The other day, I looked through my Instagram feed.
I have more than 1,600 images I’ve taken on the social media application. But what really amazed me is how much of a snapshot it is of my life since the time I started.
Instagram has been a way for me to snapshot life.
Most of the images are ones I took with my iPhone. Some are ones I have taken with my camera and then sent to my phone, just because I wanted to share them. But no matter what, it shows pieces of my life.
I know many people use Facebook to update their lives. Whether it be something major, something to complain about or just an update about being bored or going to the store, people utilize Facebook for many different reasons.
Honestly, I use Facebook as a place to note I have a new blog post or share photos.
Instagram, on the other hand, is that snapshot of life. It’s there where you can see many things I have done over the past few years. The minimal things are even there, too. OK, maybe there’s no photo of the store when I had to go there, but there might be something I saw on the inside.
As somebody who dislikes a lot of those silly Facebook updates (seriously, if you’re bored … go find something to do. If you’re hungry, eat. If the state you should live in is North Dakota, move there. You get the idea.) , I truly like seeing visuals. And Instagram provides that.
A quick look through my Instagram feed features many of the following items:
- Geocaching
- My nephew Cameron
- Family
- Food
- The cruise I went on
- Baseball trips
- Disc golf
- Pets (mine and others)
- Travel
- Nature
- Covered bridges
- Waterfalls
- Friends
- Weather
- Pro wrestling
- Home brewing
- Letter boxing
- Cemeteries
- Sports
- Hiking
- Signs
And, obviously, there’s so much more.
But the one thing I realized as I went through it was how many items triggered a memory from the day etc. It’s cool to be able to think back, even if it’s not a great memory per say (such as the images that are connected to my foot saga).
It’s been fun to take quirky photos, too.
There are also some videos up on my feed, mainly fireworks, but a few other things as well. It’s the neat thing about Instagram (well, the video is newer than the app), outside the fact that it’s capped at like 15-16 seconds.
I think, for the most part, anybody reading this post is going to know what Instagram is. But, for the sake of possibly finding somebody who might not, allow me to explain.
Instagram is a social media application for use on phones. It allows people to snap photos or videos and share them with the world. They can be private or public and have many friends or not too many. It’s like any other social media site out there. One can also share the images, which can be doctored up with a series of filters, on other social media sites. The application/service was started in 2010 and purchased by Facebook two years later for about $1 billion.
Can you imagine?
I know people speak about the evils of social media, and when used in the wrong way, it can be bad. Unfortunately, that can be said about many things.
But for me, Instagram has been an important part of life. I like being able to look back, to see what I’ve done and see where I’ve been. And I look forward to adding to this feed in the coming years.
For those reading, do you have Instagram? If so, leave your name or follow me (my name on there is in the images posted here) so I can check out your feed!
Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!