Instagram, like other social networks, is full of numbers. These numbers, or metrics, measure and present our social value and activity online, enumerating likes, followers, views, and more. But what are the effects of these numbers on who we follow, what we post, what we delete, or how we feel when we use the site? Inviting us to consider these questions through our own experience, Instagram Demetricator is a web browser extension that hides the metrics. Follower, like, and comment counts disappear. Search result metrics such as "2,344,212 posts" becomes, simply, "posts." Through changes like these, Demetricator lets us try out Instagram without the numbers, to see what happens when we can no longer judge ourselves and others in metric terms. With this work, I aim to disrupt our obsession with social media metrics, to reveal how they guide our behavior, and to ask who most benefits from a system that quantifies our public interactions online.
Note: this only works on the desktop browser-based version of Instagram.
