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The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

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Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#31

Post by agent008t »

grkvlt wrote: post #20
goshx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an attempt to appear unique, everyone ends up doing the same thing. Instagram is just a reflection of what society does in real life. This is visible in fashion, hair styles, beard, and whatever is the trend now. I personally don’t understand why so many people have this need to look like their peers. Does anyone with more social skills have an explanation?

It's pretty simple, and really not caused by people attempting to appear unique. There are two main factors: 1. All humans has a need to be accepted and approved of by their peers, 2. Humans also have an essentially identical neural architecture and a very similar set of likes and preferences to their peers. This results in groups of people with similar habits, clothes, and so on. The vast majority of humans normally…

But take computer games, for instance. The main character (or any important character) is usually very different from everyone around them. Both in the way they act, but also the way they look. Nobody wants to play as the NPC.

To me, that applies to real life as well. But it would seem that a lot of people want to stand out in a video game/movie/book etc., but conform in real life?

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#32

Post by itronitron »

goshx wrote: post #11
theoh wrote: post #5

Trust HN commenters to call into question the (perfectly reasonable) premise of the article. The fact that Instagram is visual, not drably textual like HN, shouldn't really prevent anyone from discerning the fact that there's a significant amount of imitation, cliché, and trendy conformity in the images people post.

In an attempt to appear unique, everyone ends up doing the same thing. Instagram is just a reflection of what society does in real life. This is visible in fashion, hair styles, beard, and whatever is the trend now. I personally don’t understand why so many people have this need to look like their peers. Does anyone with more social skills have an explanation?

I doubt that people posting these images are trying to be unique, they are chasing status.

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#34

Post by azeotropic »

agent008t wrote: post #31
grkvlt wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty simple, and really not caused by people attempting to appear unique. There are two main factors: 1. All humans has a need to be accepted and approved of by their peers, 2. Humans also have an essentially identical neural architecture and a very similar set of likes and preferences to their peers. This results in groups of people with similar habits, clothes, and so on. The vast majority of humans normally…

But take computer games, for instance. The main character (or any important character) is usually very different from everyone around them. Both in the way they act, but also the way they look. Nobody wants to play as the NPC. To me, that applies to real life as well. But it would seem that a lot of people want to stand out in a video game/movie/book etc., but conform in real life?

There are obvious disadvantages to being the PC -- your life is not stable or safe. In real life, there are no save points. It's not so surprising that people live real life as an NPC, but fantasize about the excitement of being a PC, and consume media that allows them to indulge that fantasy without risk.

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#35

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #19
CydeWeys wrote: post #2

How many millions of people are posting on Instagram? How many billions of photos are on Instagram now? Is it really so crazy to think that all of those billions of photos, you can find groupings of 12 that are similarly composed? How many unique photos are there to take really? I'd be way more impressed if you could somehow come up with a set of a billion photos such that there are no compositional groupings across…

I read one bit of utopian fiction where the propagation of digital production was limited to a nearby social circle. That way, people weren't constantly comparing their photographs with the best photographer in the world, or their musical compositions with the best musician in the world. People would specialize and create things, but for the benefit of their social circle, not the entire world. I wonder if something…

It's easy enough to create a private profile on Instagram and only post things for the benefit of your close friends. I have an account for exactly this purpose.

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#37

Post by mercer »

adventured wrote: post #12
Sophistifunk wrote: post #6

How is this alarming? Who gives a toss if people who want to be "influencers" are all doing the same thing? Frankly it makes it easier for the humans to ignore them.

The author is struggling with the fact that humans are overwhelmingly a mimicry bunch. Personally I don't think there's anything wrong with it, it's the only way there can be billions of people. The automation & cloning process when it comes to personality, choices, behavior, likes, dislikes, etc. saves an incredible amount of time at scale. 30 minutes spent reading comments on Reddit or Imgur for example reveals tha…

Reminds me of the XKCD experiment of an IRC channel that kicks you if your sentence isn't unique:

https://blog.xkcd.com/2008/01/14/robot9000-and-xkcd-signal-a...

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#38

Post by mercer »

grkvlt wrote: post #20
goshx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an attempt to appear unique, everyone ends up doing the same thing. Instagram is just a reflection of what society does in real life. This is visible in fashion, hair styles, beard, and whatever is the trend now. I personally don’t understand why so many people have this need to look like their peers. Does anyone with more social skills have an explanation?

It's pretty simple, and really not caused by people attempting to appear unique. There are two main factors: 1. All humans has a need to be accepted and approved of by their peers, 2. Humans also have an essentially identical neural architecture and a very similar set of likes and preferences to their peers. This results in groups of people with similar habits, clothes, and so on. The vast majority of humans normally…

Related to 2: sellers actively exploit our preferences, which probably creates a feedback loop where we buy the same kinds of clothes, accessories, etc.

I'll add a third, more mundane option, somewhat related to 2: default behavior. I think we generally prefer to do whatever takes the least amount of effort, and comforming is generally easier than the alternative.

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#39

Post by mercer »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #36
Gatsky wrote: post #24

I for one am utterly amazed that a social media platform does not actually foster creativity and originality. What.A.Surprise

One could say the same about HN comments. ;)

Congratulations! I tried to be clever and find this exact comment, but somewhat surprisingly yours is unique!

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#40

Post by goshx »

grkvlt wrote: post #20
goshx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an attempt to appear unique, everyone ends up doing the same thing. Instagram is just a reflection of what society does in real life. This is visible in fashion, hair styles, beard, and whatever is the trend now. I personally don’t understand why so many people have this need to look like their peers. Does anyone with more social skills have an explanation?

It's pretty simple, and really not caused by people attempting to appear unique. There are two main factors: 1. All humans has a need to be accepted and approved of by their peers, 2. Humans also have an essentially identical neural architecture and a very similar set of likes and preferences to their peers. This results in groups of people with similar habits, clothes, and so on. The vast majority of humans normally…

> Also, anyone who claims not to understand this is either lying, engaging in some form of virtue signalling or has some sort of mental illness.

Let’s assume you are right and there are only these three possibilities, what kind of mental illness would you suggest I have?

Since I was a little kid it never appealed to me to do what most of my friends were doing just because they were doing it.

A fourth option would be that I never cared about it enough to actually look for the reasons.

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