David Attenborough
Credit: Shirlaine Forrest / WireImage

Words: Chloe Watts

Sir David Attenborough is the latest notable figure to join Instagram. In a video uploaded to his account, Sir David speaks to the camera about his motives for joining the social media platform at 94 years of age. “I am making this move and exploring this new way of communication to me, because as we all know the world is in trouble … Over the next few weeks I’ll be recording messages to explain what the problems are and how we can deal with them.”

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A national treasure in his native Britain and loved by millions around the world, Sir David has found a way to keep his passion of the environment and nature alive for 60 years. From radio to television and now social media, the award-winning presenter is not letting age or technology stop him from teaching younger generations about the world around us and this new medium is setting out to reach a new audience and encourage them to make positive changes to the planet.

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David Attenborough has spent a lifetime travelling, exploring the wild places of our planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. He’s also witnessed the damaged caused. Saving our planet is now a communications challenge. We know what to do, we just need the will. That’s why we want to share this message on Instagram. Because there is hope and together, we can inspire change. Social media isn’t David’s usual habitat so while he’s recorded messages solely for Instagram, like the one in this post, we're helping to run this account. In case you’re wondering, ‘we’ are Jonnie and Colin and we worked with David on A Life On Our Planet. So, as well as sharing the messages he’s recorded especially for this account we’ll also post some exclusive clips and behind the scenes content. Stay tuned.

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But it wasn’t just his inaugural post that caught attention, the icon’s account caught the eye of Guinness World Records when it amassed over 1 million Instagram follows in 4 hours and 44 minutes. The world’s authority on record-breaking events announced he was the fastest person to reach 1 million followers on the platform. The title was previously held by Jennifer Anniston when she sensationally joined Instagram and hit the 1 million mark in 5 hours and 16 minutes.

Currently sitting at 4.4 million followers, Sir David is regularly uploading content on problems our world is facing and how we can deal with them. Aligning with his arrival onto the social media platform, the documentary David Attenborough: A Life on our Planet, is hitting Netflix in October.