Instagram’s aspirational model rewarded wealth display and fraud over relatability.

Evidence

Early YouTube stars found fame in being relatable, but Instagram success worked best when influencers were aspirational. Successful accounts needed to show off exceptional consumer choices or the palpable fruits of financial success. This development further incentivized two new kinds of influencers: the rich and the scammers. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 552

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds directly into the ‘omnivore monoculture’ thesis — aspirational consumerism as a flattening force in status signaling. — connects to: Instagram users crafted idealized visual narratives with the deliberate intent of seizing attention — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1045
• ADDENDUM: The ‘Instagram boyfriend’ content-production economy parallels bark-cloth and other underused labor-of-image infrastructure in the grafting essay’s worldview.