Instagram tries to build virtual communities for college students

Remember how Facebook used to be an online community to connect Harvard students? Well, it seems the social network wants to connect with its past and is extending this to its other social network Instagram. The Facebook-owned company is testing out a feature that will bring college students together into groups. Instagram is inviting select users to join groups for their schools. The social network is able to figure this out based on the accounts they follow, their connections, and public posts. This can be seen as Instagram’s attempt to attract the younger set of users who now refuse to use Facebook.

Those who opt in need to choose their university and graduating year from a set of predetermined choices. Once they’re in, Instagram will show them lists arranged by members’ classes to make it easier to find people from the same year. Public stories are also viewable within the list. There is also access to direct messaging members in the list. Instagram has to develop this further though to make sure creeps don’t make it in. CNBC says one of its reporters got invited to join the community for their alma mater as a current student. Instagram assures that the feature is in its early phases and tools to report inappropriate usage are in place.