I’ve never been on Instagram before.

I’ve eschewed the site; for several reasons. One main reason is out of a defensive mechanism, based on the effects that social media had on my teenage daughter several years ago. Now at age 21 she is vibrant, healthy and happy; yet those high school years were rough, and a large part of that was due to social media.

Here’s an article explaining how social media affects teen girls so easily. It’s true. I’ve lived it along with thousands of others. And up to this point, I’ve wanted nothing to do with it, namely Instagram.

However, I know it’s time to delve into this world; to take a chance. Inherently, I know there are some good aspects of Instagram and my distrust is waning. So going forward, as time allows, I’m ready to start learning more, both personally and professionally.

For the UNO Media storytelling class I looked at five media outlet accounts on Instagram. I had one hour to briefly search Instagram; and it proved fascinating. Following are my first immediate impressions. Just from reading one specific site that I adored, I know I’ll be back to Instagram and I can see the hook.

The five media outlets I looked at include National Public Radio, National Geographic, the Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and local media: the Omaha World Herald, and WOWT 6 News.

• NPR: NPR has a following of 2.6 million. Its opening page features pictures with a variety of illustrations, people and locations. I personally liked the illustrations; so many concepts can be combined with a drawing or painting. The topics were varied and were very people-centric. Each post has garnered many comments; a random sampling showed a smattering of well-written, and controversial comments.
  
  Like most everything NPR does, I’d give this an “A” based on my first impressions.

• National Geographic This account has 131 million followers, and is vibrant with professional, engaging photos; as expected. These photos have all gained thousands of comments, and the posts feature pictures of animals, locations and things. I am coming back to this site, and will read and follow National Geographic. The comments ranged from emojis, slams, thoughtful additions, and many were in different languages. I am very interested in this account; and am giving it an “A+” for the quality and variety of photos and posts.

• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: While not a traditional news site, I do get some of my news from watching this show. This site looked quite entertaining, funny and newsworthy. It featured both people-centered breaking news and those people interviewed on the late-night show. More than 1.4 million followers were listed; and there were comments that were funny, brief but also snide and quite political in nature. Most of the pictures featured people, entertainers, celebrities, and newsworthy faces; no animals. My grade on my first impression would be an “A-“.

• Omaha World Herald The OWH is my home-town newspaper. This is the first time I’ve looked at its Instagram account; it has 20.8K followers. The account shows local pictures of people, news, sports, animals, sports, weather, and more sports. It’s filled with sports; but I do believe that’s one big non-emotional, non-political and non-reactive draw to the OWH; and the OWH does well with reporting sports. There were very few comments, and very few toxic comments on that end. People seemed to like the few news stories that were features of people. It’s a big change from the national news outlets, probably because there were no known celebrities featured; and local news isn’t too exciting. The pictures were good; overall I’d give it a first impression of “B+” based on the quality pictures.

• WOWT 6 News: This Omaha-based television news station has an Instagram presence; and it boasts 17K followers; I’m slightly surprised there aren’t more. But upon thinking about it, news is watched more by older people; and older people aren’t always on the forefront of social media. At first glance many of the stories feature words on the picture, explaining the picture. I liked that. A few blocks are in video format; and have just a black box as the picture. These need screenshots and images as they are slightly unappealing. There are very few comments, and I see very little interaction. I’d guess the WOWT’s website is where they have all the action. I’d give this Instagram account a “B-“.

These are a newbie’s first impressions. I’m going to download the app and start following National Geographic, and dream.