We all know that social media is both a serious addiction and a valuable tool. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are beneficial because they allow you to stay connected to individuals too distant to see on a daily basis.

The inherent qualities of these sites are geared toward connecting people and growing virtual relationships. We can rationalize hours spent living in the made up worlds these sites create because they have the noble mission of connecting people and exchanging information.
However the same can not be said for Instagram.

What is the point of Instagram? Instagram doesn’t allow the user to message long lost friends or facilitate information exchange. If I want to get in touch with an old friend I’m not going to look them up on Instagram. If I’m sick and I want to know what homework assignments I’ve missed, I’m not going to ask a friend over Instagram. So what does Instagram really have to offer?

If you think about it analytically you can see that Instagram is actually just one giant evaluation by your peers. Instagram users offer up pictures that they’ve taken of either themselves, others, or objects and wait for others to judge their post. Followers show their approval of the post by bestowing a “heart” or their disapproval of the post by ignoring it. The more “hearts” a post receives the more the owner of the post feels accepted and acknowledged by their peers.

Instagram is so popular because it fills the need of the modern teenager to feel that their opinions and ideas are validated by their classmates. By giving teens an outlet to post pictures and thoughts to be judged, Instagram feeds the crowd pleasing tendencies of teenagers. Users become obsessed with posting pictures not for themselves but for others in order to gain their approval.

A picture’s worth becomes dependent not upon the viewers own opinion but on its ability to get “hearts.” Instagram is like a small town where all the inhabitants spend the day giving heart stickers to those that they approved and ignoring those they don’t. These townspeople rate their neighbors based on their own opinions or prejudices. From an objective view we can see the this imaginary town’s practice of community evaluation is an unhealthy practice and a nonsensical waste of time.

However when we spend hours on a virtual site both “hearting” pictures we like and ignoring those we don’t, we’re participating in the same peer evaluations as the inhabitants of the imaginary town participate in.

Instagram is not the only site that is fueled by peer evaluation, but it’s one of the only sites without any other redeeming qualities. I’m not claiming that Instagram is a complete menace to society and should be boycotted, but I do believe that Instagram users should reflect on the amount of time they put into rating their peers and the amount of credence they give to the ratings they’ve attained from others.

In the grand scheme of things no one was remembered for having 120 “hearts” on their pictures or having a favorable followers to following ratio. Instagram may be a fun waste of time, but in the end, all Instagram successes are as meaningless.