Before watching “Instagram, I Love You,” I had a very narrow view of what Instagram was, and what people used it for. “Instagram? Isn’t that just selfies and pictures of food,” I thought. My beliefs were hollow, and really only influenced by what others had said, and not based on anything I personally experienced by using the app. Someone making a video to educate me on the utility of Instagram really changed my outlook. This is how technology can promote learning on the individual level. When people have their minds made up about something, even if it is based on little or no facts, it can be difficult to get them to re-consider. Something like making a video, and editing it well can be the perfect tool to use to educate or re-educate someone.
People can then share it across social media platforms with their friends and make it viral. This is how it can promote learning on a group level. If I watch a video and it really inspires me or makes me re-think something, I always post it, or send to friends. I am a visual learner. So by watching something, even if it’s on a topic I might not necessarily agree with, I will still watch it.
Watching the video made me think about how I learn. Here was an app that I never bothered to use because of social stigma, and after watching a 5-minute video on how it can be used more effectively my opinion changed drastically. I think that question of “How?,” we learn is an important one to think about, and I feel that it starts with attitude, and open mindedness. Everything can be “terrible,” if you are just listening to someone else and not keeping an open mind to see if something can be used to benefit you in anyway. This made me think that this could be an extension of how I want to teach, which is tell students, “never dismiss something until you can honestly say you’ve exhausted all possibilities to make it work for you.”
Neistat, C. (2012, October, 2). Instagram, I Love You. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GacoqdKjVyE