I have an Instagram account for my art practice, before looking to try and promote it further I would like to make sure that the site is environmentally sustainable.
I know we have to look at the bigger picture, that the amount of promotion to keep public informed about environmental activism on this social media platform is very important.
But it does have to be taken into consideration, the amount of energy used. Overall the internet uses around 10% of the worlds energy demand and produces around 2% of global emissions. The same usage as the aviation company. (bulb.co.uk, 2021)
Data centres are large buildings for computer servers that control global internet traffic.
They need lots of energy because they cannot be turned off. Which means they also need lots of cooling equipment to stop the machines overheating.
Data Centre, location unknown
Researching whether social media platforms use renewable energy, the only platform I could find information about is Facebook who also own Instagram. I am pleased to see that Facebook are supported by 100% renewable energy and they have reached net zero emissions and has reduced greenhouse emissions by 94%. (Campbell, 2021).
Though more digging I have found out that Instagram is not a zero carbon emmission status as yet, I do feel a bit uneasy continuing with this platform, but its the best visual platform for my work… I realise I need to make adjustments and only post relevant work and not lots of unnecessary posts, and hopefully Instagram will catch up with this ethos soon.
Moving on, I would like to understand more about how to promote my posts more, is there a better time of day to post, is there certain hash tags that are better to use? Does the amount of hash tags mean more views or does this put the viewer off? …
References:
bulb.co.uk. (2021). We’ve worked out the carbon footprint of our emails | Blog | Bulb. https://bulb.co.uk/blog/weve-worked-out-the-carbon-footprint-of-our-emails
Campbell, M. (2021). Facebook global operations are now supported by 100% renewable energy. euronews. https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/04/15/facebook-announces-global-operations-now-supported-by-100-renewable-energy.
