Social media such as Instagram is heavily driven by social proof. These platforms become popular and are widely used largely because people want to connect with their friends, and when people see that others are using a certain platform, they feel compelled to join. Once they have joined, their engagement is sustained not only by the social proof of interacting with peers’ posts but also by a component of liking — many people derive at least some small amount of validation or satisfaction from seeing that people engage with and like their posts on social media.
