Every morning, Dirk Dallas takes a trip around the world. With his own eyes, he studies artful, real-time images of life in New York, Paris and Hong Kong. But Dallas, a graphic designer, doesn't actually leave his Riverside, California, neighborhood, or even his front door. He just needs his phone and a digital portal called Instagram. "It's like taking a vacation every day," said Dallas. "Instagram is different than any other social network I've been on." The freedom to share and connect with users across the globe is big part of what keeps Dallas coming back to Instagram, the wildly popular mobile photo sharing app, again and again. It's that same appeal, Dallas figures, which led to Facebook's stunning purchase of Instagram this week -- the single largest acquisition in that social network's 8-year history.
@highlight
Facebook bought photo sharing app Instagram for $1 billion on Monday
@highlight
Instagram racked up more than 35 million registered downloads in just 18 months
@highlight
But many users worry that Facebook will kill what's wonderful about the app
"The problem with my @placeholder is it's all over the place," Kashani said.