No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram

by Sarah Frier

Now that the products are adopted by a critical mass of the world’s internet-connected population, it becomes easier to describe them not by what they say they are, but by what they measure: Facebook is for getting likes, YouTube is for getting views, Twitter is for getting retweets, Instagram is for getting followers.

As Instagram grew, so did the set of people willing to take money in exchange for posting about their outfits, vacations, or beauty routines, choosing their “favorite” brands with financial incentive to do so.

Sponsorship deals or not, everyone on Instagram was selling in some way. They were selling an aspirational version of themselves, turning themselves into brands, benchmarking their metrics against those of their peers.

The most famous instance of Instagram deception started with a bold influencer campaign and ended with a New York–based hustler sentenced to six years in prison. It was called the Fyre Festival.

The most dangerous case of false expectations centers around the Brazilian butt lift. The BBL procedure was performed on more than 20,000 people in the U.S. in 2017 by board-certified surgeons, up from 8,500 in 2012, and, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, was the hottest growing plastic surgery procedure in 2018. Inspired by Kim Kardashian, a BBL involves a surgeon sucking out fat from one’s stomach or thighs and injecting it into their buttocks, for a body type that appeals on Instagram. The results can even be deadly if the fat cells get injected into the gluteal muscle.

“My reach is crazy low and it’s falling. There are a lot of people out there who don’t realize that these pods exist, who think their art is bad, or their photography is worse than it is, because they’re not playing the game.” Instagram’s solution, for anyone who asks, is to post better content—an answer that ignores how the app’s system has been gamed.

All of this perfection and commercial work masquerading as regular content has a price: a feeling of inadequacy for users who don’t understand the mechanics behind the scenes.