If you eat your lunch without sharing it with a filter, do you still feel hungry?
Today marks the fourth birthday of Instagram, or at least four years since the first Instagram photo was shared.
Not that it was Instagram then, and not that it was shared with many people.
Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom was at a taco stand called Tacos Chilakos when he noticed a cute dog sitting at the feet of his girlfriend. So, the first Instagram photo showed a cute animal and a woman wearing a thong — clearly, a sign of things to come.
Back then, even Systrom couldn’t have known what he had started. Instagram back then was called Codename, although that wasn’t the original name.
Systrom, who famously became a billionaire in just 551 days when Mark Zuckerberg gave him an offer he could not refuse, started out with the idea of making a Foursquare like check-in app, where people would log their location by posting a picture of where they were at.
Systrom said after a few name changes, they went with Instagram because it “sounded camera-y”. And that Instagram logo you know so well — that wasn’t there when they started either.
Originally, when the app launched with fewer than 100 beta users, the logo was a rendering of an actual camera.
Cole Rise, who was the 75th person to sign up for Instagram and the creator of many of its filters, created the logo we know today.
The Instagram app was launched on October 6, 2010, three months after Systrom snapped the dog with a taste for tacos.
By December, the app had 1 million users. In less than a year, the user base had grown to 10 million.
On April 12, 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion — a start-up with nine employees.
The app now has 200 million users who have shared 20 billion photos and continue to post about 60 million photos a day.
To mark the birthday, and in the spirit of sharing, here are 10 notable moments in Instagram’s first four years.
Kim Kardishian shows off her butt
Yes, that sentence a description of one of the most famous Instagram photos. Also, we’re putting it up there as a summation of our times as equal to Hemingway’s famous six word short story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
Justin Bieber leaves jail
From one attention seeker to another. Justin Bieber took to Instagram when he was arrested and then released from jail. He summed up his experience by pairing a picture of himself with an image of Michael Jackson celebrating after being cleared of child molestation charges.
Batkid inspired us all
Five-year-old Miles Scott, who has fought leukemia since he was a baby, told the Make-a-Wish Foundation that he wanted to be a certain caped crusader. The city of San Francisco helped out by becoming Gotham for a day — and hearts melted around the world.
The Arab Spring takes over Egypt
It’s easy to dismiss Instagram as a place where celebrities go to flaunt. But along with the shallowness there is an undeniable power that was highlighted when the people of Egypt, outraged by a miliary coup, took to the streets — and Instagram was there with them.
The mundane sadness of North Korea
Some people use Instagram to share family vacation shots. Others, like photojournalist David Guttenfelder, use it to share photos of everyday life in North Korea.
Obama gets reelected
You’ve just been elected president for a second time. Manners dictate you should say thank you. Technology dictates just how you should do that.
Miley Cyrus is Miley Cyrus
http://instagram.com/p/pOyMiOQzKi
Some good things have unwanted side effects. Instagram is a good thing. Then there is Miley Cyrus.
Traveling the world has never looked better
Instagram has changed not only the way we take travel photos but also the way we travel — now we think about locations in terms of how well they look in a square format. Russian photographer Murad Osmann has nearly 1.5 million Instagram followers because of his photos that involve travelling to an exotic location and taking a photo of him holding hands with his girlfriend.
NASA goes to Mars
It used to be you launched a rocket and waved a space mission goodbye. Now NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover feels the need to post a selfie on the red planet.
The internet explodes when Kimye get married
We started with how a Kardishian comes to an end. Let’s end with how a Kardishian makes a new start. The blushing bride broke Instagram records when she shared this photo of her wedding to Kanye West.