Yes, in some instances you are right and Instagram replaces a more personal way of sharing a photo. However, in other cases, in empowers and encourages people to share more and in some cases to share when it wasn't before possible.

My baby daughter's grandparents and great grandmother live in another country. Her great grandmother is too old to travel, and so doesn't get to see us as often as we'd all like, so a very simple system that enables her to see regular photos of her great granddaughter is a wonderful thing. Sure, we could snap a polaroid and mail it, or try to educate her more so she could manage Facebook, but in reality these are less likely to happen and more difficult to make happen.

I'm aware in the grand scheme of things Instagram isn't important, and I'm aware it's primary motivator wasn't the situation above. However, I'd suggest being less quick to say it doesn't better us in any way, or even to say it isn't innovation.

Not all innovation needs to change the world.

[1] Was it really?

Progress and innovation are often built upon a series of "small conveniences" that, when added together, make our lives immeasurably better, or enable other innovations which do.

That said, you're clearly too emotional about this to have a reasonable discussion.

You are now talking about the washing machine effect, which is not what you were talking about before. You described a photo sharing site as, "a network of tens of millions of people sharing data about their day-to-day life", which is ridiculous. True, washing your clothes a bit faster is not important by itself, but it is if you can read more books or spend more time with your family. I think it would be a tough case to make that using Instagram instead of emailing zipped photo albums like I did in 1995 allows you to accomplish more with your life.