This is a question I am always mentally stewing over. Instagram is the image sharing platform of our time. It has democratised sharing photographs like nothing before and is available for anyone with internet access to share pictures. That’s huge. As artists flocked to Instagram in it’s early days we found ways to speak to others who enjoyed seeing our output. Sharing content didn’t require much thought and we found online communities and an engaged audience. It was fun.

However, as Instagram grew it changed its user experience design significantly and monetised itself. It started to become increasingly addictive with features that played on people’s insecurities and as more people joined, we became bombarded with digital noise that we not only heard, but that we contributed to. Now, in 2021, Instagram has 1.22 billion users (Statista, State of Digital 2021) and we have become accustomed to an endless trickle of digital comparison as normal life. But the tide is shifting. More people are starting to talk extensively about the ways in which this app is damaging us as a society, how it’s creating a mental health crisis and scraping away at our cognitive ability to concentrate.