VSCO, a software created in 2011, is primarily used for editing images to post on other social media platforms. Increasingly, Marlborough students are beginning to use the app’s publishing abilities as an alternative or supplement to Instagram.

The platform itself differs from Instagram because the two apps’ individual features vary. While Instagram allows individuals to view the amount of likes and comments an image has and the amount of followers a profile has, VSCO does not have these features.

“I like the fact that VSCO doesn’t show how many followers and likes people have because everyone gets caught up in all of that stuff,” Arianna ’21 said.

In a survey sent out to Marlborough students, 52% of the 184 respondents said they use VSCO.  Betsy ’21, who has edited Instagram images with VSCO since seventh grade, said at the end of the summer she began to use VSCO to share photos with friends.

“I don’t know if I necessarily prefer one [Instagram or VSCO] over the other,” Betsy ’21 said, “but I don’t think that as many people look at VSCO in comparison to how many look at Instagram, so I feel more at liberty to post whatever I want and I don’t have to worry about what people will think of it.”

VSCO is more geared toward the world of photography, an art that Maddy ’21 takes particular interest in.

“VSCO is fun if you’re into photography. You can edit pictures. If you take pictures on a digital camera, you can upload them on your laptop and then edit them on VSCO,” Maddy said.

Betsy agrees, “It’s  kind of a different culture than Instagram.” In terms of VSCO’s benefits, Betsy said, “I also think it is a bit more of a window into people’s real lives than Instagram.”