Fuck, I'm starting to see, why Instagram is working so well exactly, where FB is failing so hard.
@NEETzsche
Everyone who knows you wants to be your friend on FB. Then people comment, share comments, and then start arguing.
Instagram is based around sharing pics of highlights of your day. That makes a much more positive environment. The moment I shared a pic, I got immediate response from close friends.
So, I guess
1) different point of focus from text to pics, that push you to follow with DMs instead of comments.
2) The way sharing is almost hidden, and friends posts being always on top makes it much more personal.
I have literally re-started several friendships in a single week. It is a fragile balance that I am sure is hard to understand completely, but these small changes do in fact change the feeling and function of the network completely.
Good analysis. Yes. The way software is structured, centralized or otherwise, does impact the use of that software, and its culture. I had this idea independently like ten years ago but sort of stopped bringing it up because that idea came off as like too much of an academic thesis to keep people interested in conversations.
One of the big comparisons I made was between 4chan and Facebook, actually. Anonymous imageboards have a couple of features that make them feel like some kind of Jungian cacophony. Those two features being the anonymity (nobody but law enforcement knows who you are) and transience (creating a new thread, ends another thread, the one on the “bottom”)
So yes. Focusing on images, rather than text? And this produces fewer debates/arguments? I can totally see that. It makes perfect sense.