Holiday Convergence Means an Instagram Overload
Families across America sat down for some turkey, stuffing and football on Thursday, and, depending on your family's denomination, lit menorahs for the first day of Hanukkah. Two holidays on the same day? Most reached for their phone.
The unlikely convergence of the two major holidays on the same day — labeled Thanksgivmukkah by some — led to Instagram's best day yet. "We saw record usage as Instagrammers shared a heaping helping of holiday cheer," the company wrote in a Friday blog post. "Your Thanksgiving and Hanukkah-related photos and videos helped make yesterday our busiest so far—and for that we give thanks to you."
To be fair, the boost in service isn't all that surprising. Last year Instagram users shared 10 million photos on Thanksgiving. (Christmas eventually beat Thanksgiving's record, natch.) And the service has only grown in the intervening year; Instagram now boasts over 150 million active users.
On top of the two holidays, though, Isntagram benefitted from the rise of Throwback Thursday. The popular hashtag game wherein you upload an old picture of yourself and/or your friends on, well, Thursdays. That part's fairly obvious, even if the appeal is not. "It’s an excuse to show yourself off, either as lovably goofy or, possibly, tanner and thinner, in a way that is both flattering and reaffirming, like thinking warm thoughts in the dead of winter," Silvia Killingsworth writes for The New Yorker. "It also reflects one of the original reasons that people keep photo albums—to remember good times gone by." Users used the day as an excuse to upload vintage photos of family Thanksgiving dinners and Hanukkahs.
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You should read Silvia's entire essay while Instagramming your leftover turkey sandwich.
This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/technology/2013/11/holiday-convergence-means-instagram-overload/355604/
