In many ways, we’re fine-tuning our sharing behavior toward what attracts the most attention, posting images and videos that we think will get the biggest response and comments. Instagram Direct seems to be a response, or an acknowledgement of that shift. Which is not to say that Instagram Direct will somehow goad people into sharing their most private moments — it’s still a mass-market product from Facebook, after all. But it arrives at a time when people seem to be eager for better and less public ways to interact with their friends. That is the quiet cleverness of Instagram Direct.

Instagram Direct and the Fracturing of Privacy