Instagram users crafted idealized visual narratives with the deliberate intent of seizing attention

Evidence

While Facebook was also a place for posting photos, and at some level presenting oneself as one would like to be seen, Instagram allowed for a seamless and more continuous visual narrative. In this way, active Instagrammers “created an Instagram life,” telling their own stories, or at least a stylized and idealized version of it, in images. If the average Facebook post showed a group of friends or a family in good times (perhaps posing with the dog, or holding up drinks at a party), Instagram’s photos would generally be more dramatic, glamorous, and often edgier, for the simple reason that they were posted with the calculated intent to seize attention and to elicit a reaction. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1045

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader book thesis about self-presentation platforms and Erving Goffman’s dramaturgy; also echoes the earlier blog-era self-branding chapters. — connects to: Social media users actively produce images rather than passively consuming them — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 272; Building an attention-grabbing Instagram feed required unpaid laborious audience-engagement work — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1047; Social media turned attention capture into mutual self-display at unprecedented scale — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1062 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Social media turned attention capture into mutual self-display at unprecedented scale #corroborates (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1062
• Instagram’s aspirational model rewarded wealth display and fraud over relatability. #qualifies (0.75) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 552
• Viewing others’ highlight reels on Facebook measurably degraded users’ mood and sense of meaning #corroborates (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1012