What Is Instagram You’re playing fetch with your dog in the park She runs toward you with the tennis ball in her mouth It looks as though she’s smiling You decide you must take a picture You reach for your smartphone and shoot the scene You add a filter that makes the ball’s bright yellow really pop Then you ask your dad to post the photo to Instagram Your family’s followers like and comment on it Then their followers see your puppy picture too This is Instagram at work Instagram is a photo and video-sharing website and app Users post photos they’ve taken But first many alter their photos using Instagram’s unique editing tools 4
Instagrammers post pictures to their accounts Any users who follow the posters see these photos Interaction between users is an important part of the Instagram community Users can tag one another to communicate They can also comment on photos and add hashtags If a user likes or comments on another user’s photos all of his or her followers will also see the photos In this way Instagram photos can go viral 5
Instagram Site Bytes Purpose sharing photos and videos Type of Service website and app URL www instagram com App name Instagram Date of Founding October 6 2010 Founders Kevin Systrom Mike Krieger Compatible Devices Tech Terms Hashtags Hashtags are added to photo and video captions and comments A hashtag is a hash symbol followed by a word or phrase The hashtag becomes a link that groups photos together Clicking on a hashtag takes the user to all posts using that hashtag Filters Instagrammers use filters to alter the color of their images Instagram also has tools that change an image’s focus brightness tilt contrast and more Tablet Smartphone Laptop 6
Founding Instagram Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger met at Stanford University in California After college Systrom got an idea for a new app He asked Krieger to work on it with him The app Krieger and Systrom created was called Burbn It allowed users to play games share photos and more Sharing photos was the feature used most often So Krieger and Systrom changed the app to focus on shooting editing and sharing photos on mobile phones They renamed the app Instagram It launched in October 2010 By 2015 Instagram had more than 400 million users Mike Krieger Kevin Systrom Account Info (cid:3)(cid:115) Users must be at least 13 to create an account (cid:3)(cid:115) Once a user creates an account he or she chooses a username and uploads a profile photo (cid:3)(cid:115) Users find other Instagrammers to follow searching for them by name username or topic (cid:3)(cid:115) Users can set their profiles to public or private (cid:3)(cid:115) Anyone can view public accounts (cid:3)(cid:115) Only users with accounts can like or comment on images (cid:3)(cid:115) If a user likes or comments on a public account all of his or her followers will then see the image that user liked or commented on (cid:3)(cid:115) Only users accepted as followers can see like and comment on a private user’s photos 7
