Instagram’s new school feature is a step forward in providing a safe, fun space for college classmates to connect.
Instagram’s new feature allows users to add their university to their profiles and connect with other users who attend the same school. Students can click on the banner that will appear at the bottom of their bios and scroll through a directory of their classmates. They can even sort their peers by graduation year.
Instagram announced its update on Aug. 26, just in time for the start of the fall semester. After just two weeks of the update’s release, countless LSU students have already added the banner to their bios.
“I just thought it was cool that I could connect with people from LSU,” said Sarah Owen, a sophomore mass communication major with a concentration in public relations. “I think it just adds another thing to your profile and makes your account more findable to other people.”
Of course, having one’s school in his or her Instagram bio is nothing new. From song lyrics, bible quotes, emojis and, yes, even one’s school, students have always included fun, personal details like these in their bios to express themselves and describe who they are. The only difference is now students can simply scroll through the new feature to find classmates rather than hunting down the information on people’s profiles.
This update comes just 20 days after Instagram’s controversial map feature, which allows users to share their location with followers and Close Friends. Backlash arose when the update was implemented with little public notice, and users were caught unaware when their location was shared with followers without their consent.
Many compared the location-sharing feature to Snapchat’s similar feature, Snap Maps. It seems that Instagram took another page out of Snapchat’s book with its school update, its new feature reminding many students of Snapchat’s School Communities—groups that students can join to chat or share stories with students at the same school.
But what difference does the update actually make? According to Instagram, the new feature is a big step forward in how students can form real friendships on the platform.
“We want Instagram to be a place where people can connect safely with their friends,” the Instagram website states. “With the new schools experience on Instagram, college students can better connect with fellow classmates, explore their interests and build community at school.”
The social media platform’s emphasis on safety is evident in the verification process behind the schools feature. To join their school’s directory, students must provide a valid school email and confirm their information through UNiDAYS, the company responsible for verifying students’ identities.
As far as safety goes, the school feature poses less risk than the map feature that preceded it, creating a ripple rather than a wave in the user experience. Still, students agree that though the feature does not impact their experience on the social media platform dramatically, they still look forward to playing around with the update.
“My experience with it—I haven’t really done much with it other than add it,” Owen said. “I haven’t scrolled through and seen who else goes to LSU, but I think it’s a fun little thing to add to your profile and make it more discoverable for the algorithm.”
