Hot Dog Legs, Throwback Thursdays and The Fat Jewish have become Internet sensations thanks to an app the world has become familiar with — Instagram. All active social media users are absorbed by Instagram’s effects. With just a few edits, photos of food, nature or even buildings can garner upwards of 100 likes by viewers of the photo. For many, including Steinhardt junior and fashion blogger Ilona Selina, Instagram has become an art form.

“I do focus a lot more on lighting, positioning and capturing a fun or beautiful moment,” said Selina, who has 4,000 followers on her account @routelondonnewyork. “The image has to be well lit and sharp.”

Social media has an ephemeral quality. Although breaking the 100 likes mark on that newly uploaded selfie brings a moment of satisfaction, the feeling is temporary. The fleetingness of the app can also be attributed to the sheer abundance of content. Because new photos will continue to appear on every user’s news feed, users are lured to check the app multiple times throughout the day for an endless scroll of photos.

Tisch junior Chris Klemens, who goes by @chrisklemens on the app, has attracted an Instagram following of close to 3,000 users. Although he is also active on other social media platforms such as Twitter and Snapchat, he notes that Instagram offers a sense of nostalgia that the other apps do not.

“On a more personal level, I love that it’s a visual journal of everything I do in my life,” Klemens said. “I can go back and reminisce on some of the things I’ve done and remember where and when each photo was taken.”

Social media outlets like Facebook and Instagram serve as virtual time capsules. History will be traced back to social media accounts and rather than any physical traces of a humankind ever existing, this life will be represented by digital codes. 

Klemens also said Instagram is a way to be creative in a low-risk environment. With additional apps such as Afterlight, VSCOcam and PicStitch to further edit photos, the average person can easily express creativity and share it with the 300 million Instagram users who use the app every day. Anyone with a camera can express a more prolific part of his or her personality in a way that is otherwise incommunicable without the app. 

Stern sophomore Brandon Osorio may be majoring in finance and marketing but his skills for photography are expressed through his Instagram account @brandonosorio. CAS sophomore Cole Peterson, who is one of Osorio’s 20,000 Instagram followers, cites his minimalistic filtering and interesting content as the sources of the pictures’ popularity.

“Brandon’s pictures are just really aesthetic pleasing,” Peterson said. “They’re simple and clean but at the same time, there’s always something discretely unique about each image.”

As Instagram photographers constantly look for the next scene or still life to capture, they find themselves wanting to snap a photo that is also worth a thousand likes.

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, April 6 print edition.  Email Francesca Conlin at [email protected].