This is a great post and opens up a wonderful conversation. I really like your response @intrepidphotos .
I decided some time back never to like for like or follow for follow on social media. Only to like what I actually like and connect with in some way and only to follow people whose work I love or who I feel a connection with. I refused to play the IG game. I have recently become quite cantankerous about people being measured and measuring themselves by their number of followers. People as numbers has never ended well for the human race.
I have taken an enormous step back from Instagram because the economy of people as numbers does not sit well. As @intrepidphotos said there is a more authentic conversation here. Sure there is a lot of low quality content as across all social media but provided there is no plagarism I try to remember that everyone has a story and people who appear to be making a money grab might really need money. For the one's falling foul of ethical behaviour I think Steemit has far better systems in place to crack down on them than IG.
IG is a free for all in using other humans for personal gain and contributing little back to them in connection and authenticity. That said there are also many outstanding human beings on IG doing wonderful things. They just often get so lost in the algorithm which is a real shame. I love curations here like @curie and @photofeed @steemitworldmap and so many more that give those great humans doing wonderfully creative things a chance to rise to the top some. I have only reached a relevant audience on my writing account @onethousandwords because of them. And I have found fantastic authors and photographers thanks to them.
Lots of good points made in this! I hadn't heard of Steemit Worldmap so I have it open in a new tab as I type this. I would agree with most of what you said about Instagram. It is deceiving to think of follower numbers as any kind of personal worth, both for yourself and others. You also bring up a decent point about some people possibly really needing the money. I'm not in that situation so I hadn't considered that. But this is a platform without borders which makes it pretty neat! I appreciate the thoughts.
Enjoy the world map. It is one of my favourite curations.