“Hipster is in.” Beyond the irony that statement holds, it has been proved apparent, especially in social media. A picture of food has become a side angle shot of a piece held up in the air and sunset photos have been transformed into kaleidoscope renditions of their original image. I’m here to spread the trend of “VSCOcam,” a move true to heart “hipsters” might be cringing at. Throw “do it for the likes” out the window and delete the app to keep track of your followers. Download VSCOcam and embark on an app that will take you a couple days… weeks to understand.
VSCO is comparable to Instagram in its ability to post images, add captions, and follow other users. Being able to follow select users allows for a customized feed but the app does not allow users to see who is following them. This throws the stress of follower count out the window allowing you to let go of the thought, "how many likes will this get?"
The explore section has three pages you can swipe among; the first two are The Grid and The Journal, which are photos selected by the app which everyone sees.
The last page is named The Feed, which is where you see photos from the users you follow. The “app” goes beyond by creating an individual URL for each user; allowing for it to expand to a desktop medium. (I’ll use my cousins for example; sarahmiddletonphoto.vsco.co considering her photos have been shared on the apps main feed before.)
The Grid is where users post individual pictures, while The Journal allows for a collection of photos to be posted along with text, allowing users to “blog."
For example, if I ate one great looking bagel I would just post a picture of it to The Grid but, if I decided to eat a bagel from a different store every day for a week... I could post a photo series and write which was the best on The Journal. Bagel analogies help everything. The app's set modern style makes the process hassle free, offering a polished blog look that can be achieved in a matter of minutes rather than weeks. The editing abilities of this app can make a picture of a foot look good. Users start with ten filters they can apply to their photos along with countless tools they can use for enhancement, yet VSCO also has a store where more filters can be purchased.
The heart of VSCOcam is for the art of photography. Though, whether the app was meant to become "social" or not, it has....simply by having people link their URLs in their Instagram biographies. The difference between the two apps comes down to creating a expression of yourself without the motive to receive approval from others, which is a concept I find very refreshing.
