Instagram, created in 2010, has blown up and developed it’s on set of courtesy rules.

Last night, my best friend hit 1,000 followers on Instagram. This is not really a big deal until you actually think about it: one thousand people actually look at the dumb pictures she posts of her dog.

That’s such a large number of viewers of her daily life. She gets around 300 ‘likes’ on every picture. But what’s a ‘like’ really worth? Do 300 people really like her photo? I don’t think so.

In my opinion, a ‘like’ is a common courtesy. You follow someone, they follow back. You are now forever obligated to ‘like’ each other’s photos. For some people, comments are even more complicated. If you comment on a picture, it means that you genuinely like the photo, you’re just being friendly or you want them to comment on yours.

The world of Instagram doesn’t need to be so complicated. Before it exploded in the world of “Selfie Sundays” and “Throwback Thursdays”, when not every teenage girl on the planet had 140 photos and 500 followers, a ‘like’ simply meant someone genuinely liked your photo. Now, some people even go so far as to buy ‘likes’ and followers to appear more popular on their profile.

It’s too late now for Instagram to go back to the way it was back when it first came out in 2010, but I still think we should all stop caring about courtesy likes and stop commenting on photos just for a comment back.