Instagram was launched in October 2010 by co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Instagram is a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Simply snap a photo, then choose a filter to transform the look and feel. Pictures are shared on Instagram, and can be easily uploaded to other social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. It has been commonly referred to as “the Facebook of photography.”
Instagram in Statistics
- 100 million Monthly Active Users
- 40 million Photos Per Day
- 8500 Likes Per Second
- 1000 Comments Per Second
- Fast, easy, and efficient photo-sharing.
- Status updates, expressed visually.
- You have the option of also posting the photo onto other popular social networking sites
- It allows you to take world-class photographs without having to carry anything besides your mobile phone, which most people carry with them everywhere anyway. The convenience of not having to carry around both a digital camera and your cellular phone is definitely something that people who heavily document their lives can appreciate.
- It takes away the creativity of photography
- Many are also concerned with the policy that Instagram adheres to when it comes to the privacy of and rights of sharing the photos that are posted onto the application.
- Unbeknownst to many, Instagram reserves the right to reproduce, reuse, and redistribute any image that users upload onto their feed. This not only creates a privacy concern, but also a financial one. This means that any photo posted onto the application may be used in advertisements and marketing campaigns both without your consent and without any sort of compensation.
I am still a big fan of Instagram but, since being purchased by Facebook, their policies have become more and more Facebook specific. Twitter, for instance, can no longer use Instagram according to many articles I have read. That is why they had to develop their own service to duplicate many of Instagrams features. Before you could post Instagram pictures directly into Twitter Cards. Facebook and Instagram purposely removed that ability and it is the user who loses.
ReplyDeleteAs for the pros and cons, I think artists throughout history have been quick to use new technology to express themselves in new ways. Purists share your view that it takes away from creativity in capturing the image and that is a valid conclusion. At the same time, creative use of filters can be used to create a great image from raw pictures. One person's pro is another person's con I guess.
I think that the companies that will benefit most from Instagram in the future are the ones heavily invested in Facebook. As Instagram begins the slow absorption into Facebook, fewer and fewer sites other than Facebook will be able to use it which will limit its usefulness (see previous comment).
ReplyDeleteRock N' Roll To Go would benefit from using Instagram to document the fun and diverse events where they entertain. People looking for entertainment for a party could be swayed by great looking images of people enjoying themselves at their events. They could also use the images to sell their services to potential clients.