What a tempting title, what an intriguing proposition … and what a chewy book. Unfortunately academic art historians are not generally known for their readability and Koenraad Jonckheere lives up to their reputation.

However, it’s worth persisting, aka sampling and jumping around in the pages, to truffle hunt out insights into how social media, in particular images on instagram, perform their magic upon us. From the point of view of the Lürzer’s Archive reader, there might well be secrets – even inspiration – in these pages that are worth the pain of extraction.

For example, a better understanding of how the Holy Trinity works on the eye – the ‘image trinity’ – might do wonders for your posts. Consider, with reference to Hockney, Caravaggio, Van Eyck (and then apply to your own feed).