You might not be able to imagine a time before Instagram, before filters, hashtags, regram fails and throwback Thursdays, but it's really not that old at all. The first photo ever uploaded to the photo-sharing social media platform (such a mouthful, makes you wonder how it ever caught on!) was on July 16 2010, reports Buzzfeed. The image of Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom's dog, Dolly, was put onto a trial version of the site (which basically mirrored Instagram and was called Codename, presumably to put off any other tech wizards looking to pilfer his idea) and then three months later, Instagram as we know it was launched.
Now that it's of school age, let's have a look at how Instagram has changed our life, not even half a decade in:
1. We don't upload albums to Facebook anymore
Gone are the days of uploading 60 photos to an album on Facebook, meticulously tagging people then waiting for the likes to flood in. Instagram relied on an immediacy and also precision. Instead of taking loads of photos over a night, people will upload one or two images a day, but they'll be gorgeous, precise images, instead of the blurry up-nose fodder you used to see fit for Facebook.
**2. We'll go out and do fun stuff just to Instagram it **
Yeah, we would have done this sort of FOMO-goading with Facebook a few years ago, but the entirely chronological feed on Instagram gives users a compulsion to be timely with their actions. There's no point in taking photos of something then uploading photos days later, so it's all about showing where you are right now. Oh, and making sure it looks worthy of inclusion in a twee coffee table book.
3. Varied fun stuff
Despite Miley Cyrus's best efforts, there's no point in posting identical full-face selfies over and over again, or even the same bar, restaurant or club. So you make the effort to live a life of extremes – cute dogs and sunsets, nights until 4am in clubs, house parties and the view from your plane window. Yeah, we might be a little bit restricted by our phones, but if they're encouraging us to go be more adventurous in the real world, that's no bad thing.
4. We're finally OK with selfies
Well, most of the time. In our previous coverage of selfies, we have found that they're really not that old. And if you hark back to the earliest days of Facebook, it would be a bit cringe to post a selfie. It wasn't even called a selfie, it was called a 'Myspace pose'. So why the resurgence? Instagram. You don't only take photos of yourself to show off who you are, but where you are, carving an identity by your experiences. Unfortunately, the proliferation of selfies means that people end up taking photos of themselves at places where it feels a bit inappropriate, like funerals or Auschwitz tours. The point is, we guess, that people don't realise that you don't need to include your face in a photo to prove you were there.
5. We're really needy
As well as the fact we all check our phones for likes within three minutes of uploading an image, we engage up to 15 times more on Instagram than on Facebook, which means there's something much more appealing about it than Facebook – maybe because it just does one thing, hasn't become overrun with parents' status updates about gardening, and photos do say a thousand words, after all.
6. We're not leaving the app any time soon
As it's still impossible to put hyperlinks into captions and comments, it looks as if we're literally not finding anything but the home button on our phone as a route out of there. On a broader level, it has 150 million users, and none of them tend to be our parents, so we can totally see this method of communication remaining un-cringed for a long time. Plus, unlike with Twitter, if you do feel obliged to follow someone you don't like, you can always unfollow with the excuse that your data is running low…
** Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson**
Picture: @kevin
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.