How Instagram widens views in an increasingly mobile world

When Izzy Ramos’ boyfriend Neil asked her to move with him from their rental apartment in Miami to his home state of Washington, she was intrigued.

When Neil explained that he had lived in a little town called Shelton, she did what any millennial today does when considering a move: She hashtagged it.

Though the hashtag for Shelton didn’t result in much, a few clicks around her smartphone landed her at the hashtag #AberdeenWA. It was then that Ramos agreed to move.

“I loved it here the minute I finally found some images,” Ramos said. “It was so different from anything I had ever seen before, I had to experience it.”

For someone born in Puerto Rico and raised in Miami and who spent years working in Louisiana, the Pacific Northwest is an enchanting world. Much like every person with a smartphone in their hand today, Ramos was eager to share the sights of this new locale.

There’s an app for that

That desire explains the very rapid rise of Instagram in the last few years. The phone-based app enables users to upload photos, add filters, crop and stylize the image before posting it along with a caption of unlimited length. Followers can “like,” comment on and share the image.