Boston – taken with Instagram*
I haven’t been traveling much recently because I’m now what’s considered a yuppie – a twenty something-year-old working professional with a career path in mind. However, I have to say I’ve lucked out big time with my job. Most of you know I work for a small PR agency with a big ego, and I’m fortunate enough to be able to travel a lot for work – Las Vegas, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Paris… those are all my work trips, and they all are pretty memorable! So I try to take advantage of traveling to many amazing cities all over the world and do a little bit of exploring along the way.
In addition to my work trips, I take a lot of day-cations around New England, especially in the summertime. And one way to share these travel experiences is by sharing the images – of the views I’ve seen, the food I’ve tried, the people I’ve met. So I’m constantly thinking of creative ways to do that and the best outlets to use.
I created an Instagram account a while ago but have never really felt the need to Instagram photos since that’s what Facebook is for. I had an account because it was a fad but it seemed like double work to me. However, recently I discovered that I became much more involved in it. I look at the likes, I like other people’s pictures, and I am kind of intrigued to observe my friends’ lives through their photographic timelines.
I also realized that Instagram has become an outlet for me to share as many pictures as I want without being “judged” by the Facebook community. I’ve noticed when someone overflows their timeline with too many images of themselves, their food, their pets, etc., some people on Facebook tend to get annoyed. As if there is some kind of unspoken etiquette about what’s acceptable/not acceptable to post on FB. I have to admit though, I’ve been guilty of that myself. But then I realized that Instagram is perfect for that – it lets you upload as many interesting weird images as you want without being one of the few. Your images tend to get lost in the noise of other pictures and nobody thinks you’re a photo maniac anymore.
But here is a thought. Facebook is coming up with the new timeline to make the social network more visual by enhancing the image settings and making your profile picture-rich. Facebook famously bought Instagram last year for a cool $1 billion. Will they try to integrate Instagram-purpose and make FB a one-stop shop for all your social networking needs?
What are your thoughts on this? Has FB been around long enough now that certain unwritten etiquette rules exist? Do you see Instagram as a place to share images you wouldn’t share on FB? What does this mean for the future of Instagram? Could FB replace Instagram as your primary photo-sharing service?
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