The popular photo-and-video sharing app Instagram recently announced it will be incorporating advertisements, but it won’t make many UF students cut back on using it.
“It’ll be like any other app,” said 26-year-old second-year UF linguistics student Sarah Howard.
Howard said she uses Instagram “all the time.” She said the addition of ads might be a little annoying, but wouldn’t change her use of the app.
UF social media specialist Bruce Floyd said usage will be affected depending on how ads are displayed.
“They won’t get in the way if you can scroll past them, but if they do it like a pop-up and create user frustration, it may have a negative effect on users,” Floyd said.
Floyd pointed out the example of Facebook, saying ads have been there for a while in different styles, but the site is still widely used by its users.
“As long as connections are there, ads won’t deter them,” he said.
Some students don’t appreciate the intrusion.
Nineteen-year-old UF family youth and community sciences sophomore Allysen Marks uses Instagram to stay connected after she stopped using Facebook.
“Ads are terrible,” Marks said. “Who wants to be bombarded?”
Twenty-year-old UF health education and human behavior junior Lexi Klym said she isn’t looking forward to the ads clouding her stream of photos, but her usage won’t change.
Klym said she wouldn’t mind ads geared toward her interests tracked through hashtags.
“It would be better than random ads,” Klym said.
Advertisements aren’t the worst change Instagram could make, said UF economics and political science senior Victoria Dokken, 21.
“It’d be way worse to charge people,” she said.
For 19-year-old UF engineering sophomore Matt Burke, his future Instagram use will depend on the type of ads that are displayed.
He said he typically uses Instagram about four times a month.
Burke said if it’s a banner, he’ll still use the app, but if it’s a video, similar to how YouTube advertises, he’ll use Instagram less.
Emma Roulette, a 19-year-old UF biology junior who said she doesn’t like Instagram, suggested the advertisements are a creative way for the app to get money.
“Maybe they’re struggling,” Roulette said. “But with no other alternative, people will still use the app.”
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 10/8/2013 under the headline "#advertisements coming to Instagram"
