Saving you from selfies

A friend once described Instagram, the photo-sharing social network, as "a superb tool for generating envy, by showing you snapshots of people at their most interested while you are at your most bored." If you will follow people who post pictures of their face repeatedly then this could very well be the case - but it doesn't have to be that way. Although the temptation of face photo-sharing made easy has attracted millions to Instagram, there are people out there sharing much more interesting things, showing us more of the world and less of themselves:

• National Geographic (@natgeo) shares images from all over the world posted by its photographers on assignment. It's a great combination of natural wonders and human interest, without being as clichéd as either of those phrases, with lots of variety because there are so many contributors
• NASA (@nasa) expands your vision even further - to the limits of the known universe! The occasional astronaut selfie does pop up but that's forgiveable when they have the entire planet in the background.
• David Guttenfelder (@dguttenfelder) is presently in America but often visits North Korea. I've learnt more about that strange place from him than anyone else.
• Ditto Michael Christopher Brown (@michaelchristopherbrown) and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Dirk Bakker (@macenzo) specialises in finding patterns in Amsterdam's architecture.
• Rob Lutter (@roblutter) is cycling around the world and taking photos as he goes.
• Dylan Furst (@fursty) seems to live in a forest in America, where he processes his shots in a way that makes them look like nothing else.
• Humans of New York (@humansofny) asks great questions and gets great portraits.
• Kieran Kesner (@kierankesner) is another portraitist who goes deep.
• Ruairidh McGlynn (@ruairidhmcglynn) spends most of his time in the mountains of Scotland.
• Rodrigo Prieto (@rpstam) is a cinematographer and his photos prove it.