Someone please explain to me why Instagram is so popular. TechCrunch reported last week that the service crossed 100,000 users in six days, but I don’t understand why.
For those of you don’t know, Instagram (with its super-hip www.instagr.am domain name) is a photo-sharing app for the iPhone that allows you to take a photo, add a filter to it, and throw it onto Facebook quickly and easily. Here’s a photo taken by one of the founders of Instagram. Hipsters are calling it addictive. I call it stupid. By using Instagram, people who normally take crappy photos can continue to taking crappy photos, but then hide them behind a cliche filter and feel good about themselves. Think the lomo filter is super cool? Too bad it’s been copied by a ton of other programs already.
The photos generated by these stupid “instant” photo apps are quickly becoming the new Myspace photos (you know, the ones that everyone hates. If you haven’t used one of this apps yet, don’t start. You’ll be way ahead of everyone else.
