Thursday 18 September 2014

Waiting for the Instagram Muse


I'm a late adopter of Instagram because the app was designed for iPhones and I have always used an HTC so that by the time the android version of Instagram was launched I was using twitter for landscape photography. I didn't think very much more about Instagram until MasterM suggested that I create an account so that I could see his pictures.

Each form of social media has strengths and weaknesses and it has been interesting to explore Instagram this week. I am surprised how small the pool of users appears to be with everyone following everyone else so that the images are quite homogenous. When I look for different accounts it is not obvious how to find them - Pinterest offers trails to follow and twitter has the retweet which introduces unlikely topics and innovative users to a wider community. When I took landscape shots for twitter I posted them at the time they were taken and I assumed that Instagram would be similar but it seems that it is used as a version of Facebook with images selected and edited and not necessarily contemporaneous and this surprised me. I can see how friends who used to blog regularly have used Instagram as a microblogging site and this ties in with the move from laptops to tablets. Instagram has a feeling of intimacy and it is very soothing to scroll though the images especially if you are escaping from the rancour of the #indyref debate on twitter but too much can become overwhelming.

I think it will be a while before I find a theme for my Instagram photos, something which separates them from my blog and my twitter feed because I don't see the point in duplicating everything but until the I will potter on taking pictures of roses and trying to think of something interesting to say about them. Oh, and I can confirm that it was a couple of days before I realised that Instagram photos are square. I'm @alice.christie if you want to peek at my early failures.

8 comments:

  1. I'm so happy you're on instagram, I love your pictures. :-)

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  2. I'm just in awe of these roses.

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  3. I'm not quite ready for instagram having come very late to twitter and blogging. In my daughter's world it seems to be used for a thousand selfies, although maybe that's Snapchat??

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  4. For me, it seems to be a way to keep in touch with people (i.e. children) who don't really use facebook. It seems more a different audience than anything else. Also, the natgeo pictures are amazing.

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  5. I am yet to venture into the world of instagram, I fear I would ever find my way out again......

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  6. I love Instagram, so glad you're joining. Off to look for you.

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  7. I love Instagram!! give it a chance Alice. you don't have to find a new voice... just be you.

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  8. I was a late adopter of Instagram...but I love it now. I'm @feetonforeignlands if you want to follow me!

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