The article is an attempt to confront Lev Manovich’s soft technological determinism with two contemporary media - the smartphone and the mobile application called Instagram. The analysis is based on the characteristics of a term called “new media” identified by Manovich, with emphasis on variation and cultural transcoding. The verification of accuracy and the use of the soft technological determinism in the context of selected new media has varied by the discourse on contemporary new media and constitutes an interesting point of view. The evolution and the development of both variation and cultural transcoding (two elements conditioning their universality which continually shows an upward trend) regarding mobile media, give an opportunity to forecast their productive potential.