrities, athletes, and companies/brands. The second hypothesis we formed was, "DePaul students are more likely to use Instagram to enhance pictures than use any other digital photo enhancement app (i.e. Photoshop)." Throughout our study we focused on the popularity of the photo-editing app, Instagram. After compiling our results, we found that this hypothesis was also true, especially after looking at the statistics from our survey questions. Over half of our respondents, 52% of them said that they would use Instagram to edit their photos over other programs such as, Photoshop, PicStitch, and PicMonkey. In addition, when we asked if people had an Instagram account, an impressive 72% responded that they did in fact have an Instagram account, showing its popularity with editing photos.

Some further results that we found from our study gave us more insight as to why Instagram is the number one photo-editing app on the market. After asking what type of device people used to take photographs, an astounding 86% of respondents replied that they used cellphone cameras to take photos. This led us to understand that Instagram's popularity and synonymy with photo editing. If people are using their cellphone cameras to take the majority of their photographs, a mobile app, such as Instagram, would be the ideal way to edit their pictures. A related question about the respondent's preferred method of editing, asked what piece of technology they mostly used when editing photographs. The results showed that 58% of people used their cellphones to edit or enhance their pictures, proving our theory that the mobility of cellphone cameras increases the popularity and usage of the Instagram app.

This study on Instagram usage and DePaul students gives a closer look at how college students are using the photo-enhancing app and why they are choosing it as their go-to photo editor. As things are becoming increasingly mobile and efficient, an app like Instagram is the perfect way for people to edit their personal photos on the go. The social aspect of the app is another key feature that our target audience looks for, the sharing features on Instagram is the complete way to share your photos with your friends and family on your various social media sites. Our freeform questions in our survey led us to learn that the spread of Instagram use has been aided by people wanting to expand their photography skills and interact with their peers. Responses showed that Instagram allows its users to engage with other users and broadcast their exciting lifetime moments to the technological world. These two concepts are very important to today's youth, specifically shown in DePaul's undergraduate students who participated in this study.

In this study we were able to successfully draw connections between devices used to edit photos and the types of programs used for photo editing. We were able to find out the types of means students get from using Instagram, such as social engagement and event documentation, and we were able to see what kind of photos people are sharing, and with whom they're sharing with. We ran into a few limitations during our study, specifically having questions that may have ignored respondents who did not have an Instagram account. Also, our survey was taken of a relatively small sample of DePaul students in comparison of the university's total enrolled students. Due to this small sample size, our results may not accurately represent the combined population of undergraduate and graduate students at DePaul University.