A year ago, I deleted my Prosophos Instagram account.
I can tell you why I did it, but I wasn’t planning to in this post. Suffice it to say, I think social media in general is a vex on all of us, and Instagram in particular is a vex on photography. Funny enough, I still keep a Twitter account active, but all it does is link back to posts on this site.
In order to protect my “online identity” from people up to no good, I subsequently reserved the name @PhotographsbyPeter. The Prosophos account was no longer active (once deleted, Instagram does not allow you to re-claim it). However, recently I realized that @prosophos (with the lowercase “p”) is considered a unique name, so I claimed that one too.
Both of those IG accounts have a placeholder composite photo attached to them, but that’s all they will ever have.
—Peter.
Prosophos 
Nothing is truly free. Or simply put, there is no free lunch.
Indeed.
I understand your feelings about instagram, Peter. from a photography point of view, its focus and tone seems essentially narciscistic and commercial. i find it a convenient way to follow work by people like peter lindbergh or vincent peters, but have to see a lot of less interesting social nonsense while doing so. and since i don’t have a website, it has served as a lazy way to share — as helmut063 — some explorations of portraiture with friends. I guess 500px, which focuses on more serious work, is possibly a better option. it’s a shame you’ve had to deal with crazies appropriating your work.
Thank you for your comments Henry. As you know, I’ve followed your work via IG.
Right after I posted my thoughts, I realized that I should have added something along the lines of “I have no ill will towards anyone who uses Instagram, as it is the dominant photo-sharing platform these days and is critical for self-promotion, commercial or otherwise, etc.” but I hope people understand (as you do) that I was only speaking for myself.
And yes, you remember correctly, one of the reasons I stopped using IG was because I’d had several of my photos stolen. The thief even received more “likes” for them than I did, LOL.
There were other reasons too, one of them being how those same “likes” subtly but profoundly influence the creative process.
Personally I use Instagram with a completely different goal. My website is where I publish the photos I create as a hobbyist photographer, it is the place with my identity, it is my place. Instagram on the other hand is where I follow my friends and some other people that I have interest. There, my posts are restricted to people I know, where I publish photos from drinks, with friends, etc.
I understand your case is a completely different situation, however.
Thank you Leonardo. I too totally understand where you’re coming from. Obviously IG has been very successful at serving a role (or roles) that many people find useful.
interesting discussion. i generally hate social media, and just created an instagram account to look at pictures of out oftown family/friends’ kids. then i posted a couple of vacation snapshots, then i started following interesting photographers. still not a big fan of social media, but is there a better platform to share photos with the world than instagram? i really don’t think there is.