Facebook and Instagram

I've been using Instagram since the end of March. It's my favourite thing at the moment. It's the first thing I check in the morning and the last app I close down at night. During the day, I check in regularly during the day via my phone and a myriad of Instagram viewers out there such as Statigram, inkstagram, and Webstagram. It takes up an amazing amount of time but I love it because it brings little sips of beauty into my life every day. Plus, it allows me a little space and time to be creative. A few days ago, there was a flutter in the news about Facebook trying to buy Instagram. Clearly the folks at FB had recognized the competition. Instagram has a huge number of users I used to share photos on FB, and still do on occasion. But now I post to Instagram first and elsewhere later, if at all. Facebook is a closed space. I have set my privacy settings so that only my friends see my photos. This is where I interact with my friends and share moments of life - posting status updates, responding to invites, sharing news and photos. Facebook is incredibly good for this sort of thing. However, I use Instagram in a completely different way. While Instagram is an open space (I can't really restrict who sees my photostream if they happen to trip across my feed, unless I become a private user), its audience is interested in photography. Well, most of them are. Some are interested in that popular social media past-time - amassing followers. I guess some are more interested in quantity rather than quality. Of my 142 followers, I know fewer than 8 personally. And really only two of my real-life friends on Instragram are into photography and post regularly. Instagram is where I go to be with other fans of photography. Some post pics of their family and lives, others post images of landscapes, cityscapes or studies of objects or people. Whatever the subject matter, it is always presented through a lens of composition, colour and line. That's why when I want a fix of good photographic imagery, I go to Instagram. But when I want to know what my friends are up to, I go to Facebook. Of course, how Google + fits into the mix remains to be seen. I'll have to play about with that before I decide how it fits into the mix.