While reflecting on the reading during Tuesday’s class discussion, I realized that flow deals with all the keywords from this chapter. Flow appears to be a combination of these keywords as it relies on interaction. Flow is utilized like a hook in literature, grabbing the attention of its audience to get them invested in the story. For example, on Instagram, interaction, and lack thereof, is monitored. Likes, saves, follows, and views are all accounted for. The amount of activity on your page is also stored on the app and is visible in settings. The app presents all of the output, input, and everything in between as charts and percentages. The app also sends you notifications of people you might know or sends a notification asking why you are not using Instagram for too long to try and coax you back to using it, demonstrating how inactivity is monitored. Additionally, when you return to the app and post something after a long time, the app tries to reward you by boosting your post, sometimes even sending a message to your followers that you have just posted.
2 thoughts on “Flow–Benjamin Cudmore”
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I also think it’s very interesting how flow encapsulates every keyword we’ve talked about so far and is the reason ads get thrown onto our social media apps. I’ve noticed that if I haven’t gone on social media or a game in a while, it’ll send me messages like “We miss you” or something along those lines. It gives a sort of human feel to it which makes you feel bad. It’s also like when you go on Instagram for the first time in a while and when you’re done scrolling you see “You’re all caught up!”. This makes us feel like we’re being “rewarded” as you said and is an incentive for us to be on the app more often.
You bring up a very interesting point about how the keyword flow encapsulates all the other keywords. I can think about the connections between flow with data, network, identity, gender, new media, and so many other keywords. Instagram definitely has a lot of features to keep users interested/addicted and keep the flow ongoing. Notifications, in general, are effective in improving user engagement, whether it be reaching new users or retaining existing ones. As you mentioned, I think the notifications where instagram asks why you have been not using the app as frequently demonstrates flow really well. The notifications create the impulse to continue using the app because it makes you feel badly or like you are missing out on something.