instagram

free image sharing site available for almost any platform. owned by facebook and launched on ios in 2010. created by kevin systrom and mike krieger. popular site for an influencer to produce and share content. (see: social network)

norway now requires influencers to declare retouched photos on instagram

the black plague of today's world. the instagram stories feature quietly, without any fuss, changed all of humanity from the ground up in 2016. think back carefully: the friendships you'd made up until that day, the things you went through with your partner, everything started coming back at you in different versions after that day. today your mom, your dad, or your closest friend is gone, and their digital versions have taken their place. for a full 10 years now we've been waking up inside a horrific nightmare. this perception of the better, the most correct, the all-or-nothing keeps flexing. everyone, whether they know anything or not, is an expert on every subject. 30-second stories screwed all of humanity over. you go to a concert, you have a kid, you're a parent in your happiest moment, but none of it gives as much pleasure as that share button. all of humanity's iq is in the gutter.

you open instagram. one friend's in the maldives, sand white, sea turquoise, legs flawless. another just got promoted, champagne on the table, a motivational caption underneath. another one got married, they're dancing, the dress, the makeup, everything perfect. and you, meanwhile, are at home, slippers on your feet, tea in hand, the evening news on tv. in that moment something happens. a tightness in your stomach. you think you're unhappy. when five minutes ago you were doing just fine. this, right here, is what this app does to you.

social media is a giant stage. everyone's the lead. nobody shows what's behind the curtain. that friend in the maldives is going to be paying off the debt for six months and has no idea. the one who got promoted couldn't sleep that night out of fear of getting fired. that dancing couple had a mother-in-law meltdown a week after the wedding. but you don't see any of that. everyone shares the trailer for their life, while the full movie is always packed with the same boring details.

psychologists call this social comparison theory. you compare yourself against other people's best moments. naturally, you lose. because the material you've got is a real life, while theirs is a filtered, staged, well-lit display window. it's like looking through a bakery window and expecting to feel full. impossible.

it allows you to change its app icon to celebrate instagram's tenth birthday.

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here's an example of how it works.