The city of George Town, in the Malaysian state of Penang, has long drawn tourists to its streets. But in recent years something else has been attracting camera-toting travelers: dozens of street art murals that practically beg to become selfie backdrops on Instagram. The city of George Town, in the Malaysian state of Penang, has long drawn tourists to its streets. As de Lange points out, this opposes the values of urban city experts like Jane Jacobs. Instagram, for example, has 800 million users, which is more than a tenth of the world s population. You can travel from London to Los Angeles to Hong Kong and find coffee shops, hotels, and offices with the same Instagram-friendly traits. Jacobs believed that one of a city's greatest purposes was to bring diverse or different groups of strangers together. So even if something isn't designed especially for social media, I think there's always an emphasis on how does this render digitally? Instagram seems to be changing the aspects and elements of a city that travelers find worthwhile. But in recent years something else has been attracting camera-toting travelers: dozens of street art murals that practically beg to become selfie backdrops on Instagram. The sherbet-colored shophouses, intricately tiled courtyards and historic temples and mosques make for great photos. Jacobs believed that one of a city's greatest purposes was to bring diverse or different groups of strangers together. It's part of a wider phenomenon of public and private spaces being designed to appeal to users of such apps. This phenomenon is changing our visual landscapes on the streets and in restaurants, stores, museums and more. She says the value businesses are placing on a social media look ramped up very aggressively over the past year or so.