(March 8, 2012) -- Instagram, the newest social networking tool, has spread like wild fire. Instagram is a free photo sharing app that allows users to take a photo, apply a filter, then share it through social networking services including Instagram's own. A simple app, currently only available to iPod touch, iPad and iPhone users, Instagram is the latest way to show your friends and “followers” what you are looking at or doing the second it is happening. One might wonder, however, how such an app with certain restrictions of users became so popular so fast.

According to senior Karen Aivadjian, who just recently joined the Instagram family in December, it’s because “everyone has an iPhone. When I got my iPhone in December, Instagram was the first app I downloaded; it’s just so easy.” The popularity of Instagram is directly proportional to iPhone sales, which have risen from 17 million in 2011 to 37 million in 2012. Because of this, Instagram users have risen from 10 million in October 2011, to 15 million in January.

It is also the simplicity and inexpensiveness of this app that makes it so appealing to users. However, the main feature of Instagram is the fun filters it offers. “Let’s be honest, everyone likes to make sure they look good in the pictures they post up and Instagram’s filters make it hard not to look good,” said junior Arpine Shagbabyan, an avid user of Instagram. Filters like X-proII, Earlybird, Inkwell and 1977 transform pictures taken with camera phones into professional-looking photographs.

This craze of photo taking has also caught the attention of celebrities like Justin Bieber, Kendall Jenner and Selena Gomez. What started out as an app to share what you’re eating for lunch with your friends has turned into a way to get an inside glimpse into the lives of celebrities. This inside look also lets users see what their friends and beloved celebrities consider cool or cute through the news feed section.

Yet, another section in Instagram is the popular page. For many, this page has turned into a competition between users to see how many likes they can get.“The only thing that gets kind of annoying is when people like their own pictures to have more likes. Like, who do you have to impress?!” said senior Rita Ezadjian. This popular page is visible to all users and changes every second through the refresh tool, allowing every picture with the highest amount of likes at that moment to be viewed and envied by all.

Whether it gets annoying or addicting, many students have helped make Instagram extremely popular, extremely fast.