I like Instagram, but I’ve found that I don’t particularly enjoy following people I actually know. I’m friends with most of them on Facebook, and many of them automatically share their Instagram photos to Facebook (including myself). It gets old, after a while, seeing all the same photos twice. I have considered unfollowing all the people I know on Instagram and following only complete strangers.

I especially like following people in foreign lands whose captions are always in some language I can’t read. One of my favorites is a Polish (I think) woman who posts interesting pictures of the city where she lives, the places she occasionally visits, and a cute little blond girl who I am assuming is her daughter. I like to make up stories about what they are doing. I can’t read her language, so who knows if my stories are anywhere near the truth. And honestly, who cares if they are?

It just occurred to me that I don’t even know for sure that it’s a woman I’m following. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of the photographer who owns this account. You see, I’ve even made up a story about the photographer’s gender.

I also follow a couple of themed Instagram accounts including catbookclub, subwaybookreview, and hotdudesreading (so sue me). In return, I try to post mostly interesting pictures on my own Instagram account and try to avoid posting pictures of my kids most of the time. I wonder what stories complete strangers will tell about my photos.