By Lauren Friedman and Allie Herskovitz

Many people have heard of Instagram, but do they know what it really is? It’s an app on a variety of smartphones that allows one to share pictures with their friends. Pictures posted on Instagram can differ: some people show their food on Instagram and others show pictures of themselves and their friends. These photos can be decorated with filters. Some of the filters are amaro, rise, Hudson, x-pro, sierra, early bird. The filters can make pictures look black and white, sharpened, clearer, warmer, and more. 

Instagram pictures are accommodated with captions full of hash tags. Hash tags were first used on Twitter and now they have moved along to Instagram. The hash tags describe what the photo is and users of Instagram can search hash tags to find certain photos. Instagramers can follow their friends and whoever is appealing to them. Some users follow celebrities and other random people.

Instagram has more than 7.3 million daily mobile users a month; that’s more than the 6.9 million users Twitter has. Many of the users on Instagram include celebrities like Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift and Kendall Jenner who have hundreds of thousands of followers. Having many followers gives the opportunity to increase the reach of each photo. Users have a profile picture and can create a bio about themselves. Also, they are able to put on privacy setting so only certain people can see their information. Instagram is a mixture of a social product that enables people to communicate easily with a passion for photography.

Instagram at BHS is getting big! Some people even like Instagram better than Facebook, another social network. Jasmine Bar, a freshman, says, “I like to use it because I enjoy taking pictures and seeing other people’s pictures too. It’s cool how you can put effects and edit your pictures and share them. I personally even like it better than Facebook because it is simply pictures and not fifty other things.” Ali Misuraca, a sophomore, says, “I use Instagram for entertainment and a place to put my pictures that have cool effects. I follow 414 people that consist of my friends and random people. Whoever follows me I follow them back. I see many of my followers use hash tags, but I don’t.”