Social media is an effective tool that people can use to generate, exchange, and share information with others online or through applications. Instagram is one of the most widely used social media platforms and has been for more than ten years. Users can publish any photographs anyway they wish on Instagram, a photo and video social networking site. Because Instagram is such a big platform, a lot of individuals utilize it as their main method of communication with other people all around the world. The discourse community that I am researching is an Instagram class page account called “ucd2025“. This is a discourse community because all of the rising freshmen have a goal of making new friends via Instagram posts (“ucd2025”, 2021) before they even step foot into their dorm and the account is run by upperclassmen, who may have also been a part of this discourse community, who aim to help give students resources for their new home. While social media can be a dangerous place to share personal information, this Instagram class page is an excellent way of bringing college students together because it allows for students to reach out to others across the country or world, it helps with students who want resources to help better understand their college, and it builds on the value of community before stepping foot into college.

An Instagram page is a great idea for upcoming students because according to a study, over 90% of college students use some form of social media (Sponcil & Gitimu, 2013). Since over 90% of students are using social media, an Instagram class page is something that students will look for when trying to find resources for their new college. An Instagram account is also a great option for students to find roommates. Many students sign into their housing portal and most likely will choose a random roommate. However some students want to learn about their roommates’ habits and see if their interests are common. For example, one student said that as a result of joining an Instagram account “ I DM’ed them and … you could just tell it was a perfect match” (Lorenz, 2019). Not only did she use the Instagram account to post, she was able to find her future roommate and not worry about the anxiety about a randomly assigned roommate. Building off of anxiety before college, almost every student will experience some form of homesickness. It’s something that I’ve experienced myself over the course of my first semester at UC Davis. However, I was thankful to have found a roommate beforehand using an Instagram class page account and finding events through social media. In a study done by five professors, they concluded that over 78% of students used social media to alleviate their homesickness whether that be watching TikToks, scrolling through Instagram, or even just making a phone call (Kelly et al., 2021). Using social media is a great way to alleviate homesickness because it allows students to stay up to date with school events and also make new friends. These are just some of the many examples that help with my argument of why social media should be a primary way of communication for upcoming college students.