A land of artsy-filtered selfies and hued pictures of dogs can be found no place other than a smartphone app.
Instagram has exploded as a social-media giant in the past few years, especially with the introduction of the Android version of the app last year.
Now anyone with a smartphone and a love of taking photos can hashtag a picture of a public event and have others find it, like it, and comment on it.
It has the greatest usage between the ages of 18 and 29.
Instagram has 150 million users, many of those being local Delta College students.
“I use it to get people’s attention,” said Jerome Duco. “That and because I can meet people on Instagram to make new friends.”
Even searching through the hashtag for Stockton can find you hundreds of user photos and people to connect with.
One student managed to amass over a thousand followers.
“What gets followers is constantly interacting with people and finding ways to contact a lot of other Instagramers,” said Alex Khan.
Such widespread usage has even led to several InstaMeets around the world, where Instagramers can meet each other in person and engage in various festivities.
One InstaMeet was originally scheduled for Stockton on Sept. 21 at the South Sewall Park, but has since been rescheduled to Oct. 5 due to the rain.
It was advertised through an Instagramer with the username, @stocktonca, who promises product giveaways and photo challenges.
“It’s definitely something worth getting if you don’t want to constantly talk face to face and be in people’s business,” said Khan.