HtHV is on Instagram now, for some reason!

Just like the first morning I started tight-rolling my jeans in sixth grade (kids: ask your parents), I’ve finally succumbed to peer pressure.  Hike the Hudson Valley is now on Instagram!

Here’s proof:

Over the past eight years, my lack of an Instagram page has been pointed out many times, usually by people younger than me, which seems to be a growing category of people every year.

Dealing with yet another device-oriented time sink just never really made sense to me.  Facebook exists.  You can put pictures on it.  People can comment, like, and validate your existence there just fine.  It does all the things, right in one place.

But now that I’ve been on Instagram for a couple of weeks, I’m starting to understand its charm.  It’s like Facebook, but with 90% less noise.  It’s just pictures, usually posted by the people who actually took the pictures.  The lack of everything else is a feature, not a bug. 

“Get outraged by this thing I found that may or may not be true!” your Facebook friends will say.

“Look at this pretty picture,” your Instagram friends will say.

“Outrage!  Birthdays!  People doing that Drake dance!  Cats!” says Facebook.

“Maybe some pretty pictures?” says Instagram.

Perhaps it’s because I’m new to the whole thing, but compared to the cacophony of Facebook, Instagram feels like the social media equivalent of a quiet cabin by the lake.  A nice place to hang out, if your regular life can spare you for a moment.

In any event, if you’re an Instagram person, I hope to see you there!  If you’d like your awesome pictures to be shared on the Hike the Hudson Valley profile, please tag your pictures with @hikethehudsonvalley.  (I’ll see it if you use the hash tag #hikethehudsonvalley, but it won’t automatically share to my profile unless you tag the photo with @hikethehudsonvalley like I’m a person in the photo.  And sorry if I just explained something everyone else has known since 2010.  I’m new to this.)

And thanks to the cool people who have already tagged @hikethehudsonvalley with their own righteous pics.  Good stuff!

I look forward to seeing more of your adventures out there, and occasionally sharing some of my own shots, too.  Now who wants to help bring tight-rolling back?

(P.S. A special thank you to Elliot Grossman, the younger-than-me person who noticed the handle @hikethehudsonvalley wasn’t yet taken on Instagram, claimed it, and passed it over to me, giving the final Insta-nudge to make this all happen.  Thanks so much, Elliot!)