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As long as Instagram has been around, people have complained about it. Hatred of Instagram – and even more of its sister site, Facebook – is among the few opinions expressed by most of the internet, but in the past few weeks, the volume has increased significantly. . Last Thursday, the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, addressed the criticism in a video, because of which, it appeared again.
The latest controversy comes from Instagram’s parent company Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and its ability to copy features of the social media platforms above. Meanwhile, Instagram’s biggest competitor is TikTok, which offers users an endless supply of short-lived videos, and has grown in popularity as Facebook has begun to decline. In an attempt to replicate its success, several recent updates of Instagram and Facebook first marked “recommended” videos (i.e. from random users across the platform as opposed to someone with ana ko), among other things people were very sad. “The new Instagram update gave me exactly what I was looking for: none of my friends were talking, TikToks were reposted from meme accounts I don’t follow, 100x more posts, everything playing on as I wanted,” sum it up. one viral tweet.
The frenzy reached a fever pitch when photographer Tati Bruening posted a message saying, “Make Instagram Instagram Again,” and “stop trying to TikTok, I want to see cute photos of my friends. Hello everyone.” The post, which has more than 2 million likes, was also shared by some of the most active users of Instagram, namely, Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.
At the same time, several meme creators staged an event outside Meta’s headquarters in New York on July 23 that they called the “Instarrection.” Although the event did not focus on the latest updates, but criticized Instagram’s ineffective notification practices, accounts are often downgraded for unclear reasons, which shows the growing sentiment among the Instagram users Instagram is getting worse.
By all accounts, Meta shareholders agree. Earlier this year, Meta said users were spending less time on its platforms and expected to slow revenue growth, causing its stock to sink 26 percent and lose $232 billion in activity, making it the largest one-day decline. in US history. It seems, on Instagram and in its headquarters, it’s sad: This summer, the CEO Mark Zuckerberg has limited spending on the company while encouraging employees to “work and stronger” and threatened to cut low performers. “Maybe there’s a group of people in the company who shouldn’t be here,” he told employees.
Being crazy about Instagram is like being crazy about the president: Expressing frustration about it is a rational and logical response to a problem that cannot be solved, the problem of power in the the hands of the few. In 2019 I wrote about how, in ten years of its life, Instagram breaks our brains, trains us to see each other as a marketing symbol and separates ourselves in two. In 2021 I wrote about how video-first social media platforms can make as many changes as they like in response to realizing that their products are damaging the self-esteem of users, but it never solves the problem they created. In 2022 I wrote how Instagram will fix the video and stop the bad news on the site and increase the work necessary to be successful on the site. Instagram has created the illusion that beautiful and beautiful places are impossible; have lied, many times, but people think as if there is no other place.
Last week, Instagram faced a growing backlash. In an interview with tech reporter Casey Newton, Mosseri said the app will ditch one of the new designs he’s been testing for a while that shows users fewer “recommended” videos than in feeding. However, the changes are not immediate: By the end of 2023, Zuckerberg said that the number of “recommended” posts on Instagram will more than double. Mosseri attributes this change to a change in news feeds. “In a world where more and more peer-to-peer communication has come from the feed to stories and DMs, I think the feed is going to be more expansive,” he said.
For most Instagram users, who don’t seem to call themselves “creators” despite the growing number of people who do, this is not good news. One business owner said, speaking to the Washington Post, “There’s a battle between people who want Instagram to be like Snapchat and people who want TikTok to be bigger. Now it’s bigger and bigger. stronger the former group.
The problem is that Instagram doesn’t pay as much attention to that group as the other: Instead, Instagram sees the best way to grow a loyal and active user base, as if waiting to become popular in before them. Video is just one way to do that. “I think one of the most important things is helping new talent find an audience,” Mosseri said. “If we want to be a place where people push culture, to help the promise of the internet, to push power into the hands of more people, I think we have to do better let’s face it.”
Surprisingly, some of the hottest new social media apps from today – BeReal, NGL, and Locket – have nothing to do with popularity. On BeReal, users can see random photos from mutual contacts, and with Locket they can share pictures on each other’s home screens. Meanwhile, NGL is a Q&A app that became popular on Instagram stories this June, allowing users to connect to ask anonymous questions about the post. None of them promise the complete digitization of the social circle that Facebook and Instagram do, nor do they offer a sense of loss.
This time, Instagram decided to leave everything to everyone. As Meta continues with the so-called “metaverse,” a multi-conceptual vision where bitmojis meet (?), it aims to be more . The question remains as to whether US antitrust laws will be enforced to prevent Meta from using the same management methods there, and how Meta will be able to continue to grow its influence, not same as on the internet. It seems, as crazy as everything is on Facebook and Instagram right now, it’s only going to get worse.
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