Instagram is isn't real. Way too many people get caught up in it, with making some stupid image to fee their ego. People should flex their word on the streets, not on the internet. But at least there will always be people out there painting the streets for the rest of humanity. I don't think there's anything wrong with sharing the odd photo on social media or whatever, and it's actually kind of cool to share your stuff with writers who might not see it otherwise, especially if it's an interesting photo of a unique spot or something cool. It's interesting to see who actually fucks with your stuff because otherwise you'd have no idea who sees anything you do unless you hear it through word of mouth. I think if you post every piece you do on it you're definitely faking the funk a bit. You don't need to share everything, it would kind of take away the magic of it. The self-fulfilment you get from knowing that it is yours and not anyone elses. If you use it, it should be like a curated highlight reel of some cool photos or whatever, or some kind of personal archive where each photo is actually kind of significant to you. Not a complete record of everything you've ever done. It's also a good tool to network/keep up with writers you know and that. Keeping the circle tight with just writers from your area you know of, or your friends/mutuals or whatever is definitely the way to go. Collecting followers and playing a numbers game is straight up wack. When someone who isn't either a true heavy hitter, or a legend has hundreds or thousands of followers it's like bruh who are you fooling. It's just insecure too, any one of those thousands of people could be a cop ahah.

But Instagram itself is definitely a fad tho, and I think something better needs to come along. Ultimately it's not secure and you can probably be caught through your Instagram if law enforcement could be fucked with it. If you've ever used your home wi-fi you're basically linked to the account. Someone with the knowledge needs to make some kind of secure social media photo sharing app, like Wickr x Instagram ahah. I think eventually people will get sick of it, and I hope it doesn't last. But on the other hand, social media in general has changed the way a lot of humans communicate so whose to say it won't impact graffiti the same way? I hope to death Facebook (And eventually Instagram) die out because it needs to get replaced by something new and better, that isn't flawed. It kind of points to a bigger question about how social media has impacted our society in general. Like a lot of normal ass people obsessively and compulsively post shit on social media, and for what reason? I'm as guilty as the next guy for using Instagram, Snapchat, whatever don't get me wrong. I have a personal one and although I don't post on it too regularly I still use it. But maybe people just don't live in the moment as much, and instead of taking life as it comes they'd rather build some kind of online shit to feed their ego or whatever. People would rather brag to other people about how much of a good time they're having instead of just having a good time.

IDK I'm kind of side-tracking here, but personally I'm not "good" at social media and I feel like it's extremely impersonal. I suck at Facebook, I've been on it for probably 7 years now and I have like less than 20 photos that I'm actually in. If I could delete my timeline and just have Messenger I probably would. I've got a few IG followers on my personal account but I don't use it that often these days, mostly when something special happens or there's like an interesting photo I've taken that I actually want ot share. I fucking hate it when people's IG's are just photos of themselves... I just feel like it's so vain and conceited. Sometimes when shits popping off with the homies I have a fire ass Snapchat story, but sometimes it's just so hilarious to create and I'm mostly just being self-indulgent and laughing at my own humour with my friends haha.

Not really sure what my point is, I think social media has just kind of changed the way people communicate in general and that's affected the graff world too. Eventually things will change but in the immediate future I can't see much changing, for better or for worse. At the end of the day graff on Instagram is just a facade. I'm no heavy hitter, not even really much of a bomber at all, but everyone who isn't stupid knows it all comes down to who is actually up in the streets, or at spots, or on trains or train-lines or wherever. Graffiti is something you view with your eyes, in person. Instagram is always secondary and too many people forget that.