There’s a lot of dissing the ‘Gram’ (Instagram) these days. Let me, therefore, be contrarian and begin with a scandalous proposition: To truly know a person today, you must study their Instagram. The real diary of the 21st century is the curated feed. The very superficial nature of Instagram makes it the truest revelation of the subject. What we choose to display is not what we are, but what we want others to believe we are. And therein lies the deep secret of our desire.

To paraphrase Karl Marx (or perhaps Jacques Lacan, or maybe both because it doesn’t matter here), ideology reveals itself in its very concealment. Can we then posit the following: Instagram, or another similar platform, is not the opposite of authenticity; it’s authenticity on steroids. And Freud would chime in thus: it is where the Id posts selfies.

There’s too much Marx and Lacan going on in this author’s mind these days, owing to some academic compulsions, stymying her ‘fun’ takes. But, using them extensively in her essays, maybe she wants to convince others that she loves theory more than sarcasm. (She doesn’t. But the charade of erudition must continue as bills need to be paid.) Curating an authorial voice.

Full disclosure: A conversation with a dear friend about my Instagram feed has triggered this essay. “I know........

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