The Anti-Gram Lab Report

I. Problem

The other day I went to the beach… and I took a photo. It was a completely normal, cliche wave picture with the sand in the front and horizon in the background. A couple minutes after the photo was taken I thought to myself, “hey maybe I should gram this… it has been a while since I posted.” So, that’s exactly what I did. I posted the photo with no filter and no caption, or as those in the real estate business like to call it: “as is.”

The post racked up a normal amount of likes for me finishing at 71 hitting my usual 1 like to 10 follower ratio. However, the feedback that I got from the post completely blew my mind. A couple of my friends texted me immediately after saying, “dude are you ok?” Another literally left me a voicemail that said, “hey man, saw your Instagram… give me a call when you have the chance.” When I got home from the beach, my roommate told me that “people were talking about it,” and were seeing if I had “lost my mind.”

I found all of this amusing, and decided to attempt a social experiment that I like to call the “Anti-gram.” I went ahead and posted that same exact photo 4 times in a row, no caption, with a different filter just so I could track the feedback and monitor the general “concern” for my mental health. I was going to post the photo for two straight weeks, but decided the drawbacks could be perpetually devastating to my social life and career. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe I am the first and only person on this planet to post the same photo back-to-back-to-back-back days.

II. Hypothesis

IF I post post four Instagrams in four days of the same photo, THEN the amount of likes will decrease until the fourth picture where the likes will start to rise.

The Independent Variable here is the pictures. The Dependent Variable is what I am measuring: the likes, comments, and feedback.

The Control should have been the time at which each photo was posted.

III. Materials

1.  iPhone 5s
2. The Santa Monica Beach
3. My thumb
4. 1 revolutionary, genius volunteer

IV.  Procedure

1) Day 1

71 Likes, 5 Comments:

This is what all the fuss was about. Completely normal post with the the usual trash-talking and moronic comments that I normally receive. A couple of people tried to “ding” me for the scenic post as it is out of the ordinary for my particular profile. No idea what “samtamonica” is talking about I did not go to brunch that day. “Shallum” should know better than to make fun of my “cliche social media”…. but he’s an idiot.

2) Day 2

53 Likes, 13 Comments: Yes the photo is slightly different because I didn’t know I was doing this experiment yet. However, trending with my hypothesis the likes did decrease by about 20, as the comments increased due to complete and utter confusion by the followers. “Ashleyphillips_yes” got the joke, but a lot of others did not.

What the followers were thinking: Does he know he just posted this? Is this a mistake? Is he kidding? Has he gone completely insane? Why isn’t there a caption?  

Day 3) 

38 Likes, 6 Comments: At this point people are getting confused and probably a little annoyed. Now they either are 100% sure that I am kidding or 100% sure that I lost my mind. Not showed above, “mmuney” commented “Genius.” He gets the idea. He is also my roommate. I told him what I was doing and he thought it was genius.

Day 4)

50 Likes, 4 Comments: By the fourth and final post I actually got a little nervous. “Greg_Kalin” said it above, “but this won’t get likes.” Well Greg, my hypothesis was correct as the likes jumped up by almost 20 after the third post. Also, I checked Greg’s Instagram and he doesn’t even have 200 followers so he’s completely irrelevant.

V. Conclusion

My hypothesis was correct. Although the likes did increase, the comments decreased dramatically by the fourth post. People got sick of it I think. I got sick of it. I did it entirely for this post and waited three weeks to post it. However, it was nothing short of innovative.

This post originally appeared on PudgyCaddy.com