I am the first person to admit my life is hardly Instagrammable it seems. But I’m trying to take this opportunity of Instagram to be a sort of ‘stop and smell the flowers’ kind of thing. What little thing can I notice that’s interesting? What artistic spin can I put on something ordinary?
But I’ve recently been looking at Instagram a lot and realizing some people are either way more attractive/on top of it than I am… either that or they have some tools at their disposal I hadn’t considered. Of course, it was (mostly) the latter.
Here are three categories of app you may have wished Instagram had (and other social networks seem to do already) and how you can be the master of your own destiny.
Instagram Feat #1: Being Really Ridiculously Good Looking
So I just thought everyone on Instagram was good looking… until I discovered some apps. In particular, moreBeaute2 (I appreciate the Frenchness of that, personally).
There are tons of apps that make you look better with but the subtle(ish) Photoshoppy quality of this one, it is my favorite. Some lipstick, my hair done, and a better camera angle and I would have been Instagram worthy today too! (Apparently VSCOcam can also take this to another level if you like messing with color balance, temperature, etc. but honestly, the moreBeaute2 was enough of an improvement for me.)
Before (yes I tie my hair back usually when I’m working):
After (Yes, I used this crappy picture on purpose- Imagine how ridiculously good looking I could have been had I used a great one!)
Instagram Feat #2: Resharing That Person’s Clever Post
So I saw this go by a couple weeks ago and was like YES! (Mainly because I had an accent at one point in my life but worked hard to get rid of it because people made me feel less than with it):
So how do you reshare something? Well there are two ways:
1) Use the Repost app (gives an obnoxiously large attribution on the image).
2) Use the Instagrab app.
I kind of wish there was a way to attribute that was a little less subtle than having something in the comments and a little less obnoxious that attribution covers up an important part of the image but alas, Instagram can’t be everything.
Instagram Feat #3: Messaging People
So there is no way to message people in Instagram… or so we think.
Kik exists for just such a purpose... but according to Derrick appears to mainly be porn bots looking for victims (um, I mean, send targeted traffic to a paid site). Maybe we’re just not the target audience (apparently 16-20 year olds are the heaviest app users).
There is also Instagram Direct, which is a way for users to somewhat contact other users directly and privately.
Instagram is a lot like Twitter in that its open platform have allowed others to develop using it. Facebook is a more insular model: as users, we have to wait for Facebook to create the things we want.
There is no doubt other things you want to do on Instagram but those seem to be some of the big things available in some other social networks out there. Have at!
P.S. If you want to read an article to make yourself feel better at all those effortless-seeming Instagram posts you see other people do, this article is for you: http://www.bustle.com/articles/32177-what-i-instagrammed-vs-what-was-really-happening-or-my-entire-life-is-a-lie As someone who has not yet pissed off a loved one or been late to work due to Instagram, I hope my streak continues… but maybe with some better photos in my stream.