So Long Instagram, and Thanks For All the Shoes
December 21, 2012
There's a growing sentiment right now to ditch Instagram and move to Flickr. (For many it might be “back” to Flickr, but I'll get to that later.) Obviously this sentiment comes after Instagram shot themselves in the foot with a piss-poor handling of their new terms of service, but is that the only reason for the vitriol? Other that being bought by Facebook, did Instagram do something else before this? Because it seems like all this was just bubbling below the surface, waiting for a reason to explode. Maybe it's not Instagram, but rather everything else that seems to burn customers (or users, but don't start with the product/customer adages, please) after they've gotten hooked. And by everything else, I, uh, can't really give good examples, but it happens all the time, amirite?
Combine Instagram's inevitable slide to a Facebook level of creepiness with the fairly great new iPhone Flickr app that just happened to come out right before this incident, and I'm ditching Instagram for Flickr with everyone else (everyone, in this case, is all the design/nerd trendsetters I follow digitally, and, uh, Anderson Cooper). But I'm a little sad about it.
Instagram did something that, for several years now, has been pointed to as a huge reason for Flickr's undoing--they made photo sharing easy and fun. They did it in a way that inspired countless designers and app makers and probably annoying MBAs for years to come. And that's by doing one thing insanely well. On one platform. While everyone else was piling on features and benefits, trying to reach every person on the planet, they went simple, and they reaped the rewards, so to speak.
Now I'm going to suggest that is also why Flickr stands a chance again, or at least is getting nerds excited again. Not only is it ad-free (for Pros), and not only does it harken back to a more innovative, open, and innocent time on the web, but it's also powerful. Instagram never became powerful, or should I say, it never became great for power users.
Instagram gave me a fun way to share my beautiful, boring, and horrible photos with people. It made me think about photography (and sharing) in a way that Flickr never did. Some of that is the fact that I suddenly had a pretty decent camera in my pocket every second of my life. But it still encouraged me to take pictures I wouldn't have otherwise, just to share them. Maybe that's self-expression (what am I, a fucking artist?), and maybe it's hoping I get someone to click on a little heart icon (what do I need, constant affirmation?). Either way, it tapped into something great. And I want to thank it for that.