By / Karen Yang
The world's largest photo and image-sharing platform. Currently has over 800 million users, with high penetration in Taiwan. Besides attracting young people, major brands have flocked to Instagram, hoping to reach more consumers through the platform.
IG Community #Generational Labels Timeline
IG Generational Label Statistics (As of 5/16/2019, continuing to rise / Compiled by Karen Yang)
The article cuts straight to the chase—looking at the IG #generational label distribution chart. But what does this long timeline represent? Are you confused about what 90LINE and 94LINE mean? If this is the "resonance" of a generation, why has #83LINE data surged? Let me explain slowly.
First, let me introduce which generation I belong to (cough), I was born in 1990, and thankfully caught the last train of the 90s, so I can still pretend to be young. By this labeling system, I am #90LINE, which happens to be the starting line of #generational labels. But what does LINE represent?
Actually, this usage originated from Korean K-POP artists. To explore Korean traditional culture, Koreans place great emphasis on "hierarchy." When meeting new people, they first confirm each other's birth year to decide how to address one another—you can see this interaction in Korean dramas too.
Influenced by this culture, Korean artists began using generational hashtags on social media, combining their birth year with LINE to create exclusive labels. Why the English word LINE? It carries the meaning of Channel, representing that people born in that year are on the same front line. Fans, wanting to feel closer and more connected to their idols, jump on the trend by tagging themselves, triggering a viral social effect.
For concrete examples, those born in 1993 become #93LINE, those born in 1998 become #98LINE, and naturally, those born after 2000 become #00LINE. Many young people not only tag themselves in posts but also add these labels to their personal bio sections.
I personally researched and compiled IG hashtags in this format and created a chart, discovering some fascinating patterns. Starting with the most popular post-90s generation, let me break down the analysis for you.
（As of 5/16/2019, continuing to rise / Compiled by Karen Yang）
This chart shows generational label usage from 1990 to 1999, representing people currently aged 20-29, with #93LINE being the most used at 84,700 times. We can infer that 26-year-olds use IG frequently, followed by #95LINE at 24 years old (69,900 times), then #94LINE at 25 years old (44,880 times).
The first striking phenomenon is #90LINE (9,701 times) and #91LINE (7,513 times), representing people currently 28-29 years old in the workforce. During their university years, most of this group used Facebook for communication and receiving information, so they have higher Facebook dependency and lower IG usage frequency compared to #92LINE (19,500 times) and later cohorts. This initially reveals differences in social media tool usage.
You might wonder why #95LINE has more labels than #94LINE, and why the trend isn't a steady climb but instead fluctuates? This pattern appears in both #95LINE and #97LINE. First, within #95LINE, the representative artist is Park Jimin of BTS.
Park Jimin of BTS is #95LINE (Photo / Screenshotted from IG)
BTS's talent and music have made the "Korean Wave" sweep the global music scene, even topping the Billboard Music Awards and beating Maroon 5 for Best Group. Additionally, Park Jimin himself was ranked 25th in the top 100 most handsome faces globally by TC Candler, and the British Guardian named him 17th in "Top 30 Greatest Boy Band Members of All Time." His unique personal charm has caused #95LINE hashtag usage to skyrocket on IG.
Also within #97LINE, BTS member Jungkook was born in 1997, making #97LINE's tag count (45,600 times) exceed the previous year's #96LINE (29,400 times). Jungkook is the youngest member of the Korean boy group BTS, serving as the lead vocalist, and his personal magnetism influences social media labeling trends.
BTS's Jungkook is #97LINE (Photo / Screenshotted from IG)
You might be curious—is generational labeling used only by Korean artists, and what's its connection to social media tools? Actually, Korean artists are debuting at younger ages, and post-00s artists are everywhere, yet the data doesn't fluctuate accordingly. Below is a breakdown analysis of post-00s data.
From this chart, #00LINE has 22,200 uses, #01LINE has 28,700 uses, then declines yearly without further fluctuation, all the way until #06LINE with zero data.
Why does this phenomenon occur? Consider several perspectives. First, policy direction: Under the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, Facebook and IG don't allow children under 13 to register accounts. According to this report, it shows "perfect positive correlation" with this policy. However, another perspective is that for children under 13 to teenagers aged 17, IG is not their only social media tool!
So what does this generation actually use? Leading the charge is ByteDance's short-form video app "Douyin." With just 15 seconds, combined with music, video effects, and transition techniques, it creates unique UGC (User-Generated Content).
Penguin Intelligence reports show that Douyin has higher penetration in major Chinese cities than Kuaishou, while the latter has higher penetration in tier-4 cities and below, though neither forms obvious user opposition. Additionally, the report shows that whether Kuaishou or Douyin, the user base is predominantly women under 24, with 92% of Douyin users under 30 and nearly 70% female.
In Taiwan, users are mostly elementary and middle school students, with many parents registering accounts for children under 13. Video content primarily features dancing, hand gestures, and lip-sync videos. The report suggests the social short-form video market has taken initial shape, but variables remain significant.
Another social platform is YouTube. According to official yearly data, viewing time across all ages increased from an average of 14.6 hours per week to 16.4 hours—essentially, people spend nearly 2.5 hours daily on YouTube on average. Viewers aged 16-24 show the largest growth rate among all age groups. Users aren't restricted by age and can adjust channels by preference. Compared to other social platforms with age restrictions, YouTube extends downward to younger users.
Returning to this article's topic, after analyzing IG social behavior for post-90s and post-00s generations, let's look back at an interesting phenomenon from pre-1990s.
#89LINE to #82LINE, representing the currently 30-37 year old demographic, show lower IG usage. This stems from two factors. First, this generation lacked mature internet infrastructure during their student years, so they didn't develop many social media tools and relied more heavily on Facebook. Second, this age group is busy with work and family, gradually reducing social media usage time. Mobile banking social research data confirms this—people aged 25-34 spend 141 minutes daily on social networks, while those 35-44 spend 105 minutes. However, the pre-1990s generational label timeline shows #83LINE surging to 22,200 uses, a dramatic difference from other same-generation labels!
The reason? Super Junior members Kim Hee-chul and Lee Teuk were both born in 1983, and both frequently use #83LINE as self-identification, causing that year's data to spike. This clearly shows idols' influence on IG's generational labeling trend. Besides idols using the labels themselves, fans upload photos with related tags or add their generational labels in their IG bios, seeking validation.
Many Taiwanese businesses still prioritize Facebook and YouTube in social media operations, even assuming post-90s terminology is Mainland Chinese slang, so they haven't followed the trend. But social culture isn't confined to regions—it's a generational trend.
It's evident that Korean popular culture significantly influences young generations' social media behavior. Younger generations are more susceptible to social and internet culture influence, but the phenomenon of reduced #00LINE labels on IG could mean several things: first, post-00s generally don't popularize self-labeling; second, the proliferation of social media fragments attention. To reach the youth market, you must understand their language and gameplay to influence their hearts.
