It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words for a long time, but quite recently this ideology has hit the social networking world head on, and has caused an explosion of new, picture based, social networking platforms, the most prominent of those being Instagram and Pinterest. As a user of both of these photo-oriented applications, I can easily see what the sudden obsession has stemmed from.

But what exactly are Pinterest and Instagram? Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board of sorts; users can “pin” and “repin” images that they like to “boards” that they have created and thus share these images with their “followers”. However, the images being shared are usually not personal images, rather ones found on the Internet or on another user’s pin board. Then what are these pictures of? Well, pretty much anything! Categories range from animals, architecture, and art to travel, weddings, and fashion, and everything in between.

Though Pinterest was originally launched in 2009, its popularity exploded in the social networking world as recently as Spring 2012, when their iPhone app was released. With the ability to easily share images that were funny or relatable, and create pin boards of a dream home or a future vacation, Pintrest attracts millions of users who have a so-called “Pin-session”! (A Pintrest obsession.)

Instagram, though also focusing on pictures as opposed to words, is oriented in a different direction than Pinterest when it comes to the type of images shared. Through Instagram, most users share pictures of themselves and events in their lives, topped off with a caption and “hashtags”. When originally launched in 2010, Instagram was mainly used by aspiring photographers sharing their projects with their “followers”. Today, however, Instagram has become one of the most prominent platforms for iPhone and Android users to snap a picture on their phone and share it with their friends. It’s easy to see why Instagram has become such an obsession through its ease of use, fun filters for picture editing, and ability to “hashtag” pictures. A common phrase for teenagers everywhere, especially girls, has become “Let’s Instagram a picture of this!”

While Facebook and Twitter, both more word-centered social networking platforms, are certainly not becoming obsolete, there does seem to be a very sudden obsession with both Instagram and Pinterest, most apparent I feel among teenage girls, though the user demographic is quickly expanding. I am certainly guilty of both these “obsessions”, as I have spent my fair share of time “Instagramming” pictures or re-pinning pictures on Pintrest to share them with my friends. Whether it is because of the ease of sharing a picture through Pinterest or Instagram or the powerful effect a single image can have, both Pintrest and Instagram have definitely made a splash in the social networking world, shifting the focus from words to pictures.