Book Review: “No Filter”
“No Filter: The insider story of how Instagram transformed business, celebrity and our culture” by Sarah Frier (2020)
With an engaging, almost dramatic story-telling style, Frier charts the past and present of the company that has changed the world. The magic of this book is how it simultaneously applies an inward lens and an outward lens, charting how our society has shaped Instagram and how Instagram has shaped us.
I picked up No Filter on the recommendation of Dr. Mohamed El-Erian and the FT’s Business Book Awards. I hoped it would be more than the standard outside reporting of a business’s success, and that it is, but it still falls foal of some of the cliches and flaws of this literary genre.
The first chapters of Frier’s book chronicles the origins, founding, and rise of Instagram and its founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Sourcing from unidentified insiders and the historic business press, Frier’s account portrays the origins of Instagram as a less messy, more aesthetic online space for artistic-minded people to share photos. Only a few years after its founding, Instagram is acquired by Facebook in a historic $1 billion deal. The mechanics of this acquisition and described in detail in the book, with an insiders eye that provides a personal and vivid account.
Post-acquisition, the path of Instagram began to change, as do the themes of Frier’s account. The ‘eden’ that was Instagram’s creative and strategic independence is slowly eroded over many years by Facebook and the company’s founder-CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Systrom, in particular, is portrayed as struggling to keep his vision for the social network under pressure to conform with Facebook’s growth and advertising focused metrics. Although Frier does not note it, the story of Instagram at Facebook could be seen as a story of how the metric you choose to use dictate strategy and the future of your firm.
Finally, crushed by the stranglehold Facebook and Zuckerberg put on Instagram’s resources when they perceived it to be a threat to Facebook itself, Systrom and Krieger are forced out. The founders finally realised Facebook Inc.’s relentless pursuit of growth was not compatible with their view of their app.
What set Frier’s book apart from the classic formula for a business book is the politico-cultural thread that winds through the latter chapters, growing in emphasis just as the social network itself grows in influence. Here, Frier eloquently raises many questions with our relationship with these platforms; is it inevitable that a network of humans will have human flaws? What should the relationship between Instagram management and 1000’s of influencers who make a living from its platform be? If Instagram’s users measure their self-worth by the metrics the company chooses, how should it select these?
Frier’s account and analysis are vivid, dramatic, and highly-readable - but, No Filter treads a fine line between factual account and dramatisation. Some detailed accounts of private conversations between Systrom and Zuckerberg are clearly fabricated around the story Frier wants to tell. This is, of course, necessary to tell an engaging story, but any reader should look on the precise details of private accounts with scepticism. Earlier on Frier makes clear the difference between accounts from sources, but this falls away as the book proceeds.
Overall, I was impressed by No Filter and Frier’s style of writing. I might even admit to being jealous of the way she turns a factual account into an engaging, personal story. This book is a great read for anyone interested in the challenges of management, studying entrepreneurship, or interested in the way social media is shaping our lives.
