According to Kevin Systrom (@kevin), the first picture he ever posted to Instagram was one of his dog in Mexico near a taco stand; content not unlike the over 95 million photos shared each day on the platform. However, this one is heavily filtered with X-PRO2, a filter still used today, and missing the clever or emotional captions we’ve become accustomed to (Kevin simply captioned his, “test”). In the almost 9 years since it went live, the post has garnered over 101,000 likes and 41,000 comments – significantly more than Systrom’s current average of 41,780 likes and 16,000 comments (we attribute this longevity to the latent “cultural heritage” of the post and it’s importance in the grand scheme of the platform, of course.)
Ultimately, Mike Krieger (@mikeyk) is credited with posting the first-ever ‘Gram. The photo is tilted, boasts a severe yellow-hued filter, and lacks a caption, but we have to give Krieger credit for the artsy marina shot with a Mondrian-esque grid. Since its origin , the post has racked up ~31,000 likes, a far cry from the photos that surround it with a mere 28, 90, and 34 likes. The nearly 1,500 comments written underneath the post express excitement, shock, and joy at the Instagram relic and remind us of just how far the founders, digital media platform, and user-base have come.
