A deceptively happy platform by design.

It is so easy to go about our day interacting with products that we forget how much intent and decision go into the creation process. Nowhere is this more prevalent than on social media platforms.

After adding a “controversial” post on Instagram and cross-posting it onto Facebook, the juxtaposition of interaction on both platforms for the same post was astonishing. Looking at the post again on Instagram, it finally clicked as to why there was no accident that the posts always seemed happier.

Take a look at the basic mechanics of Instagram, and you will see that the fastest way for someone to interact with a post is via the double-click to like/love the post. This will inherently deter posts where that response does not make sense.

If the underlying algorithm highlights posts with the most interactions, then it should be no surprise that the posts we see on Instagram are so damn happy.