Cracking Instagram hack This Is Now allows you to view the rest of the world in real time

Words by James Cartwright, Thursday 02 August 2012

Image aggregators are nothing new and it’s fair to say we’re literally inundated with personal photos shared online, whether through social media, email or just posted on websites. Today alone I’ve witnessed about 100 different images of people’s lunchtime snacks. Personal digital photography is here to stay and the increasing quality of cameras in phones is doing nothing to halt its worldwide progression. But isn’t it all getting a bit boring?

Heck no! And to prove it take a look at This Is Now a live feed of Instagram shots from five of the world’s greatest capital cities uploaded in real time according to the geotag of each image. Want to know what’s happening in Tokyo right now? Fireworks, cats, cakes and lager. How about Sao Paulo? Bikinis, snakes newborn babies and some dude in shades who’s clearly quite keen on his abs. You can also keep tabs on the people of London (Olympics), Sydney (beaches) and New York (pizza).

It may not be the most groundbreaking use of the internet, and there’s still an enormous number of food photos knocking around, but what an incredible way of keeping up to date with the habits of people outside of your own city-wide bubble. And we’ll be damned if it doesn’t highlight the awesome volume of people using Instagram as if it were as important to their existence as breathing. Truly impressive stuff.

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