Everybody’s favorite selfie posting social media site, Instagram, got a little upgrade at the beginning of October 2017. Polls were introduced to the Story feature in the Sticker section!
Now you can ask your friends and followers an assortment of questions and have them decide! You are limited to only two choices, but they can be yes/no questions or you have the option to type in choices of your choosing.
Before you call out Instagram for copying Twitter’s polling program, hear out the differences that each have. Twitter allows users to have up to four poll options and allows them to pick how low the poll will be open. This allows for a lot of flexibility. Instagram only allows two polling options and the poll is open for the 24 hours that the post is on the story, but the feature that puts Instagram’s poll at the top for me personally is the viewing of the results. It allows the user to see exactly who voted and for what, twitter just shows the number and percentage.
Since the poll feature has been on Instagram I have used it weekly on my story to see what my followers think about certain topics, like is it really too early to listen to Christmas music?? (Results: No) It may have become a slight addiction, because I enjoy doing them way more than I think I should. But my excitement and joy from these polls gave me a light bulb idea. Why not use the polls to make my decisions for an entire day? It would give my brain a break from having to decide things, which I totally need.
I remembered when Twitter first released their polls, Keith Habersberger from BuzzFeed did videos on YouTube where Twitter decided his day. So I set out the very next day fully charged and ready for Instagram to have full control of my life!
HAHAH just kidding. Life is not that simple, I’m a busy college kid who has a, b, & c to do all within the same hour so I had to wait until life chilled out for this fun experiment. Let’s not forget I had to think of the actual questions to ask the followers of my campus’ Her Campus Instagram. That was harder than expected, but I did it and on a chilly November Thursday Instagram decided my day and this is how it went!!
First thing is first I needed to know what to wear. I did not want to walk to class naked, so I let Instagram have free will over my wardrobe. The winner was my long sleeved, black velvet dress from Altar’d State. I was lowkey sad I couldn’t wear my funky, embroidered 3/4 length jeans from Goodwill, but it was cold that day so I must thank the voters for their decision.
Next I needed to know what to drown my ears in instead of talking to people while walking to class. I did not know if I should have indulged in some T-Swift in light of her new album, or some smooth Coldplay. You guys decided and I got to feel nostalgia singing about teardrops on my guitar and feeling left out being in between the ages of 15 and 22.
I think about food 24/7 so it did not take long for me to ask Insta what I should eat. For your graciousness of picking a bagel I will gift you with my usual Einstein’s order, bacon egg & cheese on French toast. It is the best breakfast you could ever have in a bagel.A break in between classes mean productivity, I am just glad I got to do the fun stuff before I had to sit at a desk and study.
I had to be healthy and lug my drawing pad and tool box up to my figure drawing class, it is okay only three people had to see me panting as I walked into class.
So funny story about this one, one that shows the flaws of insta stories. As I was walking to my 12:30pm class graphite was winning the poll so I used that as my medium in class. But as you can tell, since the poll lasts until your story is deleted results can change, so half way through I checked it again and charcoal claimed the spot. Whoopsies.
Self-care themed poll was needed after a long week of classes. This was literally the best shower of my life!!!
I ended up doodling a combination of both since we spent half an hour talking about Picasso. It was wild.
What followed was a series of videos of me explaining my sad relationship with makeup, but my friend complimented my work so I guess I succeed.
Even though it was my friends idea to run this poll, five seconds after this was posted they decided on a completely different movie. Whoopsies part 2.
To end the night I asked what my next article should be, since I did not get to wear my Goodwill pants on this day this means I get to very soon!!
Having Instagram make my decisions for the day was super fun, but super hard. I realized just how much I like to be in control over my life, but at the same time I did enjoy seeing other people’s opinions. it was also very intriguing to notice that most polls were fairly close.
I approve of this new feature, do you? Yes or No.