john berger opened my eyes to this.

in "ways of seeing" he lays out a convincing argument that the entire history of european oil painting was just annoying and lame rich people commissioning artists to paint their possessions and property. the 'masters' were exceptions to this rule and often painted these great works later in life. in the modern day we're taught to see these paintings not as what they actually are, but as rare objects worthy of praise simply for being rare objects.

when you see it that way and draw parallels between modern instagram, you both realize how fucking annoying, stupid, pathetic and desperate for validation wealthy people are but that nothing has changed other than the setting; instead of one of a kind oil paintings they foist NTFs on us.