3 ways that Instagram has changed photography - and your life

Instagram, the popular smartphone application, has been popular for years now. You probably use it without a thought, like most other people.

How many of you love sharing pictures on Instagram regularly? I bet, all of you. Instagram and other such photo platforms have become an integral part of our lives just like Facebook. The popular smartphone application has drastically change the way we perceive photography and also the world around us. The photo-worthy moments we share on Instagram play a key role in cultivating an artistic eye for photography.

The photos we share on Instagram could be cherished moments from our personal lives, aesthetic experiences, and even our last cup of coffee or meal. Reality is often abstracted and many a times we do not look at the real picture of a person's life through their Insta accounts. The art of professional photography has been completely changed due to Instagram. How many of you have started considering yourself as good photographers?

Think of this moment- You are hungry as hell and you go to a restaurant and order a sumptuous meal. In the meantime you look at what others are eating and inside, you are dying of hunger. Just as minutes pass, the waiter arrives at your table with the fabulous-looking meal. Without wasting a moment, you take out your phone, click a photograph, apply a filter and post it on Instagram- #Foodgasm.

Photo: Instagram/@Shwets20

Photo: Instagram/@Shwets20

So you probably don't know how the app has changed both photography and your life - forever. Here's how.

Creating a people's history

Think about it: there are banks of Instagram photos from all around the world recording what might have been private moments. But once posted on the internet, these pictures become archives of life as it is and has been lived in countries all around the world.

Not convinced? Check out these popular Instagram handles:

Halfpics- Famous for cutting daily stuff into two pieces

Photo: Halfpics/Instagram

Photo: Halfpics/Instagram

The stuff looks more beautiful when cut into half- a philosophy Halfpics follows.

Remember the pictures of that girl leads her boyfriend around the world. The #FollowMeTo hashtag on Instagram, started by the Russian photographer Murad Osmann has been taken to the next level. Check out these beautiful photos:

Photo: #FollowMeTo series

Photo: #FollowMeTo series

The famous couple also visited the Taj Mahal and snapped this incredible image.

Changing ordinary people into artists

As people shoot with their smartphones, they slowly become aware of how to turn reality into art. Once you begin playing with an app like Instagram, you start viewing the world differently - the way an artist does. Every image that hits your eye becomes an image with meaning. Art, you learn, is not part of life. It is life.

Making clearer the difference between amateur and professional

This sounds counter-intuitive, but it's true. Because everyone with Instagram on their smartphones develops the eye of an artist, the same eye can discern the difference between amateur photographic art and professional photographic art.

While technology closes the gap between amateurs and professionals, the fact remains that true artists never needed technology in the first place to see the art in life. That becomes clear when you look at amateur and professional photos side by side. Photographs taken by professionals have dynamic intricacies that the photographs of amateurs do not have.