Instagram is determined to be as not fun as possible. Is Instagram Dying? It is certainly following a path that continues to disconnect users from what they would like. Users have been clear and vocal while Instagram rolls out more features that no one asked for. More clutter, more ads, more influencers, but not more fun.
Is Instagram Fun?
While we ask is Instagram dying, we also need to ask ourselves, is Instagram fun? It seems over the past few years Instagram has added more bloated, cluttered features while not increasing what people want nor is it even focusing on what people like about the app.
“We’re no longer a photo-sharing app,” Instagram CEO Adam Moserri recently said, “The number one reason people say that they use Instagram, in research, is to be entertained. So people are looking to us for that.”
“What you’re going to see over the next couple of months really is us start to experiment more with the space of what we call recommendations, so showing you things in Feed that you may not be following yet.” Instagram CEO Adam Moserri continued, “Right now we’re focused on four key areas: creators, video, shopping and messaging.”
No one seems to be having any fun anymore on Instagram.
-This is Glamorous, 2017
What Instagram is clearly focused on is adding more things and adding more to your feed. Your feed will now feature people you follow, ads, and people you don’t follow. Keep in mind, Instagram likely will not show you everyone you follow. Instead, it chooses who it thinks you want to see.
What this means is if your friends post a photo from their trip or a new art piece they’re proud of, Instagram may instead choose to show you a new cookbook or movie advertisement rather than your friend.
“You may be surprised to learn that people miss on average 70 percent of their feeds,” Instagram said in 2017, “As Instagram has grown, it’s become harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share. This means you often don’t see the posts you might care about the most. To improve your experience, your feed will soon be ordered to show the moments we believe you will care about the most.”
For more information on how the Instagram algorithm functions and who it selects; Buffer gives a short breakdown.
Once upon a time there was a social media app where you could share pretty or interesting pictures and talk to other people about their pictures. You could add sparkly heart bokeh filters and funky frames. You could follow people whose pictures you liked and see what they’d just posted whenever you opened up the app. It was exciting, and fresh, and fun. Instagram really isn’t much fun anymore, is it…?!
-Not Dressed as Lamb, 2017.
More Clutter, More Ads.
Posts, Stories, Highlights, Live, Guides, Reels, IGTV, Advertisers, hashtags, For you, Shopping. Instagram is less of a fun place to exchange photos and more of a cluttered place to see ads. The app is busy and competitive, but also the feed no longer represents what I want to see. So why do users want to use the app at all anymore? Instagram is giving everyone a lot of pretty okay features but not focusing on any in particular. Most importantly, they are avoiding what users want.
It feels like there is a growing disconnect between what its users want and what the app is giving them.
-Wired, 2021.
With the changes on Instagram Wired had collected some user feedback, “You guys CONSISTENTLY undermine what made your app great in the first place,” Amber wrote. “All we ever wanted was a chronological feed to keep up with friends,” replied Jax. “You do realize that what made IG great originally was that it was just an image platform, right?” asked another user. A word that comes up often when scrolling through the replies to Mosseri’s tweet is “clueless”, as does the belief that constant updates are “killing Instagram from the inside” and that the app is having an identity crisis.”
Adding to user sentiment Distractify adds: “Why copy other apps instead of providing something they don’t: photo sharing?” one user tweeted in reply. “We aren’t using Instagram for the videos or the shopping! This is so unbelievably foolish. You’re actively driving users away.” “Bad take, man. Instagram was not made for TikTok videos,” another user tweeted. “Instagram is to share images of what we want to show the world. Instagram is home to many photographers [showing] their passion to the world. By doing this you are essentially kicking us out by creating an opposing atmosphere.” “
Instagram used to be a simple app. It had photos. You could quickly edit them to show your friends your trip or food, or whatever. Now, what is it? Photos, videos, shopping, mostly ads though. It’s pushing a lot of things no one wants.
“So I have a confession to make. I’m getting pretty bored of Instagram,” This is Glamorous said in 2017, “Anyone else feeling bored?”
Featured Image Credit:
Embed from Getty Images
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