[timehastoldme]

Hey HN! I want to hear the arguments as to why this is or isn't a positive development for society. Not whether or not it's the right business decision, or whether or not they should have the right to do it.

Any thoughts?

[toomuchtodo]

I think some might argue that any sort of service that gives customers more choice is a good thing, but recent research seems to be pointed in the direction that too many choices available is causing anxiety [+] (which might outweigh the utility the additional choice is providing).

Its good for Instagram, and its good for the economy. Society? More data needed. I worry its going to turn into Tinder for purchasing, and it simply greases the pipeline of purchasing things you don't need with money you don't have in the name of social status ("We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.”) [++].

[+] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-tyranny-of-ch...

[+] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/21/choice-...

[+] https://www.fastcompany.com/3031364/the-future-of-work/why-h...

[++] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/25775-we-buy-things-we-don-t...

[jraines]

Instagram is where we reflect the interesting life of the kate spade new york girl through relatable social moments which highlight the products that are characters in her story

I think you can work up a good lather of doomsaying from just that quote, but it's all been said before -- so it's not really a new development. It reminds me indirectly of David Foster Wallace's essay E unibus pluram: television and U.S. Fiction:

It's true that there's something sad about the fact that young lion David Leavitt's sole descriptions of certain story characters is that their T-shirts have certain brand names on them. But the fact is that, for most of the educated young readership for whom Leavitt writes, members of a generation raised and nourished on messages equating what one consumes with who one is, Leavitt's descriptions do the job. In our post-'50, inseparable-from-TV association pool, brand loyalty is synecdochic of identity, character.

[zaaakk]

you take the red pill, you read Marx, Althusser, and Adorno and your eyes are forever opened. you take the blue pill, you agree with the posts up voted above mine and go back to sleep. your choice, kid

[BipolarElsa]

You forgot Stirner.

[hanniabu]

I think this is great for the economy. It's one more venue for small businesses to get their products to the masses and it'll create jobs as these 'stores' will need to be updated and managed.