I am so not "getting" this Instagram thing / do you guys want to look at each others pictures?

4x5 vs 1x1 fight

I started finally using this thing for something other than lurking art accounts. Been posting albums from my collection after seeing other people do it. Better than letting those things sit on my shelf in secret. Kind of fun to share and get digital high fives while staying pretty anonymous.

What's the deal with IGTV, i.e. why does a >1 min long video have to be artificially cordoned off to some separate part of instagram where you have to click "keep watching," esp since this doesn't even seem to happen when you view it on the web

User error

yeah it's fucking dumb and annoying

Locked out of my account until I furnish my date of birth. Am I overreacting or is this a good excuse to quit IG which I've long wanted to do?

I just gave them a fake one, no consequences I can see

Can I use yours?

But seriously, they do warn you not to give a fake one, but I was wondering how they would possibly know and what they could possibly do if they did know

Giving a giant social media company your personal identifying information? What could possibly go wrong?

I gave them the right year but not the right month or day. So far, my account still works.

Josefa it's twelvety neverteenth, nineteen aught sixtytwelve

I think this is a CYA move in case some 13 year old sees a butt (we did due diligence!). Can't imagine there'd be any consequences for lying if you're an adult.

The new layout is horrible. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

The privacy issues mentioned above would worry me.

But my main feeling about IG these days is just that the nature of the feed has changed so much, and badly.

Roughly, it used to be:

* chronological sequence of things that people you follow have posted.

Then it became:

* algorithmically enhanced stream of posts from people you follow, not in chronological order anymore but with your 'favourites' at the top, etc.

That was fine.

But now it seems to be:

* a few posts from people you follow; an equal number of posts from people you don't follow but are deemed to be related or relevant; an equal number of adverts; many of them in reel / video form.

Something that seemed relatively modest and manageable even, what, 2-3 years ago, is no longer. It seems fairly openly to have become more of an advertising site, with occasional interruptions from content from people you actually know.

That's my own experience at least.

I deleted it from my phone about 6 months ago and have barely thought about it since. I'd take the opportunity to get rid.

i was kicked off of facebook and instagram last year and miss neither. they’re bad

I think you can resolve some if not all of your issues by not using the app and just accessing IG via a browser with a good adblocker, PF.

The only app I know, and I'm advised to ditch it !

I think someone already said it above but who decided that this was the place to put restaurant menus.

I find the browser experience far superb to the app

I definitely use the browser version for my daily posts. Far more convenient.

pinefox if you tap the "..." top right of an "algorithmic" post you can turn off suggested posts for a month, I think it is.

twelvety neverteenth, nineteen aught sixtytwelve

― assert (matttkkkk),

orange

I don't use it often and when I do it's the browser version. Is there something heinous I'm missing besides the legit privacy worries?

When people talk about 'the browser version', TBH I am not sure what they are referring to.

Are they talking about using a computer, or (as I expect is normal) a mobile phone?

My impression is that the app (the thing where you press the IG symbol?) is normal for a phone.

I sense that people may be saying: you should use eg: Google Chrome, on a phone, and access IG from that.

I am not really sure how to do that, though.

I could try it but I am really surprised to hear that it is the norm!

MattKKK's advice looks good - I should at least try that.

I've seen a few different folks in my feed mentioning it, but apparently the major labels (esp. Warner) are really stepping up the crackdown on including even a snippet of their music in a post or story.

Time to turn off suggested posts. Oh no, although I hate baseball and golf I'm a mere human who is easily distracted by moving images so now I must be force fed baseball and golf clips ad infinitum!

yeah suggested posts in the app (and the ads) are very annoying. I find the web browser experience is much better

instagram appears to be transforming into a lame version of tiktok? every third post is a video? thanks i hate it

the new UX pretty much killed my already withered interest in it

I still don't get it. Have never tried using it on a phone though.

I follow some interior design Instas and a few have been doing videos and commenting "insta says I need to do more reels/videos etc to get my followers up" but it totally does not work when you're trying to look at the nice cornicing in someone's living room. But I guess the algorithm wants what the stupid algorithm wants.

I don't really understand the difference between reels and videos, but I have definitely gotten myself stuck in terrible timewarps scrolling through random suggested reels, most of which are not even particularly entertaining. It's like they have an addictive substance in them but one that doesn't actually cause pleasure, just pure distraction.

Like eating chips

Yeah, like bad chips. Like a plain old bag of Lays.

Some of them are at least like a cool dunk or an attractive person doing something or other, but a lot of them are just like "Here are questions people always ask me and my twin" or someone lipsynching a movie or tv quote I don't recognize.

I don't get the different types either. I see Stories or whatever appears at the top and it's often a long series of single posts which I'd rather just look at in my normal feed? I get it if it's related/ telling a story kind of thing but often it's not. And then is it time limited? Or can I go back to their feed and see it in a few months' time? IDGI.

I can't explain why, but Instagram's stab at being TikTok just ain't working.

There's something just a little too saccharine, just a little too pandering, about those videos or reels or whatever that makes it lose any air of authenticity. I'm making this up, but like "Hey, kids! Ya like those TikTok challenges? Well here's one – try juggling three balls at once!"

Insta also weirding me out by suggesting videos of cats that look exactly like my cat.

I see Stories or whatever appears at the top and it's often a long series of single posts which I'd rather just look at in my normal feed?

Yes! And I don't even know what a reel is. I mostly follow artists and they've been complaining for ages about how the algorithm totally sucks, I finally get it.

I can't explain why, but Instagram's stab at being TikTok just ain't working.

There's something just a little too saccharine, just a little too pandering, about those videos or reels or whatever that makes it lose any air of authenticity. I'm making this up, but like "Hey, kids! Ya like those TikTok challenges? Well here's one – try juggling three balls at once!"

― pplains, Tuesday, July 19, 2022 10:28 AM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah I'm only slightly familiar with tiktok and have never had the app, but it does almost feel like instagram deliberately recruited "content creators" to make a lot of these and had some committee approve them, because they're just SO safe and formulaic.

I don't see much TikTok-style stuff on my suggested Insta posts - but they are ALL OVER facebook. Can barely use that stupid site any more (have to occasionally).

oh yeah I get them on fb too. Actually sometimes I don't even notice if I'm in instagram or fb when I'm seeing them.

Ha, on my Facebook feed now 'How to use Instagram for business' ad. I doubt that's a coincidence.

I doubt it will shock anyone but I was banned from Insta for arguing with a troll. I assume they abused the report function somehow but the process is completely opaque, and I’ve had trolls level the most hateful racist etc garbage against me and reported them with no effect. Just more evidence to me of how toxic Insta is, they seem to go out of their way to reward the bad actors. (At least it’s not Reddit where the bad actors are obviously running most of the show now.)

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfMPGWklH1b/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

I feel like this one perfectly encapsulates the impossible blandness of these reels. Like I feel like the people who made this are pod people.

is there another social app that does what og ig did? just one pic and no videos/ads? i just get angry when i open the ig app now, what a mess

Youtube/Instagram seem to compete to see who can more aggressively ignore the "this doesn't interest me" function - any engagement is engagement so here are more self-help/rise and grind/dead-eyed soulless dance posts for you.

I only use TikTok to share animal videos with friends and it seems to still be pretty functional on that point.

There was a couple that posted dances about the husband's porn addiction that were incredible, he looked like he was in a proof of life hostage video. Then I saw in the comments that she was running classes on overcoming your partner's porn addiction so it was all just part of a grift that can't be making more than $20 a month.