Since its conception, Instagram has modeled itself on reviving the aesthetics of earlier periods in photography; with its references to Polaroid "instant" cameras, square image format, and choice of lo-fi filters. The problem is: the format is actually inferior to the "antiquated" period it's mimicking, as demonstrated in the image above.
I appreciate that Instagram is "Social Media", but for many people, Instagram is their only form of photographic record.
Since creating this image, Instagram have now increased the maximum resolution to a 1080x1080 (one whole megapixel!) but continues to hobble local storage to 2MP.
see also: http://oioiiooixiii.blogspot.com/2014/09/viewing-instagram-in-different-web.html
image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrmorodo/8152007106
image source: https://instagram.com/p/uskcq7jnPk/
*images referenced without prejudice
