I would go one step further: for me, the article has a slight undertone of a dystopian future. 'Why do you not want to share how great your life is? Why are you keeping these things to yourself? This is selfish, everyone should benefit from it!'
I hope this is not where parts of society are headed right now, but from my partial observation of people who regularly use Instagram, there is a certain validation mechanism going on. It tends to enforce/augment the 'drama level' in one's life to some extent, as even mundane events (getting an ice-cream, eating dinner...) have to be put into a relevant context ('Treating myself to a big cone after crushing the TPS reports today').
Exactly, it forces people to present their life in tiny little stories that are transparent and gratifying at a glance, and they constantly attend to that perspective on their life.
In a time when everybody had a certain number of friends, some closer than others, you could recognize that some of your friends were shallow and influencing you to have a shallow perspective on yourself, and you could keep those friends at a distance while seeking closeness with friends that had a better influence on you. Now everybody has those shallow friends with them all the time, even when they're alone. Morning, noon, night, taking a bath, sitting in a cafe with a coffee, looking at art in a gallery, going for a walk alone, the question in the back of your mind is always, "How do I present this moment to someone who will grant two seconds of attention to it, and who doesn't know me at all?"
Interesting, I didn't read it at all like that. I read it as pointing out the inherent shifts in interest when you are sharing intimate life with strangers.
I see your perspective in there as well. Maybe for me it is a function of my age; having already reached the magical 30-year mark, the urge of telling people to 'get off my lawn' gets bigger and bigger over time :-)
I hope this is not where parts of society are headed right now, but from my partial observation of people who regularly use Instagram, there is a certain validation mechanism going on. It tends to enforce/augment the 'drama level' in one's life to some extent, as even mundane events (getting an ice-cream, eating dinner...) have to be put into a relevant context ('Treating myself to a big cone after crushing the TPS reports today').