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Deep Analysis Of Instagram (you will delete it after reading this... hopefully)

Social media marketing, advertising, and growth

TheRealKD

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I decided to share my deep analysis of social media (mainly Instagram). This was written long ago in my iNotes but I decided to share it because it may help others significantly. By the way, this is related to Hyperreality #4: Hyper-personality from UNSCRIPTED . Please note that this analysis is about using Instagram for personal purposes, not business purposes.
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Deep Research and Analysis Of Social Media
Main Social Media Platform: Instagram


Biggest Negatives Of Instagram (Summary):
  • 100+ negatives and almost 0 benefits of using Instagram for personal purposes (different than business purposes)
  • wastes time & significantly interferes with short-term and long-term goals (you can never get back time)
  • checking up on people’s lives for no reason instead of levelling up yourself = super waste
  • changes your brain negatively through neuroplasticity (worst)
  • hurts short-term and long-term ability to focus
  • hurts short-term and long-term attention span
  • hurts short-term and long-term ability to be productive
  • hurts short-term and long-term ability to sustain concentration
  • huge negative cognitive effects in the long-term
  • hurts dopamine receptors in your brain
  • interacting in a fake, unrealistic, fantasy world where only 1-2% is real, 98-99% is fake
  • am I making more money for myself or am I just making Instagram money?
What You Will Miss Out On If Deleted:
  • subconscious comparison to fake lives and a fake reality
  • subconscious false-estimation of your social status in the social hierarchy
  • gossip
  • memes
  • funny videos
  • info on people’s lives
  • narcissists (“me, me, me, look at me, look what I’m doing”)
  • rare important news
  • the feeling of “FOMO” and being lonely
  • worrying about what other people are doing = HUGE waste of time
  • possible sexual interactions
  • short-term entertainment and humour (dopamine)
  • Instagram models and “soft porn”
Biggest Benefits Of Deleting Instagram:
  • saving TIME (can never get it back)
  • more TIME to:
    • achieve my goals
    • level up bank account
    • level up business
    • level up health/body/mind
    • level up real relationships
    • level up happiness and fulfillment
  • improved attention span
  • improved focus
  • improved deep work ability
  • increase in productivity
  • increase in happiness
  • spending attention wisely
  • spending time wisely
  • accelerated path to achieving goals
  • AND PREVENTING ALL NEGATIVES MENTIONED

  1. Bill Gates & Warren Buffets #1 Word & Secret For Success = Focus
  2. Biggest Obstacle To Success = Opposite of Focus
  3. Opposite of Focus = Distraction
  4. Biggest Distraction = Your Phone + Social Media + Other People
Instagram Users + App:
  • people show the rare 98% of their life (highlight reel)
  • people show fake happiness and fulfillment
  • this causes a fear of missing out
  • this causes comparison, which is the #1 source of unhappiness in humans
  • worst part: comparison to unrealistic and fake reality/world where people only show their best and brightest moments
  • similar to watching a 2-minute highlight video of a 90-minute soccer game
  • constantly checking your social hierarchal status on a fake social network
  • huge suffering from contrast bias and comparison to a fake reality
  • #1 source of unhappiness: comparison
    • “Don’t worry about what anybody else is doing. Focus on yourself. Life-long habit of not worrying about anybodies life.”
    • "The people who care less about what other people think about them tend to have a better life.”- Gary Vaynerchuk
    • “Social media has created jealous behaviour over illusions. Some of you are envious of things, relationships, and lifestyles that don’t even exist.”
    • worrying about what other people are doing = HUGE waste of time
  • study shows that 60% of Instagram posts are selfies (6 out of 10 posts)
  • selfies = “me, me, me, me, me, me, look at me, look what I’m doing”
  • 98% of things are fake/unrealistic on Instagram
  • Instagram is a highlight-reel, everybody shows the 2% of rare highlights in their lives
  • nobody shows their real self-image on social media
  • ex. girls take 60 pictures to find 1 that looks the best
View Elon Musk Video: http://instagr.am/p/BngoVcPg9Ek/

View Diddy Video: http://instagr.am/p/BeGGTIEAuRT/



Instagram Users:
  • the most active people on Instagram are the ones who have a lot of psychological problems
  • the 70% of people in the world with psychological problems can mostly be found on Instagram
  • Instagram is full of narcissists
  • High Narcissism people
  • High Machiavellian people
  • High Psychopathy people
  • Instagram is the absolute BEST environment for:
    • high narcissism people
    • high proud/pride
    • posers and fake people (high narcissism and high mack)
  • very easy to fake a life/lifestyle
    • ex. fyre festival
    • ex. people paying Instagram picture studios in a private jet
    • ex. fake “entrepreneurs”
  • the users of the app are not to blame because it’s basic human psychology; blame the engineers and developers and people that are profiting from our attention and psychological tendencies (Instagram/Mark Zuckerberg)
Instagram App:
  • designed by the SMARTEST people who understand human psychology and behaviour
  • designed to take as much ATTENTION as possible from you per day
  • their intelligence = millions of dollars for Instagram.. they’re smart
  • social media and Instagram is constructed around envy and increases envy
  • Jealousy: sometimes motivational jealousy
  • Envy: social frustration and seeking the worst for people
  • Envy and Jealousy encourages repeat app opens and stalking (spending more time)
  • Love and Happiness DOES NOT encourage repeat app opens and stalking, the developers know this
  • Facebook engineers admitted that they built ADDICTION into the platforms by fostering negative emotions and pathology (envy, jealousy, etc.)
  • literally designed to be addictive and designed for compulsive checking and attention- addictive curiosity
  • similar to the slot machine at casinos
  • THE NEED TO CHECK YOUR PHONE = an addiction (not normal)
Instagram and Dopamine:
  • social media gets you to react (short-term dopamine)
  • short term dopamine driven feedback loops = detrimental to brain
  • negative neuroplasticity and significantly hurts dopamine receptors
  • you are being programmed to change your brain in a positive way for Instagram and a negative way for yourself
  • Instagram developers leverage this dopamine to get your addicted
26387

There Will Be 2 Groups of Human Psychology In The World Soon:
  1. People Who Use Social Media
  2. People Who Don’t Use Social Media

  • both lives will be significantly different
  • both psychologies will be significantly different
  • it will be the biggest binary group in the world
  • people with social media will have the most psychological problems
  • people without social media will have the least psychological problems
  • similar to 75% of the world having a disease and 25% being healthy
Instagram Brain Effects and All Negative Effects:
  • Instagram Changes Your Brain Through Neuroplasticity
  • Focus, Attention Span, Productivity, Time
    • decreases attention span significantly
    • decreases ability to focus significantly
    • you lose your ability to sustain concentration (neuroplasticity)
    • changes your brain
    • hurts productivity significantly
    • time-killer
    • creates compulsive checking habit
    • constantly checking phone = fragmented attention = neuroplasticity = can permanently hurt long-term ability to sustain attention and focus
    • hurts dopamine receptors in your brain
  • Socially
    • makes you less social
    • hurts social skills and fakes social life
    • decreases self-esteem
    • decreases happiness due to comparison
    • limits face to face interactions
    • creates a “FOMO” and makes you believe that you’re out of the loop
    • social media makes you feel lonely on Friday and Saturday nights cause people are posting their highlights but never Monday or Sunday
What Instagram Usually Gets Used For:
  • social positioning in the hierarchy
  • competition
  • information collecting
  • sexual purposes
  • social life
Instagram & Mark Zuckerberg HOPE FOR:
  • lonely people
  • separated people
  • nerd-like people
  • socially awkward people
  • psychologically unstable people (narcissists)
..... because these kinds of people spend the most time on Instagram and provide significant profits

Social media apps will obliterate any threats that will decrease time spent on their apps.
The biggest threat to them:
  • a mature person
  • a healthy person
  • a self-aware person
  • a person who knows everything mentioned in this note
  • THEY NEED YOUR ATTENTION
  • THEY MONETIZE YOUR ATTENTION AND NEED YOUR EYEBALLS
  • ANYTHING THAT COMPETES WITH THEM FOR YOUR ATTENTION = THREAT
  • Facebook does not allow Google to crawl their database
  • Anything that takes you away from Instagram = THREAT

Resources & Other Related Material To Support My Analysis:




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Last edited:

MJ DeMarco

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Your post rings like an @rpeck90 post! Thanks for sharing. I don't use IG other than for business and I haven't been on Facebook in months. The more I stay off social media, the happier I am. Thanks for posting the Unscripted excerpts, I knew those passages rang familiar! LOL.
 

PizzaOnTheRoof

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I truly believe that social media is going to go the way of cigarettes.

Unfortunately it may take a few more teen suicides to get the point across.
 

Ismail941

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Dude You are on point.

I did a similar research
Here are the pics

You did an extensive research.Props man!
 
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Ismail941

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The Point is = You can make money from Social Media By Leveraging, not falling in love with Social Media
This is the huge distinction to grasp
 

TonyStark

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Dude You are on point.

I did a similar research
Here are the pics

You did an extensive research.Props man!
When you’re a drug dealer, you don’t get high off of your own supply; why let your children do the same?
 
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Ismail941

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When you’re a drug dealer, you don’t get high off of your own supply; why let your children do the same?

More Like Psychology

@ChrisV - This dude can tell more once he sees this post!
 

luniac

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I have a business instagram, facebook, and twitter and i barely post on any of them, it always slips my mind.

I got facebook messenger to converse with one long distance friend mostly, and "just in case" someone i know wants to contact me but doesn't have my number or something.

My "brand" sort of only exists on youtube, and i really like youtube.
At least on youtube you're watching an actual edited video without stupid bite size time constraints and stuff like that.
Although it can also be a colossal waste of time sometimes, but at least i don't end up comparing myself to other people on youtube, i just enjoy the entertainment.


From an ethical point of view, if you know how harmful social media is, do you have a ethical obligation to not use those mediums for profit?
 

NursingTn

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Social media is a tool. Depending on your purpose for it, social media can be good or bad for you.

I now use it to stay in touch with loved ones and to ask for help every now and then. That's good for me; social media solves the problem of difficulty remaining connected with loved ones.

A few years ago, when I used it because I was aimless, seeing all the "good life" everyone had depressed me. Social media was awful at solving the existential crisis I had for me at the time.

If the tool becomes a burden rather than a blessing in your life, then it is time to throw the tool away. A mechanic shouldn't continue using a wrench that can't grab onto nuts and bolts well anymore if his only goal is to get the damn nuts and bolts off.

Similarly, social media shouldn't be used if it is not helping you with solving a problem.
 
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Digamma

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This board is supposed to be a board of producers.

In this thread, people are complaining like consumers.

I use Instagram. I use Facebook.

I use them as promotional tools.

When people check out my Facebook after I post a comment somewhere, they see value. This brings me opportunities.

When girls see my Instagram, they see a cool guy living a great life, a life they are attracted to. This brings me opportunities.

Social media is a goldmine.

If you feel negative effects from social media, then honestly you gotta toughen the F*ck up.

Yes, these are dangerous tools.
So build your mental fortress.

Then you'll see everything is a tool to be leveraged.

Is X good? Or bad? Le dopamine pathways?
Who cares.

If the first thing you think in front of something new is not "how can I use this" then you need to fix your mindset.
 

SDE

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Wow. That. Was. Really. Deep.

I use Instagram to follow 6 people whose work I love and never use it more than 10 min a day (mostly at noon where the day feels a bit slow).

Screenshot_2019-08-06-10-30-57-413_com.instagram.android.jpg


As for friends, when I want to know what they are doing in life, I just pick up the phone and dial their number.
 
Last edited:

rpeck90

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Excellent post!!

I'd also put forward this article, especially as it pertains to the hoards of "entrepreneurs" calling themselves such without any accomplishments...

What’s remarkable is that none of those people are questioning whether the path they’re following makes a bit of sense. If they did, they would ask themselves some reasonable questions:
  • Does personal branding really matter? How will I know that it’s actually having a material effect on my career or my business? What’s the metric?
  • Have those who write the blogs and books I read actually accomplished something more than just generating feel-good fluff to get me to click or buy?
  • Are virtual personas accurate reflections of people’s real accomplishments or overinflated facades?
  • Do inspirational quotes and speeches have any lasting effect on my behavior, or are they just superficial missives that feel good for a moment? Besides, shouldn’t my work inspire me?
  • Does emotional intelligence actually correlate with business success or leadership performance? How can it when its sole measure, emotional quotient, is a self-test that any narcissist can manipulate?
  • Is it logical to assume that a successful person’s habits or hacks would work for me? Besides, if folks like Richard Branson and Steve Jobs found their own ways of doing things, shouldn’t I do the same?
  • Where is the evidence that social media delivers a return on investment that makes it worthwhile, or am I just addicted to the attention and instant gratification?
  • Am I wasting my life with my eyes glued to a screen when I should be out in the real world working, learning from experience, and gaining exposure to new opportunities and successful people?
--

Finally, this is kind of funny to me, and demonstrates things quite well:

img_0059.jpg

evgwm37.png


Above: Simonetta Vespucci 21st Century (needs tons of tattoos)
Below: Simonetta Vespucci 15th Century

If you want an interesting fact - Simonetta Vespuci was married to the cousin of Amerigo Vespucci. Amerigo Vespucci was the man "America" is named after :)
 
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ChewingCandy

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I thought it would be security / privacy related

but it seems like a quick summary from some guy who really hates Instagram for whatever reason

most of the points are just doesn't make sense to me

  • the most active people on Instagram are the ones who have a lot of psychological problems
  • the 70% of people in the world with psychological problems can mostly be found on Instagram

this, I don't mean to hostile, but I'm really curious about how did you analyzed this(or am I too serious?)

although I hate facebook because they don't take user's privacy seriously(they've sold users info to third party, it's another topic)

but I'm still using Instagram(not facebook), 10-20 mins daily when commute

the reason is I like mod cars, and there are tons of nice mod car pics on Instagram

my end goal is to build a dream car myself, and look at those beautiful cars on Instagram actually inspires me to achieve my business goals

I think it's not about Instagram nor social media, it's about discipline and how you use it
 

MattR82

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I love social media. I use it for business but on a personal level, once I learnt how to use it better, it has really impacted my life in a positive way.

Facebook groups on web design and digital marketing gave helped me hugely as a loner entrepreneurtrying to make something happen. And the only people I follow as personal friends on Instagram and Facebook don't post dumb stuff. If they are hiking through the Italian countryside then I would like to see that. Duckface selfies - unfollow.

Simples!

Edit: in saying that though, my sister doesn't allow her 10 and 12 year olds to have social media and I agree 100%. It's disturbing to see they have friends with public IG profiles and YouTube channels (I know about the age limits but more kids have it than not). They are not equipped mentally to deal with this yet. It's actually a lot of 1 on 1 education and parenting needed on this.

Now if only my sister herself could learn how to use it properly at age 35 lol...
 
Last edited:

Champion

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I agree with everything you say, but not to its extremity...

I think Instagram can be a great tool to use for business & social networking and if you're not using it to your advantage then ur missing out.

Either way.. You deffinetly dont need it to make millions :D
 

Kevin88660

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I agree everything that the OP says.

Crazy waste of time. With all young people having their eyes glued onto their phones.

Other than for direct business purpose, is there anyway that instagram can have any meaningful application??

At least facebook allows me to wish my friends happy birthday. As a financial advisor it is quite useful to maintain my network.
 

MattR82

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I agree everything that the OP says.

Crazy waste of time. With all young people having their eyes glued onto their phones.

Other than for direct business purpose, is there anyway that instagram can have any meaningful application??

At least facebook allows me to wish my friends happy birthday. As a financial advisor it is quite useful to maintain my network.
You made me think a bit there and yeah, Instagram is pretty damn useless. Facebook has been a great tool for me with groups and content put out by people I follow that help my biz, but nothing from instagram.

Since I started working with IG I stopped checking my personal profile except for maybe once a month.
 
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Veloce Grey

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I find it not all bad. I mean whenever someone asks me if I'm on Instagram, since my usual name is "Grum", I tell them with wide eyed sincerity that I instead started my own app called "Instagrum" where the only photos posted are all of me. I should probably have added "it's because I find Instagram too narcissistic..."
 

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