Communications Major

A couple of months ago there seemed to be a mini-backlash against us amateur mobile food photo junkies taking pics of our meals. This wasn't just at your classy carpaccio-serving joints (pictured at the left), it even happened at a McDonalds!

But it was a backlash against providing a hungry audience with a steady stream of "food porn" that never really went anywhere.

From Justin Bieber to the Obamas and Madonna, the self-taken cameraphone photo – now a staple of Instagram and Twitter – has become one of the cultural markers of our time.

In politics, image is king, and every politician knows it. So, it's surprising to see the president caught in a three-way selfie at Nelson Mandela's memorial service in South Africa, even if the other two people in the picture are the British and Danish Prime Ministers. The now iconic picture, snapped by an AFP photographer, speaks more than its thousand-word allotment — largely because Michelle Obama appears to be the only one showing any decorum.

Within a year after launching its Android app, nearly half of all Instagram's user base comes from the Google-powered operating system.