When a friend of mine posted a picture of her glammed up meringue via instagram, apart from bursting a vein due to my high blood pressure brought on by the excitement of the picture, I thought to myself have we taking photo editing too far?… or am I just jealous of that black and white mash potatoe, my cousin’s friend’s ex made for dinner, that got twenty three likes?

Instagram, was a revelation when it first popped up on the life-ruining app store. People were taking photo’s like they’d never seen a kodak before. Picutres of people’s faces in different filters made my internet life more interesting and their face structure’s now looked bareable. I was able to circum to the fact that all photo’s from future nights out would have the ‘earlybird’ filter on them and I learnt how to plan for next-weeks dinner, based on their artworks.

But after a while it all became a bit too much. Teenagers started print screening their instagram pages on their iphone’s and editing that to use as their latest piece of propoganda and skittle’s now seemed to come in different colours. Images of the that cool pavement, on the walk-home from a night out, became a popular choice to publish. I even have started to learn all the different types of accrilic nails you can purchase, thanks to people taking of pictures of your own hand… even if they’re not tanned.

Now don’t think I’m guilty of being a hypocrite, because I have done exactly all of the above and I’m pretty sure that includes the nail thing. Instagram, is like spending for students, it’s addictive. When skipping down the street you start to look for instagram opportunities, ‘I’m gonna lo-fi that so bad’ is usually the first thought. I even came across a friend of mine who went out of his way just to take a picture, to later remaster, of a piece of chewing gum on the floor, I wonder when Peter Parker will come calling?

People seem to enjoy snapping their food, personally I enjoy eating mine. But, you can’t get away from the fact that lasagne looks better with a awful 80’s-esque border and a water-mark that makes me consider whether I should go for an eye-test.

Despite, a new wave of emerging hipsters, instagram is actually quite the time filler. Surfing through picture autobiography’s actually brings some fufillment to my life and makes a hangover and my lectures slightly more interesting. I wonder if it’d be good in church?

It’s not just instagram though, it has it’s offsprings lurking in the world of the ‘camera roll’ and my Facebook news feed. There’s that app called ‘cam-wow’ which sticks it’s awful rainbow coloured logo in the bottom right hand corner of the snap of your awful face. I’m sure there is also another one which lets you split the picture and show to different edited images side-by-side… it’s like I’m in a portrait gallery.

Frankly, I’ll leave the portraits to London and the Louvre. But, I have to admit Instagram is pretty fun and pretty stupid at the same time. But, who doesn’t want every living moment of their life un-edited?