Remember when Facebook used to be exclusively available to college students or those with an associated email address? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t — but either way, Instagram is doing a similar thing, about to introduce a new feature designed with college students in mind.
The Facebook-owned company is testing out a tool that allows students to join within a virtual community of peers, and allow them to exchange messages directly whether they follow each other or not. This should allow people to collect through social media in ways like never before.
An aspect of this feature is Tinder-like, as the dating app just rolled out Tinder U that limits searches based on classmates or nearby campuses. Tinder believes there’s much more to this type of connection than romance, as students can reach out to make friends or study buddies, too. 
“Today, more than half of our users are between the ages of 18 and 24,” Tinder’s chief product officer, Brian Norgard, said in a statement. “With Tinder U, we’re excited to honor our roots with a new experience that helps students meets other students nearby.”
This is indeed one of Instagram’s strategies for attracting the Gen Z demographic.
Source: CNN
