Facebook Dominates With Cash

When photos were first taken, they only consisted of few colors (like black, white and certain shades of gray). From there, the camera has been altered to become one of the most commonly used and seen devices, whether a professional camera or one incorporated into phones. Although photos were originally generally taken of only those moments of upmost importance, they soon became a favorite pastime. Now, everywhere you look people are snapping photos. For the innovative minds who became bored with the plain old photo, applications and other downloadable options became available on computers, where some would spend hours editing their photos. In a span of a few years, new technology such as iPhones and laptops made the camera more accessible, and soon apps for photo editing were on every device. Instagram has been one of those very popular apps available, and now an estimated 100,000 users are on it.

“I started using Instagram by accident,” freshman Bailey Rayner said. ” I thought it was a camera app that filtered photos and made them look cool. I started figuring out how to use it and I haven’t stopped.”

On Instagram you take a normal photo and they give you the options to add effects. You can make an account and receive followers, as well as favorite photos and comment on them. Hash-tagging the photo and liking them is also a choice.

“I like that many celebrities have instagrams and we can see a bit of their personal lives,” Rayner said. “I also like that you can find people who also have Instagram through connecting with Twitter and Facebook.”

As Instagram’s popularity and users grow, Facebook made the decision to buy Instagram for 1 billion dollars, and not all the Instagram users are very happy about it.

“I just don’t want Facebook to change Instagram,” Rayner said. “Facebook changes too much and it gets confusing. Instagram is great, and Facebook shouldn’t mess it up.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reassure Instagrams users that Instagram will still operate independently and it will still be connected to other services beyond Facebook.

“A lot of people want to take just pictures and they don’t want the drama that Facebook has,” sophomore Oakley Farrar said.

The purchase will be completed in June, and although there have been many questions and theories on why facebook bought it, there is no doubt that it will highly benefit Facebook.

“They bought Instagram because they knew they would make a profit off of it,” Farrar said.

And while the Facebook layout changes constantly, along with the options you have on it, users everywhere hope that Facebook will not touch how Instagram works and is laid out.