On a daily basis I participate on the newly expanding social network, Instagram. A network that has restricted it’s content to only photos and created exclusivity to only, Apple and Google mobile devices. Instagram has carved out a unique space in the social media sphere. This is due to its simplistic content and design. Allowing you to take photos and turn them into art by using editing filters then: comment, like, Hash tag, follow and un-follow people within the platform’s community. My motive for using this mobile application is to document my life through art and visual storytelling and allow family, friends and others to see what I have seen and done. What attracts me most about the application is that it is more select than the other big social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, as it invites more of a niche audience. I like the feeling of putting up a photo and only people that really wish to see them do rather than the whole of my Facebook community. When the App was first created Apple grasped the exclusivity to it. This created hype and filtered the photography lovers from the Social networking addicts. However since Facebook acquired the application back in April, Instagram has expanded from 15 to 80 million participants. This could be also due to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Flickr being integrated into the App by allowing sharing capabilities. Creating multiplatform integration has given audience motives for being part of the Instagram participation and developing upon the photo-taking culture, which has been heightened through social networking. I am sad that the application is becoming more popular as spamming, and miss-use to the intended conventions is starting to arise. A way to improve this would be to control who is viewing your photos and allowing you to join themed photos groups, and competitions. However after saying this, simplicity is what makes Instagram genius!
