When algorithmic feeds beginning showing users content pertaining to specific health conditions, users will likely feel as though they are being diagnosed with them. Within social media’s systems of self-differentiation, every kind of content can be understood as a symptom. Identity becomes a kind of chronic disease that is constantly trying to cure itself.

“Influence” may seem like a self-explanatory term, but on Instagram, with its intricate economy of influencers melding the fashion industry and reflecting the aspirational fantasies of individual users, it takes on a different significance. Rather than being strictly a product of other styles, “influence” itself is an aesthetic that can be generated and consumed.