Todd Gardiner – Instagram
Scotland. London. Australia. He has been to it all, seen it all, and all for one reason: photography.

“Instagram inspired me to be a photographer, invest in photography and start a business so now I work with companies, intern and travel,” Todd Gardiner, senior, said.

Gardiner got into Instagram two years ago, when a friend started an account for him as a joke.
“I like it because it brings together a community of creative people and people who maybe aren’t creative, but can be,” he said. “It’s really helped me see things in a different way.”

A typical photoshoot for him includes exploring abandoned buildings and taking photos of street art.
“I think I contribute a more decorative way of viewing St. Louis,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know about downtown. They know it’s there but they don’t know what it looks like.”

While Gardiner doesn’t have many followers, he does run the Instagram for a company that has more than 12,000 followers. His photography career started when he interned with someone his dad knew.

“I built up my portfolio, submitted it to him, he liked what he said, trained me and then hired me on his crew,” he said.

With his job, Gardiner doesn’t plan on going to college. After graduation, he will go on a five-month trip to India to take photos and help rural villages.

“Anything I do with photography now, I have to thank Instagram for because it got me started,” he said.

Suegol Sadri – Twitter
With 929 followers and counting, Suegol Sadri, junior, is considered by many to be Twitter-savvy. Despite her off-and-on social media presence, she has accumulated a vast range of twitter followers over a period of six years.

Mainly spending her time online during her self-proclaimed “slap-happy moods,” Sadri’s fans have found her Twitter to be more of a “stream-of-consciousness” blog than the usual teen.

In sixth grade Sadri found Twitter was the “new thing” so she instantly made an account and followed the few amount of friends that also had Twitter.

“Twitter impacts me because I can always see what people are thinking or doing. I get caught up in reading Twitter fights and can’t put my phone down,” Sadri said.

Sadri never catches herself tweeting emotional things, only things that come across her mind that she wants to share with the Twitter universe.

“I tweet mostly words and not pictures, but when I do tweet pictures, I make sure I come up with a funny or clever caption for them,” Sadri said.

The only aspect of Twitter Sadri would change is how people can be private.

“It’s annoying when you can’t retweet someone’s tweet because they are private,” Sadri said.

Sadri usually tweets every couple days, and plans on still tweeting all the way through college.
“I will probably have Twitter until it becomes the next Myspace,” she said.

Erica Chang – Tumblr
Tumblr famous, Erica Chang, sophomore, said her blog is a compilation of artsy photography.

“My Tumblr is a bunch of pictures and stuff that I find pretty,” Chang said. “They’re not my own photos, but I reblog them.

Chang said she has a cue running with anywhere from 200 to 500 photos

“I started getting into tumblr in 2013,” Chang said. “That’s when I used to just reblog, kind of like a retweet on twitter.

Chang said she appreciates the social justice issues that circulate on tumblr, such as racial equality and feminism.

“Although sometimes it can be a little blown over, I really like being exposed to all of that information,” Chang said. “Right now I have 42,000 followers and I’m about to hit 43,000. I just post and a lot of famous people reblog me and that’s how people find me.

Chang’s tumblr is aesthetically based around sunset views and nature

“I started reblogging more and I met a few people and we shout each other out so that we can help each other.”

Chang said that tumblr has opened her eyes to ideas and issues that are different from the way she grew up. However, Chang said she doesn’t know how much longer she’ll keep her tumblr.

I planned on just getting rid of my tumblr, but I really just can’t let it go,” Chang said. “I get kind of annoyed of it sometimes, but I keep it anyway.”