Instagram Surpasses Twitter with 300 Million Active Users: So What Does That Tell Us About Us?

So is a picture really worth a thousand words? Or 300 million?

Or is there something more basic going on here.

It may just be that visual is a more compelling proposition on mobile - the global consumer platform/addiction of choice - than is the the written word. Even if limited to 140 characters.

And it may be more compelling because it is more personal, requires less thought and is more convenient.

It may also be that people are tiring of all the dreck clogging their Twitter feeds. There are, after all, only so many passionate evangelists for self-promotion that a casual glance on the train or bus or subway or crossing a busy street can be processed by the human brain.

It could also be that as the network becomes the computer even more than it already is, that simplicity and convenience will be driven to their reductio ad absurdum. But that will probably occur in the future. For the moment, we are signalling that overload begets underwhelm: there's only so much we can process and to which we then react. We may have reached our sensory limits. The question now is how to filter. Part of the answer has just come in. JL

Avik Si comments in LinkedIn:

Participation will always favor direct messages over indirect, the obvious over the subtle.
With 300 miilion active users, Instagram overtook Twitter this week in terms of monthly active users. This is a striking figure, coming so early in Instagram's lifecycle. So, what does this inflection tell us about Instagram, Twitter and more importantly: about us?

Pictures Rule

Pictures appeal to the human mind in a manner that words can never hope to beat. We hear the importance of using images in presentations, how movies can actually make us feel to mirror the emotions portrayed on screen. Text will be, eternally, bridesmaid to the beautiful bride that images (and videos) are.
Most likely, even the most exciting aspect of Facebook are the images in the posts - which makes Facebook's acquisition of Instagram such a brilliant defensive move.
Plus, uploading a picture is easy, condensing your thoughts in 140 characters isn't.

The Devil lies in the Metric

As a metric, sheer numbers to reflect surface participation will always favour direct messages over indirect, the obvious over the subtle.
Which is, by the way, not a negative commentary on either text or oblique messaging. Just a fact of horses-for-courses. It is just that we should recognize the limitations and biases of metrics. Box office returns aren't the best measure to judge masterpieces. It will always be Gangnam which breaks the internet, not Mozart or Beethoven.
Similarly, "monthly active users" isn't the metric to gauge the depth of interaction on a social media platform. You need to also measure the frequency of users' usage, their interaction modes etc.

Mobile Devices: The Engine for Exponential Growth

Instagram's exponential growth is not just due to its nature of content but also because it is meant for using on mobile devices. This throws the field open to younger users and those on the move - two segments contributing significantly to Instagram's user base.
Mobile devices, with their low power requirements and ubiquitous nature, are democratizing internet reach like nothing else before. Those designing new offerings/ platforms must take the form factor and user experience on these devices into account.

Bandwidth as a constraint is passé

When a platform for uploading images and videos overtakes one for posting short messages in terms of active users, it will surely go down as a tipping point when network bandwidth, once worth its weight in gold, has ceased to be a constraint. Just like storage, network too is entering the list of things which we once hoarded but no longer care about.
Implication: from here on, size ceases to be a deciding criterion for judging if a content-sharing mechanism can make it big.