Social media is supposed to be a uniquely human problem. It’s our own fault that we, as a species, have invented technology that allows us to be called “soy boys” by anonymous strangers or watch videos of dogs playing basketball at 3am. Well, it’s not just ours anymore: the chimpanzees have discovered Instagram and, we’re sorry to say, they’re way into it.
Daniel Sinclair spotted a video from Mike Holston, posted on Instagram, that shows a chimp checking out, uh, Instagram. The ape, despite holding the phone way too close to its face like a complete goddamned amateur, is frighteningly good at using the app. Its gnarled hands scroll through an account feed, tapping onto videos of a scary snake, other people, and, the conceited genius, one of itself.
The responses to this incredible clip are as you’d expect. There’s the Planet Of The Apes joke that must immediately be made …
… and comments about the ape’s place in the ecosystem of shitty social media users.
All of this is a far cry from Sinclair’s own replies to the clip, which, sure, include a roundabout dunk on babies, but mainly seem interested in what the Instagram-loving chimp shows about how our brains work.
For now, the chimp doesn’t seem to have its own account. For this we can be grateful. While it’s captivating to watch an ape looking through someone else’s social media, it would be another thing entirely to know it has its own presence. We are not ready to see it have a Twitter profile where it gets ratioed for its (definitely problematic) chimpanzee opinions or mocked for its (definitely amateurish) Soundcloud releases.
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