Facebook 's purchase on Monday of the photo-sharing app Instagram had the Internet asking one question : . Will the Goliath of social networking make Instagram so uncool or so Facebook-y that it dies off entirely ? Immediately after the reported $ 1 billion purchase was announced , some digi-pundits were already rushing to say just that -- with plenty offering advice on how Instagram users can delete their accounts and all of the photos they 've uploaded with the app . Some cited Facebook-related privacy concerns . That line of thinking goes like this : Instagram , a mobile network where people share filter-altered , hipster-y photos with friends , feels small and intimate . By contrast , Facebook feels too big and tries harder to profit off of the data its users submit to the site . Here are a couple tweets to that effect : . @ thisbrokenwheel : `` Well , I guess I 'll be spending the evening deleting ALL of my posted photos from @ Instagram . Hate Facebook 's creepy privacy issues . '' @ sinabhfuil : `` Must delete Instagram from my phone ; do n't want any sneaking doorways into Facebook privacy grabs '' Will Facebook 's purchase help or hurt Instagram ? Share thoughts . As CNNMoney writes , Instagram had n't monetized its app : `` Instagram is a free app and does n't charge for any of its services . The company 's founders insisted that would come in time , once they 'd built a sizeable user base . '' The tech blog TheNextWeb posted instructions for users to delete their entire Instagram accounts , just so Facebook ca n't get its hands on any data about their relationships on Instagram or on the photos they 've submitted through the app . `` There is no guarantee that Facebook will be using the data gathered by Instagram but we would n't bet against it in a million years , '' that blog writes . Others think the app will become far less cool under Facebook 's care : . @ TheCBurns : `` What was once great is now crap . '' `` A lot of users will stop using Instagram , '' predicted CNN iReporter Aline Alencar of Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , who posted a photo protesting the Facebook takeover . And there was quite a bit of non-analytical digital freakout happening : . `` Nooooooooooooooo ! '' @ _VickiV wrote . Another Twitter user said the app wo n't die , but it will wane in popularity over time : . @ jameshritz : `` For me , I wo n't ever delete or quit , it will just be a process of gradual abandonment ( probably take a few months ) ... '' Still others are waiting for more details . In a posting on his Facebook page , CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook will let Instagram operate as an `` independent '' entity -- albeit one that is owned by his social networking company . Instagram 's 30 million-plus users still will be able to post photos to various online social networks , he said . That feature is one hallmark of Instagram , and another reason it became so popular , particularly in tech early adopter circles . With a single click , users can share photos on Twitter , Facebook , Flickr , Foursquare , Posterous and Tumblr . `` We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience , '' Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page . `` We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks , the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want , and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook . `` These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that . We will try to learn from Instagram 's experience to build similar features into our other products . At the same time , we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook 's strong engineering team and infrastructure . '' Color filters in the app also make anyone 's mobile-phone photos look instantly more professional and vintage . In comments on Zuckerberg 's post , plenty of Facebook users appeared to be thrilled about the integration . `` This is damn interesting ! ! BIG NEWS ! , '' one user wrote . `` Woah ... so cool ! Great news for Instagramers + Facebookers : ) '' another said . Here 's perhaps the most compelling comment on that post , as it hints at the increased popularity Instagram could see as it joins up with a network that is expected to hit 1 billion people this year : . `` Now I do n't have to explain what Instagram is to my Mom . I can just say 'It 's Facebook ! ' '' one Facebook user wrote .
Facebook buys Instagram , the mobile photo-sharing app , for $ 1 billion . Digital pundits worry Instagram could lose its cool . The photo-sharing app is popular with tech early adopters . It lets users apply color filters to photos and share them on multiple networks .