---
title: "Thoughts on Instagram"
url: https://perrotta.dev/2015/03/thoughts-on-instagram/
last_updated: 2026-03-03
---


**Note:** this is a brief article which exposes my opinion about a free web
service.

For a long time I refrained myself from creating an Instagram account for some
reasons. Those reasons are not much different for the delayed birth of my
Facebook profile. Let's talk a little about them and discuss if they were or not
valid:

**A. Too mainstream**: yeah, Instagram is pop. One of the top downloads of
smartphones app stores nowadays. So what, you just stop using a service just
because it is mainstream, and period? No, no, no. But...for every mainstream
service, caution is needed.

**A.1 Privacy**: Most accounts from people I currently follow on Instagram are
public by default (neverthless, this is the default setting of Instagram). Not
cool, dude, not cool. This is a short essay and you probably know what I would
talk here, so let's be **brief** : most of those people are either not concerned
or don't know what the problem of this deliberate practice might cause them a
day.

**A.2 Did you read its terms of service?** Photos are stored forever in there
(in principle), even after you delete them. And what one person – for example,
either a complete stranger or the company behind Instagram itself – could to
with them? So many things. The most common underrated example is: selling them
-- plus information associated with them – to other companies, so they can (for
example) better target ads to you. This is not simply a matter of ads: it also
creates a bigger and bigger bubblein which you get stuck.

I'm just posting random photos in there, so I don't care. But hey, look at other
people profiles. They post photos about themselves all the time. $$$$oooooo many
data...one more thing, remember: Instagram was created exactly for this purpose:
you are encouraged to use it just from your phone (not from the web), and there
is a big "shoot photo" button. While you can upload photos to it manually
(instead of shooting and submitting them there directly), this is not encouraged
**by design**. So hey, a big database of public photos of Bob and Alice,
available 24/7.

**Remember**: when the service is free, **YOU** are the product (author needed).

So, is maintreamness a problem? That depends on you.

**B.**A social network **represents** what **most** of its users make from it.
And...what most (I repeat: most) users use Instagram for? For **bragging**.
That's it. You might try to argue it is different, but it is not. One could say
this is human nature, but if it is, then I find it pretty sad. I always had this
suspicion, but only after creating an Instagram account I could confirm it. So
what? Pretty simple: I'll just delete the app from my smartphone. I won't delete
my account because I may need it in the future (don't forget: people post data;
data might become valuable anytime later on). However, if you find bragging cool
(I'm not judging, just stating that I don't like this), then Instagram is
probably the perfect social network for you. It is even better than Facebook
(actually, it supersedes it; you can automatically make every new photo of yours
appear on Facebook automatically, yay!) in this sense.

**C. Design**: despite the previous item, I have to say something: I appreciate
the engineering and the design of the service. Engineering? Well, I previously
said the service is consumed by many people, millions of them, and yet it has a
very good response time. Design? Yeah, the app and the service are very well
written and conceived. UX is amazing, the app is pretty much intuitive and easy
for newcomers to learn it. And it follows the Unix philosophy as a bonus: "do
    one thing and do it well" ==> photo sharing. ATM I don't know about the
    team, but I would probably be very happy if I worked in a successful service
    and ecosystem like it.

**Conclusion** : of course I generalized a few things[^1], but I believe they
are not far from the truth. This was a brief overview about Instagram, there are
no right or wrong conclusions: you think what you want and use it as you wish.
Have a nice day.

[^1]: Just bragging? Oh no. There are some artists and brands out there. They
    win real money from their visibility on the $ocial network.