Letter to the Editor

Dear Advocate staff:
I fear the most important thing in everyone’s lives, facebook, is in serious danger.

Instagram, the app that allows its users to post photos and browse through friend’s posts from their smart phone, is giving facebook a run for its money.
Like any pretty and privileged new student on campus, Instagram had a great summer everyone wants to hear about.

According to a Forbes article online, “When facebook announced in April that it would acquire Instagram, the price was $1 billion, including $300 million in cash and the rest in stock. Since then, facebook went public, and its stock price has plunged. With facebook’s stock trading at $18.92 Thursday, the deal price is about $736 million.”

Not a bad way to spend the summer after only two years of work.
With over 5 billion photos shared since its inception on Oct. 5, 2010, and 80 million registered users, it makes sense that facebook would want to gain some kind of control over its fastest rising competitor in history — Instagram.

James Currier, a curator for Adzag.com, shared a post on May 7, 2012, that I thought was impressive, informative and intelligent, three things you guys are not. I have attached the link so that you might put it in your paper.

In his article he wrote, “The following info graphic does its best to capture and chart the rapid rise of the social platform from 0 to $1 billion and 40+ million users.” (Info graphic and link are available online at advocate-online.net.)
What we can gather from this info graphic and the forbes.com article is that Instagram doubled its users over the summer.

With that being said, I’d like to get to the heart of the issue and that is why Instagram has facebook on the ropes.

The first conclusion I came to on why Instagram is kicking facebook’s ass so hard is that in the ever-growing demand for mobile access facebook was just too big and slow — more recently facebook has made itself a little more mobile friendly.

In an article for techcrunch.com, Kim-Mai Cutler said, “Systrom, Instagram’s CEO, kept saying he never felt threatened by facebook. facebook’s mobile apps were just too complicated. The iOS app just had too many things in it. To please the company’s more than 850 million monthly active users, Facebook had to stuff every bell and whistle of the desktop site into its mobile app. That just wasn’t conducive to a great user experience on a phone.”

In the Forbes article mentioned earlier, it was stated facebook had been trying to make a more mobile-friendly interface and I think they have done a good job with that; but just in case they were unsure, they bought their biggest competition. “Facebook can also now draw on Instagram’s expertise in mobile, a key area that Mark Zuckerberg is focusing on as users increasingly shift to mobile devices.” But is that enough to save facebook?

My second conclusion is while Instagram is awesome and awe inspiring, it would be nothing without smart phones.

Instagram’s success, its millions of dollars and users and photos, are all thanks to the fantastic mix of smart phones and boredom.

Not just Instragram, but any app on a smart phone allows for people to escape awkward passes in a lonely hallway, looking awkward while waiting in lines alone and talking to people they don’t want to. Smart phones have opened up a door and phone companies, advertisers, and corporations in general have embraced in such a way that it seems the door has been ripped from its hinges. And this is why Instagram is worth so much.

Anyone who has ever waited in a long line by himself or herself can relate- it’s become a knee jerk reaction to pull out your phone and try to look busy. In the past it was text, and many may have looked at facebook or talk to friends, but Instagram’s simple platform seems the most conducive way of checking in on what friends are doing.

Which brings me to my third conclusion: Instagram is making facebook look outdated. facebook posts are looking more and more ridiculous to me. It’s like why the hell don’t you just post this on Instagram? I think I would’ve enjoyed looking at this picture of your baby at the beach if the sun were still out while I was looking at it. This way on some level I could share this exquisite moment of your baby in the sun, making a mess of an otherwise pristine beach, but no, you posted it on facebook at like 10:30 a.m. on a Thursday three days later. What are you, 50?

My final point is Instagram allows its users to be creative. Its hipstermatic-like filters allow users to make their photos look vintage, give it a solar flare, black and white, or even change the point of focus. In my research, this aspect of Instagram garnered the most negativity. Complaints included, “Instagram is only for dinosaur users who have absolutely no idea about real photo editing,” commented from facebook on ArkyLyngdoh in a PCworld.com article.

Tonybaldwin32x0 said, “That’s it. You have crappy photos, apply some effects, boom — suddenly they’re interesting? Not really. They’re just crappy photos with some effects randomly applied,” in the same article.

So as long as you’re not some bitter aspiring photographer and just someone who is bored and looking for a way to stay in touch with friends, you’ll enjoy using the filters.

Another interesting aspect of Instagram and its users are the types of photos people choose to post. Repeating elements like photos of dumptrucks or a stuffed crocodile head in every post provide some continuity to users posts. Photos of food and babies are always popular and receive likes from all crowds. I like posting things that catch my eye and rarely will post anything personal; but I do enjoy seeing what my friends are doing, while I am away from my hometown for school.

All in all, Instagram is just a better way to stay in touch with my friends and facebook should be happy they got it for as cheaply as they did.

*Jeff Hannig is the opinion editor of the advocate and has written this letter to the editor. He hopes you’ll write to us with what interests you, as we feel this paper should be a voice of every student here at MHCC.

Advocate Staff