Instagram Makes Social Media Feel More Productive and Positive
Close your eyes and answer this question: If your husband is going to be staring at a computer screen for two hours every evening, would you rather he were obsessively checking Twitter to see if there were any new grains of information on the disappearance of flight MH730 and retweeting every amateur pilot/geographer’s hunch that appears in his timeline (you’re not going to find the plane on Twitter, dude–step away from the computer and go to bed); OR he were trying to find the perfect filter for a pretty decent photo he took of the dog looking guilty after eating a pair of your panties? One option brings more fear and paranoia into a world already brimming with fear and paranoia. The other brings a picture of a Lab/German Shepherd mix with a black thong stuck between his teeth into the world. To me, the answer of what the world needs more of is pretty obvious.
It’s Harder to Feel Weird About Other Each Other’s Families on Instagram
Your Uncle Clyde isn’t posting any conspiracy theories about Zionists, Papa John, and the Colorado River Compact of 1922 on Instagram–he’s just taking pictures of his cat and the barn. First-person photography is a fairly difficult way to make inflammatory political or cultural statements. Even if someone you love manages to sneak some crazy into a photo they took, you’re more likely to sit back and admire their creativity or use of light than you would be if they just carelessly reposted something horrible on Facebook without realizing it came from a white supremacist website. On Instagram, it’s less likely that a family member will infuriate you and/or your partner to the point where you are forced to argue about whose family you’re going to spend Easter with.
