Is Instagram The New Twitter?

Social networking and micro blogging are trends that have been flashing through our eyes as we visit our most visited sites, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. According to an article on Educause.com called, “7 Things You Should Know About Microblogging”, ELI Publications defines micro blogging as “the practice of posting small pieces of digital content online—which could be text, pictures, links, short videos, or other media—on the Internet”.  In other words, Micro blogging is a way of blogging in with less content than original blogs. While communication is key in our everyday lives, our current generation has used both social networking and micro blogging as outlets to share their thoughts, experiences, and images.

Twitter has been around since 2006 providing an online social networking service and micro blogging service. Twitter is a site that allows its users to send text-based messages, edit their profiles, and send pictures. It’s almost like updating your Facebook status throughout the day except with Twitter; you are limited to 140 characters per tweet enhancing people’s creativity to send more with less. Twitter allows their users to integrate their tweets with Facebook, linking tweets to the both accounts for a simple status update and a tweet all at once.  While Twitter allows its users to tweet text, images, links and other media, Instagram is similar, yet different. 

Instagram was launched in 2010, enabling its users to capture, filter, and share photos on other integrated forms of media like Facebook. Yes, Instagram is still young but is rapidly enhancing its services. Originally Instagram was just a mobile application, now it’s a site that can be visited with or without using a mobile device. Guardian News and Media released an article called; “Instagram and Twitter wrestle as social network war reaches new level”, which speaks on the reason as to why Instagram cut its integration off from Twitter. According to the article, “Twitter benefits from having content from other media-generating services - such as Instagram. In September, the AllThingsD site reported that user engagement from Twitter to Instagram pictures was greater than within Instagram itself”.  Which means that if Instagram continued integrating with Twitter, it wouldn’t be where it is today. Now, Instagram has a new owner; Facebook. Instagram is independent from micro blogging sites such as Twitter and is doing well in having over 500 million user agreements. Below are some questions I would like for you to think about for a discussion.

For all those who use both Instagram and Twitter, do you think that Instagram can potentially be the new twitter?

How much different is Instagram from Twitter, and do you agree with the cut off of integration with Twitter?

Reference:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/dec/05/instagram-twitter-blocked-cards-social

http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-microblogging