W27 Newspaper - "Graduation""

Our Lives Through Filters by Zachary Rosenbaum

When the Internet came about, it blew our minds. There was nothing like it (except, perhaps for the ARPANET), and it brought a huge world together onto a single, very accessible platform. Since then, it’s been developing at a scarily rapid pace. Every day there are new technologies invented which make our lives easier and our methodology of communicating much simpler. Social Networks came along, stemming from MySpace and are now ever-present with Facebook and Twitter. The Internet has turned into a community that everyone can be a part of. We all have a piece to share, whether it’s a meal that we’re eating, a beautiful sunset we’re seeing, or a cute puppy passing by. 

Not long ago, start-up companies kept their eye on online photo sharing; websites such as Facebook and Flickr were the “hot-spots” of the internet-savvy. These days, the momentum of that trend has shifted toward mobile phones. Cellular devices have become unbelievably sophisticated. They now have incredible photographic capabilities, especially the iPhone 4s, and not only allow us to snap a picture instantly, but to also share it immediately with whoever we want—something we could not do some 10-20 years ago. This has created a sort of online hierarchy, a classicism of who is “relevant” on the Internet. We are so concerned with who’s eating what, where our friends are “checking into,” and what people are wearing. Photo sharing is a booming industry that is now on the go. And it’s gone beyond sharing with our friends and family. We’re now sharing with strangers from all over the world in an attempt to participate in the cultural discussion.

The hottest photo-sharing mobile app right now is Instagram. From the get-go it’s been somewhat exclusive, as it was originally only available to iPhone-users. These days, Andriod-users have access, too. Instagram has become voraciously popular. It may have even surpassed Facebook as the trendiest social networking platform, and that may account for why Facebook has just purchased it for $1 billion. But what did they pay a billion bucks for? The company consists of a team of maybe 10-12 employees working in a small office in San Francisco. Is it the unique networking capabilities that Instagram offers, allowing us to snap photos and elevate them using vintage-looking filters and effects? Is it the fan-base that has rapidly grown to over 8 million users? This is a question that is unanswered. All we know is that we as a country have developed a fixation with our camera phones. It’s like we need to confirm reality with something that we can cling to. We are addicted to producing images that will stand the test of time, and ones that have a nostalgic, artsy, “worn” look to them. It’s evident that Facebook perceives this to be trending, and that’s why they’ve hopped on the bandwagon. Facebook is attempting to maintain its relevance, so they filed for IPO and acquired one of the most popular mobile apps.

Mark Zuckerburg has made it public that they will keep Instagram the way has been. He recently posted on his Facebook profile, “For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests… We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything to Facebook.” Users have the ability to push their Instagrams to other social networks beside Facebook (or not to), and it will remain that way.

Anybody can take a picture, but it’s gone beyond that—we are now our own curators. We like to sift through things and present to our followers the things we love (Pinterest calls for this especially). These websites permit us to share our personalities on the web in an intimate way. But there are issues that have arisen. What is the value of a picture today, and what is the value of sharing it? Are we artists, or consumers? And lastly, how will this effect the era we’re living in—is Instagram pop art in the making? The answer is held in the future of this industry. For the time being, you can upload that picture of the fancy dinner you had, or maybe your cute niece in her Halloween costume—and hope you get a lot of likes!

-Zachary Rosenbaum (@ZchRsnbm)