With 1-billion worldwide users on Facebook is the biggest social network ever. If Facebook was a country, it would be the fifth-largest in the world. Now that’s crazy.
In that 1-billion person country, I am no longer a member. I used to be a Facebooker 24/7. I used to post everything I did, everything I saw and check for updates constantly. At this time, I also had a Twitter and Tumblr that I didn’t use frequently.
Facebook was an easy way to communicate with people, find old friends and plan events. It was also a place where people started drama. It was pretty fun to see people post their thoughts and then someone else reply because it’s about them, then it starts a big argument. Thankfully, I never had those kinds of problems. It seemed like Facebook was a place to air out their dirty laundry.
Facebook was my go-to social network if I wanted to plan a get together or send out a mass message to my friends. It was much easier to contact everyone. Photos were also easier to share through Facebook. Instead of the old-fashioned, I’ll give you the memory card to upload to your computer, it was easier just to go on a friend profile and save the selected photos that you were in.
During one Lent, I decided to give up Facebook. I didn’t go on Facebook for 40 days. It wasn’t as hard to give up a social network than give up rice though. (In another Lent, I tried to give up rice and failed. It was so hard to give up rice dishes and sushi being a local-Filipino girl.)
After a while, Facebook became less appealing to me. There wasn’t much on there that interested me. Not even the games kept me interested, and mind you I love playing games on my phone.
Then Kevin Systrom and Michel Krieger invented Instagram in December 2010. Instagram became the hottest app for iPhone owners.
Instagram is a mobile app that is now open to both iPhone and Android users, where you basically share photos with your followers. You can “like” photos, comment on them and chose different filters that enhance your photos.
Ever since I’ve downloaded the app in 2011, it has been my favorite and I admit … I am an Instagramer. I like Instagram because there are people from all around the world who share their photos. It’s pretty cool seeing how different countries and states look through Instagram.
Besides my family, friends and acquaintances, I also follow people who have an interest in fashion. It’s a great way of seeing the newest trends, finding out what stores have certain items and seeing other peoples #OOTD (outfit of the day).
Another great feature about Instagram are its hashtags. You can tag your photos with hashtags and when you click on the #hashtag, it’ll pull up other photos that have the same hashtags.
People also post a lot of their food on Instagram, just like Facebook. It’s like every time you go out to eat now, someone has to take a photo of the plate before anyone touches it.
Instagram isn’t just another social network, it is the social network.
