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As we become promoters of our own lives in the digital realm, new social dilemmas emerge. (At this point, they may not be so new, but they are still challenging to navigate.)

In this solitary post (the first and only one on the blog), the author reflects on the situation where someone posts photos of themselves on Instagram, and a third party, known to both, becomes aware of their gathering:

Over the past few months, it has struck me multiple times how people know more about my life than I tell them or likely hear from others. Like: where we travelled last weekend and with whom. How can they know? Instagram. A post from someone else on that trip about that trip. Of course. You don’t have to be on Instagram, to be on instagram.

How do you meet the expectations of such a diverse audience, even if it consists of people from your own circle? Travel photos or pictures from a party are interpreted differently by your family, friends, coworkers, and boss.

I believe there are two paths: ignore the consequences (sociopathy?) or “pasteurize” the content in an attempt to please everyone (impossible, but you can get close).

And even then, you can’t escape other dilemmas:

Imagine a friend you were on a weekend trip with. This friend talks with another common friend. This common friend could have equally well been on that weekend trip because you like him or her but, due to circumstances, as is life, you did not invite him. You probably would feel uncomfortable with that first friend talking about that trip as if it was the most awesome trip ever, that everyone had non-stop fun and now everyone who was on that trip are best friends for life.

Yet this is the kind of impression an Instagram post or story typically evokes. It’s probably the content most of the first friends’ followers love to see. Except for maybe the few people who wonder why you didn’t ask them to join the trip.

They proposes, as a solution, a new etiquette that disapproves of posting about social gatherings beyond those involved. Instead of sharing a story for all followers on Instagram, one could restrict it to “close friends” or even share it in a group on WhatsApp/Signal.

No Instagram, no privacy
blog.wouterjanleys.com

Behavioral changes have been happening at such a rapid pace that patterns and assumptions that were common one or two decades ago completely elude me. W. David Marx’s article reminded me of one of them: the aversion to the mainstream, or the idea of not being a “sellout.”

In the last three decades, youth culture has moved from a deep suspicion of commerce to a passionate defense of anti-anti-commerce to an entire generation of “creatives” who leverage the commercial market… to do even more commerce

At what point did becoming a salesperson on Instagram (aka an influencer) become a life goal, a childhood dream? Or working proudly for large corporations? When did the all-consuming nature of mass-produced, canned culture (the “franchises”) take over the imagination of the masses?

The 20^th century taboo against selling out was, at its heart, a communal norm to reward young artists who focused on craft and punish those who appropriated art and subculture for empty profiteering. Now the culture is most exemplified by people whose entire end goal appears to be empty profiteering.

Any hypothesis?

The age of the double sell-out (em inglês)
culture.ghost.io