What Does Instagram Want?

Looking at the features of Instagram might be a way to begin talking about how we function and converse with this technology. And of course, ultimately how it works with the human experience of searching for validation.

First, I think that one of the most important attributes about it is that it only lives on your smart phone. You can access your account on a computer, change features such as privacy and bio information, but you cannot look at photos, not even your own. So it is social media app that does not want to be sedentary. It begs to be on the go. It wants you to take pictures as you are moving, traveling, experiencing.

 

And some may find it strange to word that sentence in such a way that suggests that Instagram could “want” anything. I borrow this rhetoric straight from Kevin Kelly, the cofounder of Wired, and his book What Technology Wants. Kelly argues that technology has wants, no matter how unconscious they may be. He says that, “want does not mean thoughtful decisions…Its mechanical wants are not carefully considered deliberations but rather tendencies. Leanings. Urges. Trajectories.” (Kelly, pg.16-17.) Whether or not you completely agree with Kelly, I believe that you can still talk about Instagram’s wants in what it asks you to do.

Instagram has five primary navigation buttons. The first is the home page, where you get a linear stream of photos of people that you follow. You can like and comment on photos, much the same way as Facebook. The second, is the explore button. This is the popular page and displays what are the most liked photos by other Instagram users. So not only does Instagram want you to explore in the tangible world, it wants you to explore around in the virtual Instagram world as well. The third button is the camera link, where you can create Instagram photos from either your phone’s camera or photo gallery. The fourth button is the news feature. This has two tabs, “Following” and “You.” The first lets you see what the people you are following are doing, such as what pictures they liked, who they started following, and even if one of your Facebook friends has created an Instagram account. Facebook bought out Instagram last year. Before then there was even talk about Facebook starting a photo filter option on its own site.

Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram function under the idea the more people that you are connected to, the better. Instagram wants more people to see your photos, and you want to give it more photos for people to look at it. Each time that you get an notification that someone new is following you or someone else liked your photo, it’s like Instagram is giving you a little validation cookie. The second tab on the news button gives you a list of these notifications.

The last button is your own personal profile. Here you are able to view your pictures in two options, either as linear timeline or on a grid. I like to think of the grid like a network, a visual representation of connectedness that sites like Instagram gives you.

I mentioned on my first post that Instagram has a feature called Geotag that can place where you are uploading your Instagram photos from. Recently this featured was replaced, or upgraded to a photomap. This still allows you to share where your photos were uploaded but now it places them on virtual map of the world. Once again, Instagram wants you to travel and it wants you to record your experience through it.

I started using Instagram this summer when I was traveling abroad to Morocco, Turkey, and Sri Lanka. It was interesting to begin to think about not only wanting to record your experience, but also thinking about how others would view your experience. Personally, I did feel validated in regards to my trip when someone would comment or like one of my photos.

We are connected to the grid. Even across oceans and miles away from home, we are conditioned to feel that our experiences are more validated when we are sharing them with others.