One thing that has always fascinated me is trying to quantify the intangible.
What the heck am I talking about?
Well, we know how to quantify the tangible. For example, if you have two apples and I give you three more, you now have five apples.
But how do we quantify the intangible? If I help you move house, for example, how much do you owe me in return for the favor? Do you owe me a favor that requires equal effort? Do you owe me anything at all?
It's hard to quantify the intangible.
But recently, I was actually able to quantify the intangible, and I want to share the whole fascinating experience with you.
But first you need some backstory.
In January, my girlfriend and I broke up. I didn't want the breakup, but she did. While dating, though, both of us had Instagram accounts, and we would "like" each others' photos often. After the breakup, I was pretty certain that she was still checking out my Instagram account. Although I hadn't thought that her ability to still view my account altered my behavior on the platform, I was certainly aware that she was still probably viewing my pics.
Now skip ahead to about three weeks ago when I decided to my block my ex-girlfriend on Instagram. I figured, Why should she be able to look right into my life whenever she wanted?
And so, a small, new chapter in my life opened: the one in which my ex was no longer able to see into my world via the pictures I was taking.
After this online blocking, I still continued to take pictures for Instagram. I love the platform, so, understandably, I carried on with the habit.
But then something started to happen.
With my ex now blocked, I started to get the feeling I was taking fewer pictures.
After getting this feeling a couple of times, I thought to myself, "Am I taking fewer pictures now that I know she can't see the account?" I thought the answer might be yes.
And now here's where the whole quantifying thing comes in.
Because Instagram stamps each picture posted with the date of the posting, I was able to see exactly how many pictures I had taken in the 28 days since having blocked my ex. I was then able to compare that number with the number of pics I had taken in the 28-day period before I blocked her, the 28-day period before that, and the one before that one, too, going all the way back to around the time of the breakup.
And the results were shocking.
In the 28 days after May 6, the date I blocked my ex, I posted 59 photos to Instagram. In sharp contrast, during the 28-day period before that, a time during which my ex could still view my account, I posted 136 pictures. During the 28-period before that one -- again, we're still broken up but she can see my account -- I posted 111 pictures. In the 28 days before that, I posted 80 pictures, and in the 28 days before that, 106.
So, when I knew my ex could still see my Instagram account, I was averaging 108 pictures per 28 days. Over the 28 days during which I knew she couldn't see my account, I posted only 59 pics. That's a nearly 60% decrease in the number of pictures posted!
So why am I telling you all this? Because it absolutely fascinates me to be able to quantify something that is not easily quantifiable.
But...
What exactly is that thing that is not easily quantifiable? What exactly are we talking about?
Well, what hadn't been quantifiable was how much I was actually taking pictures for her. Although I thought that I was just taking pictures for me, a huge part of my motivation for posting all those pics, apparently, was her and the knowledge that she was probably looking at my account from time to time.
So there you go -- a very personal blog post, but a very interesting one nonetheless. If anything, I think the takeaway messages is, when it comes to social media, we should really think about the reasons why we use these platforms.
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