Jaded with Instagram…

Yup, it’s another person moaning about Instagram. Because we need one more voice having a whine. But it’s Friday and I haven’t done a Friday Rant for a while, so I am letting loose.

We all know by now (and if you don’t you clearly live under a social media free rock, somewhere, which is probably a really nice place to be, actually, I may come join you!) that Instagram, owned by Facebook (which owns everything it seems, I half expect to wake up one day and find out Mark Zuckerburg has taken over the world. Maybe he could sort out Trump, Brexit, world peace and a cure for cancer via adverts on social media?) has decided to change up the way it works and how we use it and what we see, if we have an instagram account. I am not technical or savvy enough to explain it to you properly, you can go find real people who know what’s what, but from my point of view and my tiny corner of instagram, it means basically…

That instagram decides what I want to see, based on what it thinks I like. This sounds ok, but it pretty much means that I see a very small portion of what I actually like and interact with there, and I miss a lot. I am fairly active on this social media platform, but I am finding it frustrating, because a lot of what i want to see I have to go hunt for, and a lot of my feed, instead of being the most recent things people have shared, can be days old. It’s not really working for me. People have now had to resort to working in groups to get their photos and messages seen. It’s hard work. It used to be fun to use, but now you feel that unless you are a big brand, prepared to pay big money to get your stuff seen, you get lost in a crowd of people desperately trying to work out what hashtags work and which ones will get you “shadowbanned” (which is basically like the naughty step for instagram and you get a time out and your stuff doesn’t get seen, but don’t get me started on who gets picked for that, because as far as I can work out, the people posting porn type photos and spam still get through, but other people get penalized for their hashtags…) 

Let’s also not mention the people who follow then unfollow to increase their numbers. They follow people, and when they get followed back their follower count increases. They aren’t really interested in those people, they don’t actually want to see their photos, they just want an impressive follow count, to catch the eye of brands and big companies. So after a day or two, they then unfollow and hope it isn’t noticed, so they don’t loose numbers. I have spotted the culprits, mostly people with big numbers already, in the 5k and above bracket, who will follow me. I will go and check their account, and see if they may be following me because they really are interested in the random photos of my cats, cake, coffee and kids, and I can guarantee that 99 times out of 100 if I follow them, a day or two later they have unflollowed me. Pathetic and sad frankly, and from my point of view, earns you a block from me. I have even had it happen from the same account more than once. People so desperate for follows they will repeat the follow and unfollow. I ain’t got time for that. I get excited when my follow count goes up, and I get new follows, but really, at the end of the day, I need to have a life beyond how many people like my photos or follow me. I am not a big brand trying to prove myself, and if you are a big brand or person who does that, then shame on you, it’s stupid. 

AND, to top it all off, instagram now is pushing for revenue, and if your account is linked to Facebook or other social media, it is able to track that and offer you adverts and sponsored posts based on what it thinks you would like to see. Creepy, no? So my feed seems to be a rash of adverts and paid posts, and oddly enough, Instagram really hasn’t figured out what I want to see, so none of it is actually relevant or interesting to me. 

I am not a big Instagram celeb. My little account has taken a lot of work, and personal effort to grow, and be a place where I interact and share with those I follow and like (because I genuinely do like them and want to see what they share) mixed with some brands and companies I am interested in, or have worked/am working with.

It used to a fun place, where you could share and like and interact, but now it just feels like yet another social media site that has been commercialized and that a bunch of bots are running and controlling it. 

It’s all a bit sad and jaded, really. It feels like too much work. 

“Well, close your account then”, or “why bother”, or “social media is evil and you should stop” or “why do you want to share your life and see what other’s share anyway, it’s not real” are all comments I am sure I will get. 

Yeah, true, I suppose. But I like my little community on Instagram, I have found solace and comfort in social media when real life has seriously failed to support and prop me up, and it’s also fun and interesting. I have found recipes, brands, ideas, help with all sorts of things, inspiration to loose weight, and also met and made friends with people there that I now relate to in “real life”. 

I just wish for once, that these social media guru bot people would leave one thing alone. They messed with Facebook, they’ve fiddled about with instagram and they don’t listen when people loudly complain they don’t like the changes.

If you are an instagrammer, how do you feel about it? Are you jaded like me? Or do you love the constant stream of adverts, hashtag wars and Instagram telling you what it thinks you should see? 

I am off to share a photo of my cat now, and see how many likes I can get before lunchtime… 😉

Humans are so stupid, what is this Instagram silliness they are on about? Now go like my photo or else!! 

If you really want to, you can find us and like us over there…