Instagram is actually one of the few social networks which seems to be to be really easy to understand. Instagram is specifically about sharing cool photos, em

Instagram is actually one of the few social networks which seems to be to be really easy to understand. Instagram is specifically about sharing cool photos, emphasis on the cool. So you toss out the 90% of photos you took that nobody else would be interested in. It's also specifically about photos that you took, unlike things like Tumblr where people just recycle stock photos. Therefore it's actually interesting to follow a friend on Instagram. But there are a few more details that make it work. First, it encourages the use of filters. These filters have been criticized a lot for being "hipster", but let's face it -- adding strong sepia tones or making photos really high contrast tend to make people look better in photos. They block out your flaws. The use of filters on a per-photo basis also works in with what I mentioned earlier, the idea that you don't just dump all your photos on Instagram but instead specifically look only for cool ones. Second, it's simple. Facebook has become this huge, monolithic, hilariously complex and borderline incomprehensible beast. Who even knows what algorithm goes into constructing your news feed? When I go on Facebook I'm inundated with a ton of content almost none of which is "cool" -- ads, links to random videos or articles that someone I know "liked" or "shared", photo dumps, etc. Facebook is like a big family gathering where you cover up that tattoo you recently got with your sleeves, and the talk of the party has died down and now you're sitting on the sofa watching ads on the TV for products that you're not interested in, waiting for the ads to end so a show will come on that you're also not interested in.