Insta, Finsta and Network Goods
- Kruxi
- Apr 10, 2020
- 3 min read
I love my Finsta. It’s my second Instagram account for closer friends and/or people I want to stay in touch with. Here are the main reasons why I have Finsta:
1. Finsta has no rules:
Social Media has become a self-policing rule-based activity. There are only certain things one can post online: 1. Travel, 2. Food, 3. Feel Good political or social statements, 4. Random videos with cations like “BEST DANCE ROUTINE EVER”. This is the Nash equilibrium between the poster and his community. He gets to update others while others are being updated. An exchange of likes and/or a two-syllable comment signifies this trade. Deviation from it leaves the poster without likes, or the audience disturbed. The more people adhere to this the stricter the policing and self-policing gets. Anything that isn’t to the beauty standard won’t be posted. Even things that might be construed as bragging won’t be posted anymore. I catch myself all the time thinking that pictures of graduations are cringe, while they shouldn’t be… Finsta is a way to get rid of that and build a community around rewarding “authentic” behaviour.
2. It’ great to keep in contact:
Due to the small size of Finsta followers one can try to build a community. Post pictures of others, poke fun at them, or get them involved in a Finsta activity. This way you force your Finsta followers to join in and stay in contact.
3. Social Validation:
As with all social Media also the Finsta is a simple form of social validation, just not from pics of the sixpack I don’t have, but from my horrible singing, or my honest attempt to do chess memes. I want my finsta followers to like and engage, and that makes me feel good.
To summarize: Finsta is a (1) free platform, (2) with a small group of engaging friends, (3) that give you extra special social validation. This made me think of Network Goods.
A network good in standard economic theory is a good or service that derives its value through other people using it as well. Social Media being a clear example of a network good. The economic literature describes it as a possible natural monopoly, a sector in which the long run equilibrium tends to bring forth only one major player. A good or service that derives its value by others using it can only have one winner, the social media that eventually everyone will use, if we assume that we have a constraint on how many network goods we sign up to. We see that pretty clearly with FB and Insta (also FB).
But I doubt that the theory of endless positive feedback is correct. I think there is a threshold, a Laffer-curve-like-behaviour (See Pic). The 3 reasons for Finsta described above show the utility of a good or service that has less people on it rather than more. Is this an anti-network good? A good or service that derives its value from my family members not using it. I think so…
In conclusion, I think that network goods are no natural monopolies. They probably have a pretty high tipping point. Searching-costs and switching-costs might be the reason for the high tipping point. But ultimately, I think a Finsteresc Social Media will arise and rearise, showing that network goods only derive its value from other people participating up to certain point.
Thx Valentin for great comment once again! This is surly the case for free speech forums and other platforms. There the attention economy incentives people to post even more outrages things than others to get noticed. I think there has to be a bit of an equilibrium of costs of social policing and the outrage economy. A medium-sized social media could ensure some social policing while allowing a degree of creative freedom. Thus, I do not think that the downfall of civilization is inevitable.
HI Franz, Thx for your comment. Very good point: finsta obviously being on insta. But in the end I am tired of declining my mom for the 3rd time on my finsta, and explaining that her following my finsta aint gonna happen. I would rather have a second platform take over as a niche social media rather than having a second insta. I think there are some solutions up and coming like Bash and others...
Ok fine, but if all Finstas are owned by Instagram, then at the end of the day Instagram is just expanding it's monopoly in a sneaky way... If Instagram allows advanced settings such as showing content to a select group (aka Finsta), then it stops any potential 'anti-networking effect' that might have occurred.
If you had to go to a completely different platform to create your Finsta... then yes, I would agree with some sort of limit to networking effects. Bottom line, I think it is precisely the platforms with the biggest risk of 'anti-networking effects' that are paradoxically best positioned to benefit from those effects, since all the infrastructure and tech is already in place to offer alternative…
I believe all finstas are simply another, possibly stronger form and level of social validation similar to that which you have described above - However, obtaining it’s value from The “exclusivity” and obscurity of the content - you could say it is the antithesis of someones “official” social media account. The more strange, unique, and far-out the content of a finsta is, the more it is applauded by it’s audience, creating a positive feedback loop for aberrant social behavior of the poster. This will inevitably lead to the downfall of civilization and society as we know it.