What is Instagram?

Instagram is an online, downloadable, social media app that allows you to share pictures with your friends.

You simply take a photo, choose a filter, write a caption, and post. It easily connects with other forms of social media as a way to share photos.

You can take a photo with your phone or upload a picture already on your phone with the app.

The app then allows you to customize your photo with effects, frames, focus, rotations, and captions. You can even tag your followers in the photos or give a location of where the photo was taken.

Instagram users frequently use hash tags in their captions to share their photos with more people than just their followers.

By clicking on a hash tag, you can view all of the pictures that include that hash tag in their caption.

Within the app, you can choose to follow friends, family, celebrities, sports teams, and even your favorite stores. Once you follow them, their pictures will show up in your feed. Instagram allows you to “favorite” their photo, which is comparable to a “like” on Facebook, and also comment on the photo.

Every user has a profile where he or she can set a profile picture and write a bio about him/herself. Your profile page will also include a numbered count of your photos, followers, and who you are following.

How to use Instagram

1. Start by downloading the app.
2. Once it is downloaded, open it and click on the camera icon in the bottom center of your screen.
3. You can then take a photo or upload one that is already on your phone. Use the filters, and other effects to make your photo unique.
4. Click “next.” Now you can add a caption to your photo, tag your friends in it, or tag where the photo was taken. You also have the option to share the photo to your other social media sites.
5. Now just hit “Share” and your photo will be posted to your feed for your friends to enjoy!

Is Instagram safe?

Instagram’s privacy settings are completely different than most forms of social media.

Instagram does not ask for all of your personal information. You can set your feed to private so that only your followers, whose request you have accepted, can view your feed.

Also, if your account is private, someone who is not following you cannot see how many followers you have, how many people you follow, or how many pictures you have.

However, when your profile is set to public, anyone on
the internet may view your photos.

Why do people use it?

When three college students were asked why they prefer Instagram to Facebook or any other social media website/app they all gave strikingly similar answers.

“Using filters on my own pictures is why I chose to get an Instagram in the first place. It makes my pictures look a lot better.” said Taylor Kettleborough of Mendota.

Editing and applying filters to your photographs is one of the two primary purposes of Instagram; this way the user can perfect the photograph before posting it for all to see.

“I like Instagram because I like seeing what everyone is doing, not just reading about it” said IVCC student Cady Delhotal.

Instagram is different from traditional social networks because it does not allow users to post text unless it is in the form of a caption that appears beneath a photograph.

This can be a draw to some who have become disillusioned by the number of constant status updates on other sites, like Facebook.

“When I log onto Facebook the one thing that I look for is new pictures that people have posted; the same goes for what I post, it’s always pictures,” said IVCC student Cassie Barr.

“Instagram is perfect for me because it removes all of the extra things that I don’t need, it’s just a picture with a small caption,” Barr reported.