I’ve fallen in love with the iPhone-only photo sharing service Instagram. It’s kind of like Twitter, but for images only. Instead of a post being limited to 140 characters, posts are limited to one photograph and a title — that’s it! Users build social networks within the system by “Liking” images and following other users.
Sounds almost too simple to be interesting, but I find it incredibly refreshing – at a certain point, we all get overwhelmed by the deluge of words in our lives, and can’t possibly consume another tweet or Facebook post. Instagram lets us share tiny corners of our lives, those little magic moments that otherwise would pass unnoticed, as a pure, nearly wordless photostream. There’s something very simple and refreshing about it. And for me, it’s encouraged use of the iPhone’s built-in camera as a more artistic tool (but be careful of over-using Instagram’s built-in filters).
Unfortunately, Instagram has no real web interface, which means there’s no easy way to share your images with non-iPhone users. But images are still saved on the phone itself, so there’s nothing stopping you from uploading them to Flickr or other services manually. I’ve started a Flickr set, and will upload my saved Instagrams to it periodically.
I’m shacker on Instagram if you want to connect.