I’ve got this idea, and I personally believe it’s a good one; Instagram should add the option next to “like” and “comment”, “create”. I mean, honestly, how many times have you seen someone doing or eating something, giving you the urge to do the same?
While I sit in these endless lectures scrolling through my feed, it gets embarrassing when I have to wipe the drool off my phone and stifle the sounds of my stomach’s newest soundtrack. A double tap on the screen just doesn’t do it for me anymore. I like the picture, but I know I’d LOVE what the picture is of even more. So please Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Obama, the robotics club, SOMEBODY! Help feed the hungry a girl in need! While you guys figure that out, I’ll keep following @new_fork_city and attempt to stop myself from eating my phone.
Interestingly enough, a picture of food got me to my highest count of likes in Instagram. I jumped for joy once I surpassed 273, then put the phone down and actually ate the meal. Pics or it didn’t happen, am I right? But just like me, and any other person in the world with an Instagram account, Syracuse University freshman Natalie Landsberg also Instagrams food. ‘So what?’ you may be asking yourself. If you think getting 273 likes on a picture is a lot (I hope you do because it’s probably my biggest accomplishment thus far), try getting an average of 10,000 likes.
Think your ratio of followers to following is good? @new_Fork_City’s is 101k to 3, and that’s just right now. They’re gaining more and more followers each day. So who are the lucky 3 accounts @new_Fork_City follows? The creators of course! Natalie and her two friends from high school started this account senior year, and the rest is history. “We would always go out to eat and took a ton of photos everywhere we went. One day, we decided to combine all the photos we had and turn them into something substantial. We came up with the name, started the Instagram, and from there it took off!” Natalie told me.
Me: How did it take off?!
NL: The first thing we did when we made the Instagram was add on a ton of photos to it. Before we followed anyone, we wanted people to know what we are all about. We still have the same caption/geotag format we had when we first started. Once we had a solid amount of photos on the page, we followed all our friends. From there it spread and got really big! It was totally luck.
Me: Has it impacted your social life? Did it play a role whatsoever in coming into Syracuse as a freshman?
NL: It really hasn’t impacted my social life at all! Occasionally people will refer to me as “new fork city,” but that’s really it. I have gotten really awesome feedback about it at cuse, but it didn’t impact my decision on where I wanted to attend college. It’s harder running it at school (and away from NYC), because I have to text with my two friends whom I run it with to coordinate who is posting what. We are all at different schools, and not in NYC, so it’s a little more time consuming than usual.
Me: What’s something that bothers you most on Instagram?
NL: When people use the Instagram filters to edit their photos. They are so bad! I definitely recommend downloading Afterlight or VSCOcam to edit your pictures instead.
Me: Do you plan to do anything with the instagram account, and the “fame” you’ve acquired from it?
NL: I really have no idea. For now, we are all just going to keep posting and see where it goes from there!
Natalie and her friends created a blog “newforkcity212.com” this past summer after accumulating 50,000 followers and 10,000 submissions, with intentions of expanding @new_fork_city to different mediums. This blog allows viewers to see more than just the picture and clever captions the Instagrammers upload. It creates interactivity with the @new_fork_city and its fans by providing restaurants, recipes, reviews, etc. of the food depicted. Also included in the blog are polls asking viewers what they would like to see more of, articles like “25 Ways You Know You’re Addicted to Food” (all applied…) and “How to Not Gain the Freshman 15” (if only I knew this last year…), and more! You’ll just have to check out the site to find out for yourself! Just not on an empty stomach or in the middle of a diet. The pictures are just…
@nlandsberg newforkcity212.com
@new_fork_city newforkcity212.com
@nlandsberg newforkcity212.com