Instagram

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Instagram

Official App Icon [ ] Type Photo Sharing Service Launch Date December 8, 2010 Status Active Product Line Instagram Platform Cloud Service iOS Android Website www.instagram.com

I

nstagram is a free social networking and photo sharing application designed to make innovative and artistic photo sharing accessible to the masses. It allows users to take a photo, apply a filter and edit characteristics of the photo, and then share it with all connected users on Instagram and other social networks. Instagram used to confine the photos to a square shape that was reminiscent of Kodak and Polaroid images, but now the app allows users to edit rectangular photos, too. Originally, Instagram was only supported by the iPhone, iPod, and iPad and could only be accessed through the iTunes App Store. However, in 2012, Instagram added support for the Android Camera phones running 2.2 or higher through Google Play. After rocketing to a staggering 30 million iOS users, it won Apple's "iPhone App of the Year" award in 2011. Currently, the app has over 400 million registered users. In April of 2012, Facebook made an offer to purchase Instagram for around $1 billion in cash and stock, and the deal finally closed on September 5th, 2012. With the app's success comes ethical issues; these include privacy, professional photographers, and nudity.

History

Creation

Instagram development began in San Francisco in early 2010 when Kevin Systrom, CEO and co-founder, left his job in marketing at NextStop to pursue his side project Burbn. He had been working on programming a prototype in basic HTML5 in his off time, trying to combine elements of FourSquare and Mafia Wars. Mike Krieger was a former classmate of Systrom’s and thought the project had potential so he joined on with Systrom in early 2010. Together, the pair raised $500k from investors Andreessen Horowitz and Baseline Ventures by March 5, 2010. After full completion, the iPhone app Burbn felt too cluttered with features. The app included checking into locations, posting pictures, making plans, and earning points for hanging out with friends. Krieger and Systrom then decided to focus just on the photo sharing aspect. Within eight weeks of switching tracks, Instagram was completed and ready to be shipped. By the end of March 2010, Instagram had been completed and launched.

In January of 2011, hashtags were added as a feature on Instagram. When version 2.0 came out later that year in the App Store, it included photo filters, instant tilt shift, high resolution photos, optional borders, one click rotation, and an updated icon. Finally, on April 3, 2012, Instagram released the app for Android mobile devices after being exclusively available for iPhone users for 18 months. It was downloaded more than one million times in less than a day. Currently, there are no future plans to release the app for BlackBerry devices.

The Android interface is slightly different, following a familiar Android user-interface design as opposed to the iOS featured design. The two platforms also have features that are available exclusively to each platform. The Android app allows users to use the phone’s native camera by changing the camera settings on the profile settings page to not “Use Instagram’s Advanced Camera,” a feature unavailable on the iOS platform. Until May, 2012, the Android app did not have the popular Tilt-Shift feature that allows users to create a blurring effect and add depth to the picture. Unlike on the iOS platform, the Android app does not allow users to apply different filters or effects before the photo is taken using the camera within Instagram.

Mobile View

Facebook Acquisition

In 2012, Facebook made an offer of about $1 billion in cash and stock to purchase Instagram and all 13 of its employees in April 2012, a month before Facebook went public. The acquisition plans intended to keep the company independently managed, as many were concerned their photo sharing capabilities on Instagram would be thwarted by Facebook. The Office of Fair Trading approved the deal on August 14, 2012, and on August 22, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission in the United States closed its investigation. On September 6, 2012, the deal between Instagram and Facebook officially closed. Instagram is now currently operating under the ownership of Facebook.

Instagram and Twitter

When Instagram first launched, users were able to share their photos directly to Twitter as Twitter cards. On December 4, 2012, Instagram disabled the ability for Twitter to properly display Instagram photos on its website and coinciding applications. The move escalated tensions between the two companies, which were once friends in the battle against Facebook but have now become direct competitors. Although Instagram and Twitter worked closely together during Instagram’s early days, relations between the two companies have soured since the Facebook acquisition.

Since shutting off users' abilities to use Instagram, Twitter has released its own photo filter features, allowing users to create effects quite similar to those available on Instagram. Instagram users can still share their photos to Twitter, but instead of tweeting the photo as a Twitter card, they can only tweet the link to the photo, which will take Twitter users to the Instagram app or website.

Use

After the application is downloaded, an icon appears on the home screen of the user's device through which they can access the application. Once they access the app, the user must register and create a free account with a username and password. They can optionally add an email address or phone number to the account. The user can also add a photograph, which will appear on the user's profile along with their posted photos and username. Once an account has been registered, a user has the option to find friends through Facebook or by simply searching. Unlike Facebook, however, users do not have to follow friends who are following them, and vice versa. Instagram also provides a list of recommended users to follow. Once a user follows other users, photos posted to the application will appear in a stream on the home page. A user can like or comment on those photos, which will send a notification to the user who posted the photos as well as appear with that photo on all other users' homepages. Along the bottom of the screen are five navigation icons. The first is the home page. The second is a magnifying glass that represents the "Explore" page. In addition to being able to search for other users or hashtags, the user can also find a list of suggested images that the app curates based on who the user follows and what photos they have liked. The middle button is a camera icon where users can select photos to edit from their phone's camera reels or take photos from the app's camera. The third is the notification page, which consists of two tabs: the first is a newsfeed of new followers, comments, and likes, and the second is a "following" section that serves as a short news feed of other users' activities. The last icon in the bottom right corner leads to the registered user's profile.

From the settings page, the user has the option to make their profile private. This means that all of that user's photos are private unless other users request to follow that user. Upon acceptance of that request, other users can see those private photos. Users can also turn on photo sharing to other social networks through their settings.

To post a picture, users click the bottom center camera icon where they can proceed to take a picture or use a previously taken photo. Once a user chooses a photo, filters can be added as well as a number of photo editing effects. Users can then add a caption or geo-tag and post it for all of that user's followers to see.

Sample of a page

Features

Timeline

Instagram displays a feed on the home page for users to view all of the photos that have been posted by their followers in chronological order. In 2016, Instagram began testing an algorithmic timeline that would organize posts on the home display based on popularity personalized to the user, similar to the way that Facebook and Twitter organize one's newsfeed and Twitter feed.

Hashtags

Users can use hashtags to tag photos and help other users discover photos. Instagram encourages users to use specific and relevant tags to help users find photos more easily. The hashtags feature has created a new Instagram phenomenon. Some users has adapted a habit to come up with as many hashtags that are relevant to the pictures as possible in an attempt to have their pictures seen by as many Instagram users as possible.

Liking

Users can like photos by clicking the like "heart" button or by double tapping the photograph itself. With enough likes, a photo can make it to the popular page, which is broadcasted to every Instagram user and is incessantly changing. Depending on the number of likes, either each individual's username is displayed or number of likes is displayed, as to not exceed 4 lines of text on the screen.

Notifications

Users can now turn on post notifications for accounts that they follow. This means they will receive a notification every time this account posts anything to Instagram. It's a way for users to stay informed and never miss a post from certain desired accounts. Celebrities and popular accounts often post pictures asking their followers to turn the notifications on to ensure their loyal following.

Geotagging

Photos can be tagged at a certain location where other users can view all photos tagged at that same location. This enables followers and friends to explore different places while browsing through instagram. Geotagging is frequently used for pictures related to food and traveling similar to Facebook's "Check-in" feature.

Sharing

Users have the ability to share photos taken on Instagram on their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Flickr profiles. Instagram's privacy settings do not apply when users choose to share their picture to an external social media account. Instead, it will depend on the privacy settings set on their other profile.

Filters

The same photo under different filters .

Users have the ability to add different filters to their photos, which consist of different lighting, saturation, contrast, frames and color effects:

• Aden- This filter gives a blue/green natural look.
  
• Amaro- Light with minimal fading and emphasis on beige
  
• Ashby- By adding a gold overlay, it creates a vintage feel to images without emphasizing shadows
  
• Brannan- Low-key with an emphasis on grays and greens
  
• Brooklyn-
• Clarendon- Creates a stronger contrast between shadows and light for images
  
• Charmes- Saturates red tones and tints warm colors
  
• Crema- Adds a creamy look that both warms and cools the image.
  
• Dogpatch- Increases contrast and tints warm colors
  
• Earlybird- Sepia- like, faded with blurred colors and an emphasis on yellow and beige
  
• Gingham- Adds yellow tone to create a brighter, faded look
  
• Ginza- Overlays image with warm colors from the color wheel
  
• Hefe- Fuzzy with an emphasis on golden tones
  
• Helena- Saturates orange and teal colors in images
  
• Hudson- Warm and saturated with an emphasis on blues and yellows
  
• Inkwell- Black and white feature
  
• Juno- Saturates warm colors on color wheel and shades darker colors
  
• Kelvin- Saturated, retro photos with a distinctive scratchy border
  
• Lark- Saturates all colors except for red hues
  
• Lo-Fi- Dreamy with a slight blur and saturated yellows and greens
  
• Ludwig- A slight hint of desaturation that also enhances light.
  
• Maven- Shades the image,lowers contrast of hues, and also has a yellow overlay
  
• Mayfair- Applies a warm pink tone, subtle vignetting to brighten the photograph center and a thin black border
  
• Moon- Black and white feature
  
• Nashville- Sharpens the image with a magenta-purple tint and framed with a film strip border
  
• Normal- No effect
  
• Perpetua- Adding a pastel look, this filter is ideal for portraits.
  
• Reyes- Uses tint effects to create a more vintage look to images
  
• Rise- Warm with an emphasis on yellow and light browns
  
• Sierra- Light with a slight blur and emphasis on beige
  
• Skyline- Adds tint to images acting as an auto-correct feature
  
• Slumber- Desaturates the image as well as adds haze for a retro, dreamy look – with an emphasis on blacks and blues.
  
• Stinson-
• Sutro- Sepia effect with an emphasis on purple and brown
  
• Toaster- High exposure with vignette corners and an emphasis on red
  
• Valencia- High contrast with a slightly brown and gray overtone
  
• Vesper- Decreases sharpness of photos and adds a warmer tint to the colors
  
• X-Pro II- Warm and saturated with an emphasis on aquas and greens
  
• Walden- Washed out color with slight blue overtone
  
• Willow- Washed out black and white feature
  
• 1977- 70's style flair
  

Frames can be added or taken away, but are different depending on the filter used. One filter's frame cannot be used with another filter's lighting/saturation/etc.

Blur

Followgram Website

On top of filters, users can add either a circular blur border or parallel blurs, both of which are size adjustable.

InstaPad

In December of 2011, InstaPad, the iPad app of Instagram, was released. It includes all of the same basic features, but is adjusted for a larger screen.

Followgram

Followgram.me is Instagram's online interface that allows users to access the app on your web browser. Users simply need to sign in via Instagram. The website allows Instagram users to do everything they can do with the mobile app, but through a computer or laptop. Followgram users are able to create albums, share photos on various social media platforms, like and comment on photos, search tags and users, increase visibility in the social network, customize their public profile page, and utilize the "Explore" feature.

Instagram.com Web Profiles

Aside from Followgram.me, Instagram announced the release of Instagram profiles on the web in November of 2012. These web profiles feature a users profile photo, bio, and a selection of their recently shared photographs. Through these profiles, you can like and comment on photos, edit your profile directly from the web, and follow other users. Each users profile can be found by typing in their username after the Instagram websites URL (Instagram.com/[username]). If a user is private, you cannot see their web profile unless they accept you as a follower and you are logged on to Instagram. If a users photos are set to public, any viewer who types their username into the browser will be able to see their profile. All photos a user has ever shared on Instagram can be accessed through their web profile. Currently, users cannot upload photos directly from the web, as Instagram focuses their application on uploading photos from mobile devices. The main goal of their web profiles is to make it easier for users to browse the shared content of their own content and the content of those they follow.

Ethical Concerns

Privacy

Instagram has a privacy setting that enables photo sharing to permitted users and disables all others from viewing. In order for one user to see private users' photos, this said user must send a follower request and can only see those photos once this user is accepted. However, if a user is private, those photos are still available to the public when a picture makes it to the popular page, or if they are geotagged to a certain location. This can serve as a slight loophole to the private photo sharing setting, as it lowers the security of a photo by a user simply if the photo becomes too popular. Also, when one user likes a photo, that photo is broadcasted via the following page to all of that users’ followers. Although there is a private setting, there are other loopholes to private photos.

App icon for Insta Download

Hacks

Many users, especially celebrities, have been susceptible to their Instagram accounts being hacked. This includes adding personal content from their phones as well as troll content.

Stalking

Instagram's new mapping feature has led to new privacy concerns, as geotagging picture locations shares the user's location associated with his or her picture on Instagram. This can lead to privacy concerns, if for example, users do not want their home address location publicized on their Instagram profile, which can be a huge privacy problem especially regarding stalking. Instagram uses Foursquare for its geotagging feature, which in return taps into Google Maps. An example of this can be seen through I Know Where Your Cat Lives, which is a website that uses data from Instagram location tagging to display those Instagrams and where the cat is located. The idea behind the website was to encourage users to make their profiles private in order to prevent this potential stalking threat.

Copyright and Third Party Apps

When a user posts a picture or video to Instagram, that piece of media is their personal property under copyright laws. The owner of the photo or video retains exclusive rights regarding its use, display, and distribution. Instagram's terms of use states that, “Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service, subject to the Service’s Privacy Policy. . .”. This clause states that Instagram may sub-license its user's content to outside companies for a fee without providing any compensation to the user. Despite this loophole, Instagram does not allow users to download any content directly from the app or website due to copyright concerns. However, there are third party apps and software that can be downloaded that circumvent this. Apps like Photo Saver and Insta Download allow users to bypass Instagram's copyright protocols and download and save any content from any user at will. This content then has the potential to be re-posted or circulated without the original poster's consent, further muddying how Instagram deals with copyright issues.

Professional Photography

According to Kate Bevan, a freelance writer for the UK's "The Guardian," many professional photographers believe the art of photography lies in the editing, not just capturing the picture. Some professional photographers feel that applications like Instagram are debasing genuine photography because simply adding a filter on a photograph degrades the integrity of the original picture. Others believe that Instagram standardizes the look of the photos because it offers nothing but basic filters and leaves minimal room for alterations. Rather than encouraging creativity, opponents feel it thwarts artistic ability. Thus, there is a wide debate on whether or not popular applications such as Instagram that offer filtering and editing options cheat the photography game and more importantly professional photographers who make their living based on the artistic quality of their photography.

Some professional photographers have suggested creating a professional version of Instagram for connoisseurs who wish to have more editing features. On the other hand, many people also believe the application has benefits. Due to the simplicity of the application, Instagram has managed to attract more people to photography by making it more accessible. Many photographers see Instagram as a practical on-the-go tool. Since professional cameras can sometimes be inconvenient to carry around, not to mention expensive, Instagram allows its user to capture pictures in spontaneous moments with their own handheld devices. This puts the power of photography, art, and creativity in the hands of people who normally would not have access to such an opportunity.

Nudity

In the Terms of Use section on Instagram it explicitly prohibits the posting of nude, partially nude, or sexually suggestive photos. However, Porn sites and spammers maliciously use hashtags to gain a presence on Instagram and spam posts of inappropriate content. Since there is no way to flag inappropriate comments, the only way to rid these spammers is to delete their accounts. In spite of this, spammers are quick to repost images under newly created accounts while Instagram is unable to keep up with deleting the new accounts, consequently struggling to prevent the problem. As a result of the nudity clause, popular photographer Daniel Arnold was blocked out of Instagram after posting a photo of topless women. Instagram stated that even though he considered the nudity to be art, it violated their policy of use.

Spam

Instagram has become notorious for spam-based accounts where users are spammed with generic comments asking them to go to external websites. Users are asked to report the comments and then delete them. Instagram has stated that they tackle spam everyday and are trying to improve the app for users. However, this spam problem is incredibly annoying to deal with for the app's regular users. Currently, Instagram is still suffering heavily from spam accounts; a 2015 research study by a group of Italian security analysts found that about 30% of Instagram accounts are inactive and an estimated 8% of the total accounts behave like automated spam bots. People even make money off of explicitly selling thousands of fake accounts that can like content and follow other users.

This is actually a huge ethical issue because many people make their money off of simply selling bot accounts that can like and follow Instagram users who are willing to pay for those services. Some hotels actually offer free rooms and other free services to Instagram users who have enough followers, which raises a huge ethical concern because some people might exploit the system by using the black market of spam bots. Instagram is also a place for heavy advertising to occur, but the existence of automated spam bots obscures the quality of Instagram's advertising capabilities.

Controversies

Wealthy Kids Stir Up Controversy

In April, 2012, trending habits amongst wealthy teens on Instagram sparked an online controversy, resulting in harsh criticism from the media and community. Wealthy kids used special hashtags to designate images that revealed their family's assets. These images were all edited with a gold frame surrounding the image. The collection of photos were assembled and posted to a popular blogging site, Tumblr, under the title "Rich Kids Of Instagram." The online community responded to these images with hateful messages and tweets.

See Also

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Tumblr
• Social Networking
• Privacy in Social Networking

External Links

• Instagram's Official Website
• Instagram on Twitter

References

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