There are a number of social media platforms that are used by people on a daily basis. Apps such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat all have elements that make them different from one another. Although each site has their unique parts, they have recently started “copying” things from other platforms. 

One thing that is similar on many sites is the fact that some have reels. Reels are short videos that are entertaining and personalized to what they think the viewer will like. 

The first platform to have reels on its webpage was Instagram in 2019. In 2021, both Facebook and Snapchat added reels to their pages. They added reels to their pages to gain more viewers and increase the number of people downloading their app. 

A poll was taken by students about where they prefer to watch reels. 76% of students said that they preferred Instagram reels. 15% said that they preferred Facebook reels, and 9% preferred Snapchat.

Junior Abre Smith speaks about what platform she prefers and why.

“Instagram is the best place to watch reels because they have a variety of options such as the regular feed videos and the reels. It also is much easier to watch reels from other profiles,” said Smith.

Overall, the student body seems to prefer Instagram reels over all other platforms. Maybe the fact that Instagram reels were the first to be created gives them more value in viewers’ eyes. 

Watching reels is entertaining, but many students mentioned that they would much rather watch videos on Tik Tok. Tik Tok is an app simply made for short videos that are filtered for viewers’ feeds. Other platforms have their videos as a side part, whereas the videos are the main part of Tik Tok.

Sophomore, Josie Caldwell shares her side about why Tik Tok is superior.

“Tik tok is the best app to watch videos on because it is way more accessible than other apps,”said Caldwell.

According to the students at Rockbridge the best place to watch reels is Instagram but the best platform to watch funny videos is Tik Tok.