I have Sinned: I’m Back on Instagram
I’m back on Instagram. That’s right. About a year ago, I wrote about how I was missing Instagram. In that post, I was expecting Bokeh, a Kickstarter project, to take off and become a successful alternative. A year later, Bokeh project backers like me are still waiting to see the outcome. So, I decid
I’m back on Instagram. That’s right. About a year ago, I wrote about how I was missing Instagram. In that post, I was expecting Bokeh, a Kickstarter project, to take off and become a successful alternative. A year later, Bokeh project backers like me are still waiting to see the outcome. So, I decided to come back on Instagram. Here is why.
I recently started something new, my Numeric Citizen Visual Space. I’m very happy about where it is going. I’m still loving my experience with Universe. But, there is something missing: a community. This is where Instagram comes in. There is a lot of crap on this platform but by carefully selecting people to follow, my feed becomes quite close to what I really like.
Returning to Instagram after a long hiatus is quite an experience. There are so many more things now going on. I was disoriented. Stories (obviously) play a big part now of anybody seriously taking advantage of this venerable social network. It is a bit overwhelming at first. But, after a while, you get used to it. Stories add another dimension over the more static content put on there. I use them to “advertise” new publications on my Visual Space. Editing tools for building stories are quite funny but man I wish Instagram was available on the iPad.
As you can see, the subject of my publications is “urban exploration” (“urbex” for short) and the perfect imperfections photo series. The community is quite active and reacting to other people’s photos generally is welcomed by comments on my own work. This is exactly the thing that I’m missing on my other online presences. And for those who start following me, I follow them back if we share a visual affinity.
Don’t judge me. I know Facebook is the owner. I know how Facebook is full of s***. But at some point, we have to be able to put things into context. Instagram, while being an important part of the Facebook machine, it is not Facebook.
If Instagram is your thing, you can find my profile here. I’m also slowly creating a collection of great urbex photos. Finally, using Instagram on a regular browser seems to skip all the ads. Great.
