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# New Aesthetic Watch: Text Only Instagram and Pinterest
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/new-aesthetic-watch-text-only-instagram-and-pinterest/
- Published: 2012-04-30T14:15:25.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:02:16.000Z
- Description: LOS ANGELES — Instagram is all about self expression, capturing a moment and sharing it with fun filters. Pinterest is also a form of self expression, a way to curate what you like into one page, thus broadcasting yourself to the world as a person of taste (or lack thereof, if that's your goal).
- Author: AX Mina
- Tags: Opinion, Instagram, Pinterest, The New Aesthetic, Twitter, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:51 (2012, 2013, part 1)

https://twitter.com/#!/textinstagram/status/195271200916783105

LOS ANGELES — Instagram is all about self expression, capturing a moment and sharing it with fun filters. Pinterest is also a form of self expression, a way to curate what you like into one page, thus broadcasting yourself to the world as a person of taste (or lack thereof, if that’s your goal).

And yet, scrolling through either site, I’m often struck by the similarity of different people’s modes of self-expression. Instagram in particular seems to attract common images: the concert shot, the cool sunset, the fun self-portrait with friends. You might say there’s a certain Instagram aesthetic, nudged along by the specific filters it provides for users.

That’s what I love about two new Twitter accounts, and I’m sure there are more that follow this meme. Take [@textinstagram](https://twitter.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com#!/textinstagram) a text-only Instagram account. Without pictures, it automatically evokes the classic Instagram photos. We know, *without* seeing, what we should be seeing.

https://twitter.com/#!/textinstagram/status/195897353524346881https://twitter.com/#!/textinstagram/status/195534962131337216

The same is true of [@picturelesspins](http://www.twitter.com/picturelesspins?ref=hyperallergic.com), a text-only Pinterest account:

https://twitter.com/#!/PicturelessPins/status/195972046637907968https://twitter.com/#!/PicturelessPins/status/195173911166582784

And, late to the game, [@TextBasedTumblr](http://www.twitter.com/textbasedtumblr?ref=hyperallergic.com):

https://twitter.com/#!/TextBasedTumblr/status/195961820572418049

You could say, perhaps, that Instagram in particular is defining an aesthetic — a New Aesthetic, you might call it — by which see ourselves and our world. This aesthetic is so embedded within us that we just needs words to bring it about. Which begs the question: could text-only accounts exist for other computer-enabled aesthetics?