I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard about Instagram, but for those of you who don’t know (where have you been hiding?), it is a social networking and photography app. It was originally designed for the iPhone but now has apps available for Android devices.

It has become popular remarkably quickly, and has changed the face of social networking. Every day, thousands of Instagram photos are being shared on famous sites likes Facebook and Twitter. Distimo, Instagram’s developer, says that its app is downloaded more than 100,000 times per day in the U.S. alone! Even Facebook got caught up in the hype—so much so that it bought Instagram for a cool  $1billion.

The core concept of Instagram is that you can capture images, add filter effects to the photos, and come up with a quick and artistic way of sharing your thoughts—like, for instance, how skinny you (or your dog) have become. Pictures always make social networking much more dynamic.

Instagram’s main attraction is that it’s a free app with 18 filters to choose from, plus the “lux” effect that only increases the vibrancy of every filter. It values the concept of “sharing,” a very important aspect of social networking.

There are other photography apps that have good services and a wider selection for effects. Vignette, for instance, has 76 effects. But the downside for some is that most of these are paid apps.

The social network is a constantly changing environment. You have to be quick in upgrading or creating something new to keep up with the trend (like you should know that the top three most followed and usually trending people in Instagram are Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, and Selena Gomez respectfully). For now, let’s just course through where the cyber-current will take us, snap our Instagram photos and enjoy it!

      This photo of JB and Selena trended!