Puzzle Maniacs on the Web. Instagram

Jigsaw puzzles are pictures disassembled into pieces. Pieces that need to be put together. The complete picture is often appreciated even by those who haven't worked on it. No wonder that a lot of Puzzle Maniacs use Instagram. Because Instagram are also pictures.

10-year story

Instagram is over 10 years old. In the world dominated by the Internet and smartphones, image communication attracts more and more people. A phone is not just a phone anymore. We take pictures of our daily activities on regular basis. Instagram filters help us upgrade our images to almost professional level and the Internet allows us to share our feed not only with friends, but with the whole world.

It’s been 10 years of incredibly fast development of an app which attracts over one billion users every month. A billion people who open it at least once in a month. So much potential. No wonder Facebook bought it in 2012.

First steps in Instaworld

Don’t worry, I am not going to describe how to install the app and give you all the details about its configuration. Just download it from AppStore or GooglePlay, create an account and see for yourself how intuitive it is.

There are two possible basic ways of finding an interesting feed for Puzzle Maniacs. First, we can follow certain users and have their posts appear in the news feed. Looking for people to follow can be time-consuming and exhausting so the best way is to start with the friends you already have. See who they follow and then explore the net until you find what you are looking for. Many people are looking for a specific content, so it may turn out that one puzzle lover can lead you to the next one..

The other way to find an interesting feed is to follow hashtags.

The magic of hashtags

Hashtags can be find not only in social media such as Facebook or Twitter, but also throughout the Internet. They are words or phrases preceded by a hash sign (#) and used to connect pictures or posts with the same content.

So when you see a picture with an interesting hashtag, click it to see other posts marked in the same way. Easy and addictive.

Jigsaw puzzle hashtags

Forget about hashtags like #puzzle or #jigsaw since the meaning of these words is ambiguous.

What to look for instead? One of the best hashtags is obviously #jigsawpuzzle. Here we can find over 500,000 pictures from all over the world showing completed jigsaw pictures, some unfinished work, jigsaw that are already framed, hanged on walls, big, small, surprising…

Another ones worth checking are #puzzlelover (265,000 pictures), #puzzlemania (100,000), #jigsawpuzzleaddict (50,000) and #puzzletime (400,000).

Have I seen this before?

Instagram allows you to tag one image with 30 hashtags. It helps to show it to more people worldwide but can also create some circles as people tag the same pictures on their feed. Well, it is what it is, and Instagram is not only about hashtags.

There are so many great accounts of Puzzle Maniacs on the Instagram that I have decided to prepare a whole new series of blog entries about them. There are puzzle lovers who have amazing collections, assemble large number of elements, who have collected unique patterns, and finally there are also those who can photograph puzzles in such a way that even the most usual pattern looks like a work of art. So stay tuned for the upcoming posts.

Postscript

PuzzleMania is also on Instagram. You can follow us here:

PuzzleManiaInstagram