Instagram Hates Its Users
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- čas přidán 30. 08. 2022
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Im an artist and while Instagram isn't the ideal way to showcase art, it has really been the only platform where my art can get any traction. Watching my engagement drop by over 50% over the last few months + feeling forced to make my art process a performance that I can film as a reel has been very disheartening.
Me too 😭 I’m no good at making videos so it’s genuinely upsetting that I can’t get an audience without making a reel or tiktok
@@supercalifragilisticex that's what an art process video is.
@@supercalifragilisticex yes, we can all do that, but some people would prefer not to. Some art is fine to just see as a photo, so it's frustrating to see an app that was ideal for artists when it was just photos, but now they have to learn a new skillset of making an interesting video.
It's especially harder for traditional artists as you have to make your workspace look nice, or not make any obvious big mistakes while making it cause it's more likely people will scroll by. Why do artists have to show the process for people to be interested? I don't know. It's just extra effort for something that should be a personal process.
I remember when I used to get likes on my art I don’t get any likes anymore. Except from family. And my art has improved. It makes no sense. Especially after I’ve promoted my art with real money.
Yeah the same has happened with my toy photography. I went from 300 to 500 likes to barely 50 because of their change
From time to time I'll hear someone say "how can they do that to their customers?" and when it comes to social media, friend, you are not the customer. The advertisers are. You are the product.
When the "product" is free, you are the product
absolutely 💯 this
@@spicybaguette7706 unless it's hulu, where you're both the customer AND product
Unless it's a public park. Nationalize everything!
The changes suck for the advertisers as well unfortunately. No old best practices really work. Ad spend is atrocious and it's hard to gauge where that fall off is coming from. There are all these new normals that no one can calculate because they make swift changes with very little explanation. And this is great for the platforms for now because ad spend is way up, but the results suck.
"If CZcams started to prioritize shorts over all other content"
OOOOOF that didn't age well. At. All.
I wish I could just turn off shorts
@@kelvisaisawesomeum…You can. You can just click the videos tad and you can ignore youtube shorts
YOOOOO ITS FRANKLYYYYY ITS SO WEIRD SEEING MY FAVORITE 3D PRINTING CZcamsR IN ONE OF MY FAVORITE CZcams COMMENTATOR"S CHANNEL TFFFFFFFFFFF
@@randomguyontheinternet8345 Of course you can just ignore but this person is saying they wish it just wasnt on the app
@@randomguyontheinternet8345 I don't think that works on mobile
Shoutout to tumblr users for just refusing to let them force us out of a chronological feed. Yahoo lost $1 billion because we made the app so toxic to advertisers. Porn ban aside we've done a pretty good job of beating the company into submission.
After the billion dollars, I think the Tumblr staff started becoming really chill and the recent changes haven’t been that bad.
Tumblr is the last bastion of social media that isn’t over complicated shopping adverts mixed in with reels and stolen concepts
@@crazysmith5408 I for one think people blazing their posts and getting upset when they get flooded with replies that disagree with them is peak comedy.
tumblr is so insular that the community resists change to the point of insanity and i ADORE it. i still remember the hell raised in 2016 when the post format changed to an objectively better version fondly
@@loralogue it’s like submitting your posts for peer review but you have to cough up money. On paper it sounds like a good way to pay to win at getting followers but like it’s tumblr LMAO no one is winning there, we all just clock in for the daily shift at the circus (I wouldn’t change it ever)
can’t believe tumblr is the last social media with a chronological timeline…
i love tumblr but the places i loved the most basically moved to twt (like some fandom spaces and mostly gimmick accounts just became a twitter thing),
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that tumblr is known for barely working and yet it is one of the best platforms. A lot of media now need to follow Tumblr’s more hands off approach
@@user-xh8tl1su6x And yet for some reason when I switch to chronological timeline on Twitter it only lets me read like three hours worth of posts
Tumblr is a (micro)blogging platform, which is why it stands out/afar from other social medias out there, because it really isn't a social media at its core.
@@juicyboxesxo idk what ur talking about lmao. tumblr still is going strong
As someone who got off tiktok because short content messed with my anxiety, I’m so frustrated that every app has decided to become tiktok
I haven't heard of that before, if it's not too much could you explain what about short content messed with you so much?
@@anoint3068 yea, I've heard many talk about anxiety but never heard of this (not trying to say it's not real or that they're lying-just curious)
just wait until you hear about youtube shorts
Yeah,idk what’s exactly causing such effects but this type of content really messes with your brain. I’ve never had TikTok but my bf has and it actually caused changes in his sleep cycle and made him more irritable . Everything went back to norm after he deleted the app:/
@@anoint3068 the best way I can describe it is imagine listening to music and the song changing every 30 seconds. You end up constantly bracing for the next song, you never fully relax into the content. Also the comments section was so toxic it made me miss 2003 CZcams comments.
I’m so sick of every app becoming like this. The amount of times I’ve found myself losing track of time scrolling through instagram reels and CZcams shorts is sad honestly. And I can tell that it’s making my attention span shorter.
It's legitimately depressing at this point. And it makes me feel guilty to complain about because, well, it's my fault if I lose track of time, they're not making me scroll... But it's aggravating nonetheless.
Jarvis put it perfectly. I can't blame them for doing what they're doing because obviously they're gonna do whatever makes them more cash, but I'm still frustrated about the trend of human biology and psychology being silently tested on and then used to get people to buy more. Capitalism breeds innovative ways to get more capital.
right. i deleted tiktok bcs that was the biggest app that was keeping me on my phone for hours,… but now theres also youtube that i cant really just delete as easily and then instagram too😭 like damn cant i just turn the reel/short option off at least
@@Marispider I cannot agree with this more, I had trouble putting my thoughts into words and everything you said is 100% true
@@munioni Same I’ve tried setting time limits but I can just turn them off so it doesn’t even work :(
same here I think I have ADHD and I find both IG reels & YT shorts so addicting, I really wish there was an option to turn them off
tumblr seems to be the last platform standing when it comes to not using algorithms on their feed, and this is not cause they are good at what they do, its cause they are incredibly incompetent at programing, moving any part of their base code crashes their site... but in a way thats the beauty of that site
thats all we want tbh. it's a little basement and it's home
Wouldn't want my brain to rot anywhere else
that's interesting. built on spaghetti code?
they literally do have algorithms though? there's "based on your likes", "best stuff first", "in your orbit", the recommendations page, etc. it's just that their userbase is so particular that these things can be turned off
@@bosselotiscanon oh yeah, like the userbase hates them and a lot of the time we make extensions to block those features shfjdjf
“TikTok has been becoming TikTok for years now”
such wise words Jarvis, can’t agree more
Someone had to say it and he was brave enough to!
This is the deep analytical content I am here for
He's so very insightful, it still dazzles me to this day
I used Musicly when it existed, so yeah, he's not wrong
0:13
As someone who just graduated high school, I’m like 80% sure that in the end insta is just gonna become gen-z facebook. Instagram is literally just the thing i’ve been using to keep track of my school friends that i probably won’t keep in touch with in the future. 5-10 years from now (assuming it’s still around) it’s just gonna be the thing i check occasionally to look at my old classmates wedding photos and find out when the reunion will be.
I agree, although millennials would be on the all as well haha. I think that it’s gonna be something mostly artists and influencers like from CZcams use to engage with viewers.
Correction: that’s what it will become if it *doesn’t* make the current changes. Instagram is copying TikTok and abandoning its old model on the chance it’ll become gen z’s CZcams. It might not work, but it stays the way it is, it will certainly fade away like Facebook.
i've been thinking about this too and its extremely disheartening. i'm a photographer and it's like, where do i even share my art for my friends to see now?? i have years and years of work up and i don't want to just abandon it, so i'm holding onto instagram but it's less and less enjoyable opening the app each time. i don't know a single one of my friends that posts reels. all i want to see is my friends!! now we have nowhere to go to post permanent photos :(
i wouldve left instagram by now if it wasn't for my online friends that i need to keep in touch with. if we were neighbors i wouldnt even have the app
As someone who works in middle school, Instagram already is GenZ Facebook. My coworkers don't know how to use it, the kids don't know how to use it. Zillennial Facebook, maybe? 🤷
Instagram: Makes algorithm favor videos
Users: Make more videos to stay relevant for the algorithm
Instagram: “See? People are shifting to video on their own!”
Just thinking about that
CZcams's doing this with shorts as well.
As an artist, I stopped using Instagram ages ago, right when reels just started. My engagement with my audience really was cut in half by how hard they pushed reels and their stupid shopping section.
That’s so unfortunate…I’m an artist too and being on Instagram currently is so draining. Having to adjust to reels and constantly find ways to put yourself out there with an algorithm that shuts you down is just too much.
I grinded to get 100 followers just on reels as an artist...... I can now say it wasn't worth it at all. Reels don't get commissions and it's very frustrating
ugh same i've been growing my art instagram for so many years then with all the changes it went down hill so so fast and it's been so discouraging... i barely do art anymore because of how burnt out I got trying to keep up with art as a possible career (since changed directions) AND trying to gain any kind of traction or audience at all on social media and keep up with the "algorithm" which is literally impossible cuz it takes me multiple days for one piece 😢🫠 the advent of AI and the lack of good community spaces for artists to share and actually gain attention on their art is discouraging to established artists and especially new artists who are trying to get into it i would imagine
Same here. My income as a comic artist was very much dependent on Instagram, and it was disheartening to see my reach drop by over 80%. Anyway, i tried very hard to keep up and forced myself to make reels (which were so cringey), and they just made me feel worse, anxious, and hopeless. I slowly started moving out of instagram, to other platforms and also in other fields lf work. But yeah, it hurt like hell when instagram sorta pulled the rug from underneath me. It's like a toxic relationship. Also hate scrolling through reels. Does a number on our attention span. I hardly use Instagram anymore.
@@shreyahehe I'm so sorry that you were forced into other careers, away from your passion, due to this nonsense. It breaks my heart to hear stuff like that. Please don't totally give up on your dream.
Artists on Instagram are losing so much interaction and it hurts to see people losing interest in your art just because its not an animation...
that or an incresibly curated video of your "process" (i.e.strategically placed tea cup and house plant on the desk). I'd love to share my art but having to basically plan and film a mini movie about my sketches, drawing and final illustration only to end up with like 30 views is not worth the hassle.
It’s not that people are “losing interest” per say, it’s that the algorithm just doesn’t push the art to the top because it cares more about videos than images
@@suddenlyapril106 also about the "process," I don't really wanna have to give away the way I make things in order to get views... so yeah I've pretty much just accepted getting barely any attention on my account anymore
@@frnk708 yes!! also also: i did once try and post a video but because the videos that do get pushed are often also very perfect and "satisfying" and I use a lot of scrawly pencil in my art, some twerp actually tried to give me tips and said "maybe you should try making the lines cleaner" lmao
right.
-an artist
who is struggling
as a daily tumblr user, that site has yet to start becoming tiktok. it is, in some ways, immune to trends like that, which is what makes it so nice to hang out on. you know exactly what you're getting, chronological feed, it's easy for content to spread without any algorithms... also it's nice and quiet cuz everyone left
this is why I genuinely adore tumblr -- that hellsite remains a hellsite without putting on a little disguise that reveals its actually tiktok
this is making me want to go back. 😫 i also like how anonymous Tumblr can be
yeah but posting is like throwing your content into the void. it’s hard to get found if you’re an artist. i had to stop cause i was getting two likes on each post, like wtf???
Dude I was just thinking about this. Despite all the flack tumblr gets for being… well… tumblr, I’d say that it’s honestly the last true SOCIAL media. Its entire model is essentially based around interacting with others and building lengthy discussions on whatever topic you’re interested in. You may not be able to go viral or build fame as quickly or easily as on tiktok or insta, but I honestly prefer tumblr’s “make friends and join communities in order to get notes” vibe because even if I get substantially less traction/interaction than I would on any other site, i at least don’t feel like I’m selling my soul to the algorithm. instead of putting a cinderblock on my creative flow in order to figure out the optimal posting schedule or whether I’m “allowed” to post something because it might be outside my “niche” which will confuse the algorithm and ruin my engagement, I can just talk about stuff I like or show off something cool I made and there’s bound to be someone out there who will find and appreciate it. I may not get any impressive numbers, but I’d rather have 8 people leave paragraph-long comments about which small details they appreciated in my writing or how they’ve reread the entire story again because they love it so much than 120,000 people just taking 2 seconds to write “love this ❤️” and then immediately forgetting I even exist lol
yeah tumblr and yt are my social medias of choice. sometimes reddit too
Dude I'm a casual Instagram user and I can not express how much I HATE the algorithm home page. Like I will see 3 posts, each multiple days old, from a large account in a single scroll, but will not get any posts from people who I know in real life. And probably 75% of the accounts I follow are people I know in real life. This actually makes me want to spend less time on the app.
there’s no bigger company killer than corporate greed
....no, corporate greed is what builds most companies
or at least, it's for more likely that corperate greed leads to further growth than ruin
I'm a cosplayer, and this shift is so frustrating to anyone in the art/photography/etc. side of Instagram. I can remember getting 4-6X the amount of engagement on my posts when I had half the amount of followers I do now (which has been pretty stagnant over the last year or two). And I just cosplay as a hobby - I can't imagine how stressful this is for people who are trying to make a living off of any kind of art or online content.
Also a cosplayer here, I remember getting 1k ish likes on a good cosplay post when I had half the following I do now and now my posts won't do well unless it's a reel. It's so frustrating and hurts small creators
Hopefully a good alternative will pop up soon, but seeing how that is going for CZcams, I'm not so sure. Good luck you two!
yeah, as someone who's starting a clothing brand and was going to advertise my stuff on instagram... i hate to say this but... i think advertisting on tiktok might be better ☹️
Also a cosplayer, and YUP. It's so frustrating. My reels tank too, no matter if I post with or without the TT watermark. I just want to post and see pretty cosplay pics and WIP stuff.
@@dabordietrying TikTok is pretty hard to gain a loyal audience to as well imo, you can have a viral video but it doesn't mean the people who watch that stick around. Also hard when the algorithm changes all the time :( I wish you luck in your clothing brand!
At least with CZcams Shorts the main core of the website is still intact. Instagram is looking to change the app into something different almost entirely, essentially forcing millions of users into using an app they did not ask for.
Exactly! Every social media app steals features from other successful apps, the difference is that the core dynamic that made their app THEIRS is more often than not, unchanged. Instagram on the othet hand has been actively trying to become its most successful competitors for a while now, with tiktok being the most dramatic change. I wish it could just imitate other apps if they want, but without having an identity crisis every time they do 🤦
forcing is a pretty strong word for a free app. they could just stop using it altogether. a petition made while everyone continues to use the app all the time isn't gonna have much impact. but strikes work. you threaten their money and they will change. it's capitalism's weak spot.
If I wanted to use TT, I would use TT!
It’s all meta’s fault. Facebook completely changed too a few times which is why I’m no longer on that app either
I don't mind youtube shorts. I can watch a video, scroll down and see the shorts, watch one, then when I come back my video just keeps going. The only one of the copy cats I don't mind lol
“Offered to buy twitter”
Oh Jarvis from 3 months ago
Lol
How innocent lmao
"buy twitter"
Oh PokeRedstone from 8 months ago ☠:P
“Twitter”? Haven’t heard that name in years.
Oh god.
As a user experience research professional, this is so frustrating. Everything they’re doing goes against the user centered design principles we are trained to implement. Not a surprise from Facebook but a scary reality for the future of social media and any type of community platform
this^^
I am studying ui/ux and doesnt companies prioritize $$$ over anything? So to me this isnt surprising. I learned apps will purposely screw over users to make money
meta has such a huge monopoly in social media that they can confidently screw their users over to cater to companies without fear of losing popularity.
I’ve been a tumblr user for many years, and while it’s a long running gag that the staff is kind of incompetent and the site/app always has a weird bug or two going on, they have consistently backed off when a new update was widely disliked, every significant change comes with a fair advertisement (and none has ever changed the way the site is meant to be used), and you can opt out of experimental features they’re still fiddling with.
it’s kinda dystopian that not being at the mercy of a nebulous algorithm is something that can’t be taken for granted anymore.
@@ghosthuntinbun5947 how does it help their profit to screw everyone over?
@@positivevibesveda their profits come from advertisers. It benefits them to keep users on the app for longer (by making u scroll more to find what u want, or getting you sucked into watching reals for an hour for example) because then they can show you more ads and make more money. Anything that increases screentime increases their profits.
"there are new instagram users being born every day" what a horrifying statement, thanks Jarvis! (also your hair looks fantastic!)
yeah, reminds me of the "replacement smokers" idea from the tobacco industry. YUCK!
I sometimes forget that Jarvis is a professional software developer, so he's making no assumptions; he knows what he's talking about when it comes to online services.
exactly!
With a ridiculously big degree to prove that too!!
He's way too dumb to be a software developer
Wow, i did not know that! That puts a lot more weight into this commentary!!
@@vaishnavisingh9244 was a software dev. He specifically stopped doing it a couple years back. But that doesn't make him uninformed though
I'm disabled myself and I have a lot of disabled followers on Instagram, and let me assure you, a LOT less people care about video accessibility than photo accessibility 🥴
nobody cares enough to write image descriptions, and even less people care about videos. Automatic captions are an absolute nightmare, especially because there is ZERO universal design across platforms!
0/10 would not recommend social media
Hey, coming from a UX/UI perspective, you could always sue the company for not meeting accessibility standards. It’s becoming a bigger and bigger thing for UX/UI designers to design based off of accessibility standards because the company doesn’t want to get sued. It’s worth a shot.
This is why I always try to use image/video descriptions on stuff I reblog on Tumblr. It's frustrating how few people do this
that’s the one thing that sucks about tiktok. ppl have to mess with the captions to censor themselves or videos get hidden pretty much
Nobody wants to put warnings before they put a bunch of bright, flashing lights in their videos either. Feels like CZcams is the only social media where it's safe to just scroll through posts anymore.
I was wondering, what is the purpose of image descriptions or descriptions of videos? I’ve tried to think of some but haven’t come up with anything
It's so odd that social media apps are constantly working AGAINST the creators who post things to that app. They make it harder and harder for social media influencers to make money from posting things, even though media is what those platforms need to keep afloat.
The entire time the ceo man was talking about how recommendations are a good thing and how they're helping you "find new content", all I could think was that this man has forgotten that his app has an 'explore' page already. This 'new feature' has been implemented for a while now, and it's much better than shoving recommendations into people's feeds.
YES THANK YOU THATS EXACTY WHAT I WAS THINKING TOO. The explore page was an excellent happy medium for new content and content you already follow. I loved being able to see what my friends and other people I follow were up to and later going into the explore page to see new stuff! Now everything is convoluted and tbh i see more "suggested pages" than I see stuff posted by people I follow which really defeats the purpose of following in the first place. In the end its plain as day that the only intention is to make people stay longer in the app for the money no matter how much harm it brings to content creators and people's mental well being.
@@Aros4 there's a friends only toggle in the top left corner btw
YES! EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING! IF I WANT TO FIND NEW CONTENT AND CREATORS JUST LET ME GO TO THE PAGE SPECIFICALLY FOR THAT! AND THEN LET ME HAVE JUST WHAT I FOLLOW ON MY HOME FEED PLEASE
@@leahdavis9434 thats good to know! But its also a shame that this feature isn't as obvious which is probably intentional. :(
@@leahdavis9434 omg I never even noticed that the Instagram logo was a drop-down menu 😮
it's just so frustrating. the reels don't even bother me that much, it's the shoving all the messages and notifications up in a corner so they can have a shopping tab
Yes
Pinterest did the same thing annoying as hell
it's so weird. does anyone even use that tab? the only times ive clicked on it were to see what it was and misclicks
YESSS
literally!! like who the fuck opens instagram to go shopping!! i miss when apps were different from each other. i don't want to do everything in one app. as the years go on the corporate gluttony gets more and more disgusting. all we are to the ceos and company owners are products to be sold to advertisers
There's no non-disgusting greedy reason for them to not implement separate tabs for photos and videos, maybe with an option with both. They already have a reels only tab, they could very easily do the opposite. This would allow videos to reach the people who actually want to see videos and to avoid watering down their metrics by showing them to users who aren't interested. It would give a platform to both kinds of content and allow for a more personalized UX but they won't do it because they simply do not care if people are enjoying the app, they only care if they're using it.
It's mostly because they don't care about long term, their user base is declining for years now and they just want to be young and hip.
Literally
@@bluester7177 And honestly, because capitalism dictates that things must always grow, they could keep the same exact user base as before, or even grow slightly and slowly, and they'd probably still decide to implement these reels. Because you are right. The same billionaires who are destroying the planet's ecosystem for more money are absolutely short-sighted enough to destroy their company for more profit. Reminds me of Square Enix who sold Tomb Raider and 3 studios for fucking NFTs.
this whole situation just makes me more mad at billionaires for literally being able to do whatever they want. i have a feeling instagram wouldn’t be so bad now if zuckerberg hadn’t bought it
Absolutely, I hate that little alien worm
There is an economic incentive to turn you into a mindless-scrolling zombie. It doesn't matter how much money they had. Protect yourself
Instagram immediately declined once Mark bought it. It’s sad because I had a lot of people I actually became friends with on Instagram and I refuse to use it. Haven’t been on for about 3 years.
zucjerbergs🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪
I’m an instagram artist and getting any traction these days is so much harder than it was even like 5 years ago. It’s really disheartening that drawings I spend hours on get so little recognition because it’s not a video. I wouldn’t mind reels so much if Instagram wasn’t trying to make it the ENTIRE platform. It should be a photo sharing app with videos as a bonus.
Not an artist but back in 2012 I had an instagram meme account that had over 300 followers which is a really small number BUT considering I was mostly shit posting and I was getting a lot of likes and follows without trying to do anything in particular to get followers, it was a lot. Some time after as algorithms kept changing engagement went down out of nowhere, I didnt care much but for others that used their account more seriously Ik it was a huge hit. I remember my feed and explore page were full of artist from varying medias and drawing abilities with followers reaching over 1000. Many of these artist would have never even gotten 10 followers in 2022. Many I saw grow as artist and it was so cool to see and I'm so sad that now a lot of their work is getting unrecognized despite their hard work
@@Aros4 Exactly! I started my account in 2017 and I was able to grow a good amount but it’s dwindled to practically nothing the last year or two. It sucks and it’s so unfair to people who do static visual art.
jeez me too, the same thing has been happening to me
@@razznatazz i used to be an artist on there, started in late 2016 and indeed it was so much easier to grow and get recognised. Now, its just incredibly grueling.
natxpack Hey, drop your @, I'll try to support you and give you a follow
Its so frustrating for people like artists (and as you mentioned, photographers) or anyone who was used to the photo based algorithm to gain publicity to now just switch to reels. I don't use tiktok, but I get recommended art compilations sometimes, and the art videos are just so long and drawn out, I'm not even interested to see the end product half of the time.
You know, for a little while there, way at the beginning, the internet was a glorious place for artists. Then the corporations and the tech bros got in on it and now my agent doesn't understand why I, an author who writes long form about complex cultural subjects, don't want to promote my stuff on Twitter.
Complex cultural subjects.
On Twitter.
@@clementinedanger i as an artist who just draws quite goofy "safe" art am avoiding twitter, they'll find a way to make you problematic no matter what you do so its a safe assessment to just not 😅
@@L0rdOfThePies Twitter is a scary place to be as an artist, especially if you do fan art, everyone’s got a problem with everything on Twitter, lmao.
@@L0rdOfThePies For some reason the literary world is in stupid love with Twitter and I, a dirty socialist tran who writes about dirty sex stuff, am not looking to get the Isabel Fall treatment. Book Twitter is genuinely nice and supportive and a lot of fun, and so is trans male Twitter, but lord preserve you if you piss off the wrong clout-warrior.
Some workarounds that might work for some: posting sped up footage of making the art whether that be drawing, painting, sculpting, or colour grading digital photos. Bit more difficult for traditional photography where the nearest equivalent would be showing the developing process which definitely takes more work.
this is why tumblr's chronological, algorithmless, optionally anonymous platform is superior.
I don't think Tumblr is algorithmless. It suggests stuff based on what you've seen.
@@isabellamorris7902 but one’s feed is primarily chronological with the algorithm serving you the occasional post. It’s a decent middle ground
They made it so that everything goes in the middle like tiktoks feed
Having a chronic illness where you often don’t have much energy, I’m really feeling these changes in a negative way. It ment a lot to me to be able to post photos and scroll photos. It was less overwhelming
Same - TikTok was too overwhelming and now IG is pretty much the same
Same. I miss photos because it was easier to share with my friends but they can’t even see my feed anymore.
It seems to really hate artists too because if you don’t use the new stuff, you’re gonna get less traction unless you already had a lot of followers before they made this big push for changing the app so drastically.
Dude fr. It’s so mentally and physically consuming to make art in a form where you can watch it as a reel, and even then if you aren’t posting one like every to every other day you loose so much interaction.
I've been plateau-ing on Instagram for the past year because I just don't have the time to make reels of my process; it sucks but at least all of my clientele comes from Twitter so...
I went from 90 average likes to like 20 and I wouldn't say I am very huge, I have some 140 followers and even my best friends haven't seen my post in their feed, just reels. It's frustrating, because all I am asking for my followers to see my work and my work to appear in hashtags.
@@vaishnavisingh9244 same i have 7.1k followers on ig but i only get 30 likes on my posts average because most of my audience likes my reels not my post
@@milkisreallygood8957 ugh yes, I have even seen some reels of artists about this issue, but it still stays, people watch reels more than the posts
i just want instagram to stop sending me “___ posted on their story” notifications every fucking hour. i literally have notifications turned off
same! or the “follow ___ and others you know to see their photos and videos” like i literally do not care or know who these ppl are..stop recommending me people to follow that i don’t care about.
@@uufruity Facebook does it too. At least with Facebook you can stop it. But yeah I hate the stupid notifications that doesn’t say anything.
it’s bc of Zuckerberg. the former ceo left bc of this. he wanted to reduce the amount of notifications and recognized how annoying the user experience would be, but Zuckerberg forced his new rules without consent.
I love how the CEO talks about how fast the world is changing and that they need to keep up with it, but here we are in 2022 and there’s no tablet version of the app. It’s still a small rectangle in the center of the screen
My biggest beef with the algorithmic shift is that it literally destroys one of the big things I used to turn to Instagram for: time-specific updates and announcements. You could follow your city, or a band or a venue and get updates on upcoming events. In a chronological feed. Now, I’ve frequently had the frustration of running into an event announcement that’s 2 days out-of-date by the time I get it. It’s unnecessarily destroying valuable functionality.
Destroying the attention span of people to make better consumers
Yesss!!!
Amen
Yup
Yup and that’s why I prefer CZcams honestly
@@quirkyblackenby For videos youtube is the best option. I still like posting pictures on insta though. Reels, not so much.
Here's an alternate view: here in India, the government banned TikTok in 2020 due to a conflict with China. More than 230 million Indians are on Instagram, making it the largest audience on the app (for context, that's about 40 million more than the US). It might seem like the new direction Instagram is taking is universally disliked, but that's likely just the Western audience- pretty much everyone I know has switched to Reels for all their short-form vertical video needs, even if the videos are all just recycled TikToks. I can definitely understand why the shift to video is frustrating for most people, but at the end of the day Instagram is a business and I don't think they'll risk losing such a large proportion of their user base which is now invested in this new feature.
Not only is it people from india, but generally everyone who doesn’t want to use tiktok.
Only the best meme content from tiktok makes it over, so most of the garbage is filtered out thankfully.
i knew it was coming when India decided to ban tiktok. I hopped on tiktok just for memes. but Instagram just had this spammy way of recommending videos, that i ultimately left that platform. Even if users might be unhappy in western countries, they're still making big profits from India. I mean, look at facebook, its still so much relevant in India that it boggles my mind.
This is why I read the comments on Jarvis' videos. I always learn something. Thank you!
Why not be clearer about the positive response from international users, then? Why carry the whole thing out in a manner that shows such disdain for your users? Their PR response so far has been hot garbage (and I say this as a PR professional); when they could've gone for transparency and courtesy, they went for obfuscation and antipathy. But ultimately, they don't care, because they'll force the feature so hard users will comply out of exhaustion.
It also has the bests of tumblr besides tiktok. I use tumblr too (I only use tumblr and insta) but I dont spend time on it as much as I spend reading tumblr posts on insta. Even reddit. I also read some reddit posts and I dont even have reddit.
I absolutely HATE Reels on IG. You know what feature Instagram doesn't have that TikTok does? A flashing light filter, so that you can avoid content with flashing lights. I can no longer functionaly use the app for fear of having an epileptic episode because some random user I don't even follow has reuploaded a flashing TikTok that IG has decided I need to see. It sucks!
I swear, everytime I hear the term 'content creator' my soul dies just a little. The garbage social media ad machine is not conducive to creating actual art and it fucking sucks that talented artists have to jump through such ridiculous hoops to eat. These stupid algorithms are the creative equivalent to fast food, just empty calories with little to no substance.
Honestly as a videographer /editor I fully agree. It might seem like it's good for usdue to all the video content, but "content creation" has made it way more difficult over in our art as well. No one has the attention span anymore to actually watch engaging videos NOT involving ads or Tiktok-type content. CZcams is pretty much too over-saturated and investor-obsessed for creators to really thrive and Instagram favors reels. They all favor sensationalism over other types of content. I have a focus on video editing and because of these gimmicky-type editing styles and content creation over-saturating everything, the value of people who actually got formal education has significantly went down. Can't even find a job in my field that will pay a livable wage because they now expect us to work for less than what my local McDonalds is hiring for due to the oversaturation. It's really disappointing to see how many artists cannot sustain themselves any more due to these constant changes. A lot of us aren't hustlers or business-savvy or marketers and we don't want to be. We just want to make our art.
@@krazyxki exactly, once the switch came from calling it art or photography or videography or music to just 'content' it was all downhill from there. It's all cold and detached, and you're right, people's attention spans are so short now not only when it comes to watching, but in searching for or engaging with new art. It's all the same stuff in different wrappings thanks to the recommended page. Seriously, best of luck dealing with this landscape as an artist, I get the urge to be jaded and cynical, but I do still genuinely get excited when I come across something new and made with heart. And I know I'm not alone.
@@Hitchcock00Starlet 🥺❤❤ Thank you so much, you as well. I'm the same exact way. It's hard to have any hope or drive in my passion, (I don't even make any work nowadays) but once it comes down to it, I get inspired by art and love making it. I hope you continue to hold on to that spark we all get when creating. Best advice I can give is whenever a new platform pops up, try and be one of the first to utilize that. Maybe look into platforms on the rise and start posting on those just in case they become big. But yes, wishing for your success and happiness!
In a bizarre turn of events, Tumblr has become the most enjoyable social media app for me nowadays
Very true
I find myself on Tumblr more and more often and it's quite worrying 😭😭
Yeah tumblr has significantly mellowed out and its awesome
Too bad the more popular it gets the more likely it is to become pandering
@@L0rdOfThePies funnily enough every time tumblr tried something new the user base would always sh''t on them and tumblr would have to undo the feature
@@imhappy7632 💀the drama when tumblr banned all 18+ content was wild
It seems that you either die a Facebook company, or you live long enough to see yourself become a tiktok knock off
or both
company: pushes video features and posts
users: unhappily watch more videos because they are 50% of the interface
company: users LOVE videos!!
me coming back to this in 2023 and seeing yt force shorts down everyone's throats: 😥
we really appreciate your long form content, ty
I've been pissed at Instagram recently bc I go there for PHOTOS and stories and I don't want to be bombarded with sound and visuals when I just want simple content condensed into images.
Seriously. My brain is already so loud thanks to a combination of tinnitus and ADHD, so the constant sound from videos has made instagram overwhelming on a sensory level.
@@jennycvek677 you don't have to answer If you don't want but what is tinnitus?
@@FirstNameLastName-wh8hm not the person you asked but tinnitus is where you hear continuous ringing in one or both of your ears
@@jennycvek677 I'm glad somebody else gets the sensory thing. Sometimes images are all you need
@@FirstNameLastName-wh8hm oh no problem! It’s a chronic ringing in my ears. I’ve had it for over five years now and it varies in how loud it is, but it never totally goes away. Don’t go to a concert while you have an ear infection, kids 🙃
I think a big issue is that there also aren't any good alternatives to instagram for photographers + other artists
Exactly like there is twitter and tumblr but both have their own struggles as well (twitters formatting and algorithm) (tumblr’s censorship and also algorithm)
For me Deviantart is a nice alternative (I'm an artist, but the platform is comfortable for photographers too), so I'm using it for 4 years now. I like that pictures can be any size (not like on Instagram, only squares) + they can have transparent backgrounds.
But currently they're trying to make more and more money on their users, so some things are only for core users (aka people who are paying to use the website) :/
maybe reddit could be a good place for now..
A number of photographers like myself (amateur) are moving to Vero. You can upload full quality which isn't possible on insta
@@gkb_wildlife I do think Vero is very promising, my main issue with it tho is that it doesn't have nearly as many users as other platforms
"Good morning, Jarvis."
"Oh hi, Mark."
LMAO I wonder how many people don't even realize how many levels of humor this encapsulates.
The 2 levels you mean?
i need to know (a year later) 😢
@@nayth_193 So "Oh hi, Mark" is a quote from a movie called The Room. Great (terrible) movie. And a little added humor because Jarvis is the name of Tony Stark's AI.
As someone who already doesn’t use instagram all that often, all this just makes instagram totally obsolete for me. If it’s not going to offer a unique experience, or just one that’s worse, why would I choose to use it?
Instagram: *automatically converts all future videos into reel format*
Instagram: "see, everyone is using reels"
yeah like we had a choice
I hate the way insta has pushed it’s users to start making reels
While it does bring ppl onto more feeds all of the attention is for the reels instead of regular posts and it’s frustrating as an artist
Not to mention my explorer page has been affected by it bc now instead of my usual art and meme posts, my feed has gone back to what is once looked like when I started on insta :/
based on tiktok, that audience being bigger doesnt matter cause theyre more likely to not be long time viewers
I agree. I follow literally thousands of artists and still end up only seeing reels for the like 3 per accounts I follow that post reels every day or just sponsored stuff. I feel like reels is cool for artists to have the option to post like animations and for influencers to post short videos, putting regular photo posts out as much as reels is something that need to be done. What’s your insta account btw?
The algorithm is also terrible at learning. I liked 1 cat video, and now all of the suggested pages post cat reels.
As someone who regularly uses Instagram (I don't like it but I'm kind of addicted) I sometimes find reels frustrating because they don't give you enough time to admire a finished artwork. While reels are fun and addicting, if I see an artwork I like on a reel, I'll usually go to the creator's page to try and find a photo of it, and it's disappointing when the page only has reels. Makes it harder to find what you're looking for.
I'm the opposite, I hate reels with a passion, I don't want to wait to see a finished artwork or tattoo, I don't want to see a process, I just want to see it finished.
And you can't pause the video as well, it sucks that the video will loop for eternity while youre leaving a comment
As an artist, I don’t even know what app to use anymore- tumblr is incredibly hard to get seen on unless your posting fandom art (still love it tho) , amino is….special, deviantart is weird and hard to get seen on 😭, and instagram sucks
Same, I love tumblr but my original art gets like 2 likes
I tried to start an instagram last year. My behavior was marked as “suspicious” within 2 days. All I’d done was follow a few student organizations at my university…
💀
LMAO
This is such a Dwight from the office moment
my account was suspended not even a day after it's creation. i was baffled
When I was in high school, me and my friends made an instagram account with a slang for weed (not even in english) as a joke. It was banned in mere hours. I’m still confused to this day
Instagram feels so dead and communities I’ve really enjoyed have been drying up like crazy because of all of these changes. It really seems counterintuitive to be forcing people to make and post Reels while refusing to share posts of people you follow 90% of the time.
Yeah all my fun meme pages either stopped posting or are just dumb TikTok reposts now
I stopped using Instagram 2 years ago due to mental health and recently I’ve been trying to get back into the communities I loved because they made me happy, but it’s so depressing looking at them now. There’s barely any engagement, no new content, and basically the community is dead. It makes me so sad because this was one of my ways on engaging with the fandoms I was in but now I don’t know where I can do that. if you have any place that’s good for fandom culture, please tell me 😢
@@yokoniyasuwa It gets a bad rep often, but for smaller communities I think reddit can be great. You can also ask in the community subreddits that you are interested in, if they have recommendation for other platforms that host your communities of interest. For me personally I follow the "OtomeIsekai" subreddit which enters around manga/manhwa/manhua stories that occur in another world. Although most of the stories are female audience targeted, I have also seen comments from quite a few guys that enjoy the stories. They also often post memes that make fun of cliches in the stories, and simp over characters lmao.
Even before Reels, they'd always talk about "expanding the reach of creators" when their actual actions only ever lessened people's reach. This has been happening ever since Facebook (now Meta) took over.
As an artist, instagram is really the only social media that showcased Images, and I haven’t seen growth in years, and it’s impossible to exist as an artist online anymore unless you already had a big following, it sucks,
Pinterest is image based
I personally use discord to share my art in the small communities im in, which helps a bunch because of how many people want commissions. It’s not a bad place to be for an artist, esp in a market of ppl who can’t draw but are creative
@@wplants9793 Pinterest is for looking at ideas and references, it doesn't work well for artists
My art teacher said to try showing your drawing processs on tik tok... to grow and that feels wrong somehow
Fr. It sucks
My take on this is that abandoning a niche you created in order to overtake other apps created to fill a void is only going to destroy the app. Facebook literally did this, and is the worst social media platform by far: hence why they bought instagram in the first place, to try to maintain relevance. As soon as they did so, it was obvious they would do the same things and fail the same way, but its still sad to see.
There really isnt another really good app specific to sharing photos over anything else: Facebook is often articles, links, or rants. Twitter is short sentiments, jokes, or complaints with a side of pictures. CZcams is all about long form or medium form videos and shows. Tiktok is all about shorts. Instagram had this really good niche that none of the other apps was filling and filling well, and giving that up to try and fill an already full space is absolutely silly even if it will result in immediate profit. Killing the app in the long term will benefit no one but the shareholders and CEO/Upper management.
Alienating existing demographics to try and compete with other services with a different demographic doesn't often work out in the long term, especially when you actually arent as good as a service that was designed from the beginning to fill that niche.
this
Yup. All the second a new photo only social media app is born I'll jump ship to it and other artists will do the same.
it’s interesting people haven’t really moved to vsco or vsco hasn’t tried to like, fill the void
Pinterest
@@deanmoriarty6015 I think vsco's whole thing is that it's not publicly social: you can send things to people or privately favorite pictures, but no one else can see that or comment (they don't want comments bc they want just a photo sharing app, no toxicity or drama). You can publicly repost, but if you followed people that were all in the same circles, you'd see the same post over and over and over and would probably get off the app. So, they'd have to revamp or get rid of their only public feature to be able to accommodate instagram-style users
One industry I noticed thats been heavily affected by this is the art/tattoo community since it mainly all photo based. You also forgot to mention the "popularity" aspect of the app, if you're a creator you also have to interact with everyone on your feed for the algorithm to show your posts to people, the algorithm only cares about how popular someone is on the app and if you're doing paid promos for them.. and if you lost traction from the new shift to video it's incredibly hard to get going again. You can have thousands of followers but only get a few hundred views on your stories and 50 likes on your posts.
Facebook was like that, then they just stopped showing it completely.
The way that the CEO of Instagram talks to the camera like it's a small child
As an old that stopped using IG years ago, I felt really confused by different apps that seem to have identical features. Glad to see I'm not out of touch at all, and the features really are identical.
woah AM from i must scream
The line about "more and more people are uploading videos over time" is also sketchy because, like Jarvis said, content creators are being FORCED to change to get their content seen. More videos are being made BECAUSE of the change, the change isn't happening as a result of the content creators themselves
Honestly as an artist myself, Instagram is the only social media app I really post any of my art on. And while I have a good mindset with myself, and I try not to let any numbers get to me, it is honestly disheartening to see something that I may have spent literal hours planning out and drawing only do half as good as a reel. And don't get me wrong, I actually like how reels are formatted and how easy they are to make (I like it a lot better than the Instagram TV feature by far). But what I don't like is having Instagram push the algorithm towards reels, ignoring the fact that pictures and art is a big part of their app.
Instagram. Appriciate your artists who don't want to make videos all the time. Please.
i wish there was a better platform to share art on and actually receive engagement on it :/ after all these years of being on instagram and orienting myself to creating FOR instagram i've sort of had to train myself out of this "creative preformative" way of creating art and posting it because it was so draining to be so focused on it that art wasn't enjoyable anymore. even now i don't enjoy art as much as i used to and i think it's because i spent so many years burning myself out trying to reach some inaccessible standard. anyway yeah. i too wish there was a better direction artists and especially growing artists could go in to share their work.
I remember when Instagram stories first dropped and I was like 🤔 this seems oddly similar to Snapchat. From a business standpoint I do not believe that Instagram will regain it's hype because the users are unsatisfied and the app has lost its touch. The constant adds, scammers, and just the overall lack of identity will be it's demise
As an artist it’s absolutely horrendous, reels are basically animatics and I just want to post art and comics. I hate how every app is trying to be tiktok but artists are forced to stay in it cause it’s the only way they get traction
Most immediate takehome:
Most companies - and most people in executive positions in companies - really REALLY don't like admitting that any change they made is a mistake. It was funny when the exec described what they've done with Instagram as "experimenting", because for no rational reason, that just told me "we're not going to change this back even if it fails and everyone hates it".
I'm not an IG user, but using CZcams as an example: I don't think anyone ever asked for Shorts. I don't think I've ever clicked on what I thought was a video and found a Short and thought "Hooray! Thank god this isn't longer!", and I'm not convinced that anyone else has either. But CZcams still fires Shorts at me.
I think there's a danger when so much selection is delegated to the 'gorithm that these sites don't really have a good way to tell the difference between what we're choosing to consume and what we're just not bothering to turn off (although tbh it might not matter to them). But unless I'm completely wrong, I feel like if CZcams had asked people if they wanted Shorts, most of us would've been nonplussed, asked "Wait, THIS is the problem you think you need to fix?", and then told them that, no, we didn't load up CZcams because we wanted to use TikTok.
Ikr
The "CZcams Shorts" feature is absolute garbage. Why would I want to watch videos that I can't full-screen, that autoplay other random videos when I scroll down, that don't have a seek bar, and that start over when I'm done watching them?
@@andrewkoster6506 It's funny, people my age spent a long time waiting for Facebook to be replaced by the next social media site, because for a long time, there was always a next social media site. Most of these sites were designed for a specific purpose - e.g. MySpace was created largely for bands; Facebook was intended for college students, etc. - but then we swarmed all over them and demanded the same features from all of them, and they became more generic and homogeneous.
I'm not saying this is our fault, but I feel like it's a trend we started. You have these companies with different but overlapping audiences, all trying to provide the same product to mostly the same people. But no one actually wants that. It would actually benefit a site like iG to say "No, we're just the photo site, take it or leave it", rather than turning into yet another Thing With Profiles On It. Hopefully they'll realise that diversification is actually going to benefit them, but I don't know. Bring back Photobucket, I say.
i’ve never watched a short except one cat video
All the best to you but if I never read 'gorithm again for the rest of my life, I'll be fine. That sent a chill down my spine.
It really sucks now, Instagram was my last social media app I used apart from CZcams. Even CZcams is a lot worse. Has anyone else noticed the ads over the past couple of years?
this makes me so sad bc twitter is like this too. there is no friendly place for users except maybe tumblr in a way
I genuinely think this shift towards short entertaining videos is not only negatively influencing peoples' attention spans as is often discussed... it also greatly impacts the ability to put time and effort into any project.
I'm an animator. I might be biased, but animation seems to me like one of the arts that requires the most patience for the "least" outcome - days and days of work for a few seconds of film. I've been working on my 9 minute graduation film for two and a half years now, and many months are yet to come. Whenever I'm using too much social media I notice in myself that I get less patient... In fact, I see in many people that they are less willing to put hours into something and polish it, expecting fast results.
On IG or tik tok, you see sped up progress videos of art pieces, jump cuts to a finished piece, etc. It messes with your brain. And even a piece of animation that MIGHT still have a degree of success on a video based platform are then consumed and forgotten in the blink of an eye. No wonder all animation "content" you see on IG is dumb scribbles to trendy songs. It's all so effing bland, and heartless, and unoriginal. Thankfully I'm aiming to work in a studio environment and not rely on social media for my income because oh boi... art on social media is dead, man
100%, the only art I post on social media is art I was going to make anyways for my portfolio or personal work. Tryjng to catch up with the algorithm just suuuuucks otherwise.
Also big love to animators, I don’t consider myself one but I am chipping away at a short film and BOY did I underestimate the patience it would take to go through the entire pipeline on your own.
As an artist, I 100% agree to animation being the one that takes most patience! And it's frustrating to see the decrease in quality because quantity is being pushed forward
art is so dead on instagram, i literally just use it as an easy portfolio with an easy way to message me
and to keep up with friends on my private account where i mostly use stories and DMs anyway
You're absolutely right, I used to have a good memory but I can feel it actively deteriorating from the short form content I watch
I feel this, I'm in fashion design school and seeing reels of people making clothing over the span of a few seconds really messes with my perspective on how long it actually takes to make clothing. I had to unfollow a few accounts because it was stressing me out that I was taking "too long" to make something - turns out I'm fine, the videos are just messing with my expectations.
I actually disagree, Jarvis. I think a lot of casual Instagram users even hate the current platform. I don’t think it’s just content creators at all, i think a lot of people are frustrated with Instagram constantly trying to be a different app. I see it all the time from mu mutuals who post just for fun, not for job purposes.
As someone who has been using Instagram since 2013 (yes I’ve actually been there that long) I just want Instagram to go back to normal, it used to be so fun and now it feels like a job or an obligation. It’s more serious than what it was before. I miss Instagram just being casual, both the users and the platform itself. I’ve witnessed all the changes myself and I can confidently say the old Instagram was better. More than anything I just want chronological order back. I miss being updated on my mutuals instead of being 3 days late to their posts.
Actually true. I had joined instagram around 2013 and it used to be so chill and i actually used to have fun scrolling around and posting pictures. I have a screenshot of the old instagram with the blue top bar in my google photos and sometimes i come across it and it makes me think of how simple it used to be. Now i don't even check Instagram that much anymore :/
I've been on instagram since around 2016 and you've described my issue with it perfectly
I've been on since 2016 and it's true. People are frustrated with the app but I can't fully leave because it's where most my online friends are. Then the frustration means the posts are less fun and casual, and we are just watching the features bloat and the ads increase until now there's an ad for every 3rd post. There's entire tabs I never use (shopping?? What is the point in that??), and it just feels like each update damages it further.
My parents who never post and just use Instagram to keep up with family, now hate Instagram. They don't want the videos, they don't even like when I post reels. They just want to see photos of their family and friends. My parents who are nearly in their 60s might not be the "ideal" age the app wants as it's user base, but I get my parents point that they shouldn't feel excluded either.
I downloaded instagram when I bought my first ipod touch in 2011 and wanted to find photo editing apps. the app has been amazing in many ways for me, and I made a lot of friends through instagram which is cool. it just gets worse and worse though.. and it’s sad to see.
And then there’s Tumblr, who’s developers are scared of their users. Rip Posts+ 🙏🏻
Ok I’ve got some stuff to say.
1. Jarvis’s hair is looking really nice today
2. This was actually an extremely insightful video that took more surface-level ideas about Instagram changing things and why it could be bad but took it a step further to explain what the company’s actual goals are behind making these changes. Social media and analytics as well as what different companies do in order to keep a consumer base is a really interesting topic to me so getting to hear from someone who worked at a social media company like Patreon was really insightful and interesting. Thanks Jarvis!! :)
There is no way they’re only testing this on a small percentage of the instagram user base when everyone is experiencing it…
I've never seen it and neither has anyone I know so I think its very dependent on what country you are in
I’ve not seen it and I’m in the US.. I only saw one person I follow talk about it. None of my friends have experienced it either.. so I’m lowkey lost on this whole thing
@@trollisourbriteeggs6282 I've seen reels, I haven't seen where they make the whole feed look like reels
@@frognamedjog Basically all video on Insta are reel, if you click on one it gets you to the reels and you can scroll them
i also can't stand instagram bc it's like "heyy i know you wanna see your friends and family and stuff but instead let's look four different ads for underwater socks" like ???
As an artist on Instagram, it genuinely feels like you can't really grow anymore (especially for smaller growing artists that have a different art style compared to your average fanart artist). So many artists enjoy posting their final product but there's only so many ways you can post it, at least without it becoming a drawing process video or an animation. It really feels like it's trying to squish all artists into 2 boxes (make reels, get the engagement you deserve or post normally and get your engagement cut down).
Not everyone has access or can film their art since they may do things differently, so it cuts down from the hours we put into our work and doesn't give us recognition for our work. Really hoping there's another way around it, since so many of us have started on Instagram and it'll affect how our work will turn out.
i completely hate this still but a year on you're literally completely right. they never take any of the protesting seriously because people complain for like 2 weeks and then move on. literally even creators complaining about this are like oh well. guess i still need to do this. it's ridiculous
Netflix, inexplicably, is also becoming tiktok if you use the mobile app. They just. Play clips of movies and shows in vertical format. It's....super weird.
wtf
That must be their big plan to get back all of those customers 💀 " lets just make a tiktok clone!"
They also have that little red dot that doesn't go away unless you go onto their clips tab :) it's *infuriating*
It’s funny to me that Instagram takes every feature popular on other platforms and expect it to work out for them.
To be fair, stories did work well for them, but they can’t abandon what does work for trying to add new things like they’re doing now to push video content
@@XOmangoXO right! They’re losing their own identity by adopting features from other platforms, but since they’re not experiencing much financial loss from it, Instagram is almost being encouraged to continue to rip off their competitors
@@marswithtrees Yeah but their goal isnt to have any identity its to have all the identities and a monopoly on content
@@ktw72 mhm, it’s honestly rlly sad that they prioritize revenue over what makes them unique as a platform
By force!
Even Pinterest is becoming a TT and Snapchat lite. It's really frustrating for me as an educator who goes there for storytime ideas and half of the posts are videos or glitched out stories that don't link resources--it just links back to TT. It's also frustrating as someone who enjoyed the calm, not overstimulating feel it used to have. I sometimes get a headache after clicking open three glitched stories in a row thinking they were pictures.
Instagram isn’t always kind to their reels creators either. If you want to get paid for making reels you have to wait for a ”reels play bonus“ invite that May or May not ever come, regardless if you’ve gone viral or not. There is no one to contact about it either.
You know the sentiment of being tested on without consent strikes a pretty strong cord with me. Generally if you want to perform tests on people you need consent and I think it's weird they have found a loophole to experiment with how we think, act, etc. I guess some of these web sites do have statements in their EULA, but it still seems like they are being sly about it.
It’s not really testing people in the same nature as like, a medical trial. It’s testing if we like it, which is something every person has done at least once in their lives. Probably your favorite youtuber has done it. Idk, it’s not that serious.
@@katielynn4438 psychological studies still require consent, which is what this is...
Because they are hosting us, we don't really have rights on their platforms :/
@@YourAverageReviews It surprisingly does not require consent. Doing a psychological experiment like this would be a single-blind experiment, and it only requires a very base level of consent. You are giving the base level of consent by signing up for the app. I'm not excusing the scummy behavior of these companies, but everything they're doing is allowed sadly.
we did given consent. when we downloaded the app.
The Photography issue also hits the other art communities hard.
My use of Instagram is pretty specifically drawings, but now we really can't post our art without turning it into a video somehow. It's impossible to compete with videos now, especially when we're already fighting the Instagram feeds with ads and suggested content so we have a hard time to even reach our followers and friends.
If Artfol had more users, it would be amazing
not to mention the “recommendation” feature is useless because we literally fucking have an entire explore page
It feels so strange to me to see how important this issue is (and I'm not trying to say it shouldn't be, I feel really bad for the content creators struggling with this situation) because I never felt the need to open Instagram more than once a month ? Like it almost feels dystopian to me.
Instagram like “with this cool update, you are now forced to have your ears blown out at full volume with no option to mute the random tiktok ripoffs! Hope you enjoy Bluetooth car rides in drive thrus with your family!
The whole spiel about using recommended to try and help promote creators is absolutely bizzare to me. I have never once thought of Instagram as a "creator-driven" platform in the way something like CZcams or Tiktok is. I've never used Instagram as a tool to blindly discover new content from people ive never heard of before. I'm on Instagram because I want to see what my real-life friends are doing, and I want to follow celebrities I already have an interest in. Maybe my experience is different than the norm, but it seems to me like they're fundamentally misunderstanding how their user base views the platform
Right like there seems to be a lot of creatives in the comments sharing their experiences about it sucks and absolutely agree this is devastating for creatives, but even if it was good for creatives… there was another purpose for ig to begin with and I would be upset if that got overlooked too
I’ve never thought about it this way. I completely agree. But it has changed because they are following the $$
and like every so often I will get a recommended post from someone new based on who I followed, or when I follow a new person I see recommended ppl to follow, that's when I go to their page and look at it, especially for art. I never go to tags or discover anyone. and most times like you, I'm following ppl who I discovered say from CZcams, or comics or even twitter.
Exactly!
Fr bruh idgaf about these randoms on my feed
As primarily a user (rather than creator) of social media, I’ve been mad at Instagram for a while now. It’s mostly folks sharing their TikTok posts anyhow, plus 20% of my feed is advertisements. I removed it from my phone…Doom scrolling and getting very little benefit from it. I’ll stick with long form (cringing that 20 minutes is considered long form) like CZcams.
As a casual user, we DO care. I haven’t seen my friends and family on my feed for years smh
i thought about using Instagram for my art, but i realized after browsing on ig it’s really not easy to do anything besides the “trending” things like comedy reels, pets influencers, or the typical tiktok star
Take it from an artist whose been posting on insta for 4 years now, it's not worth it anymore. It really pains me to say it but it's the truth. You'd be better off on frickin' deviantart these days
I was using insta for 7 years, and stopped recently because it was making me look at my art for numbers rather than enjoyment. It sucks and I hate it, and will be moving to deviantart lmao
With the state of the internet for artists right now (etsy becoming boho-amazon, IG not promoting pictures anymore, having to constantly perform to hold attention), I'm more and more convinced that it's offline that I will "make it" as an artist. I'm still using IG to post from time to time, so I have a portfolio I can show people when they ask me about my stuff. But I have almost no engagement, I had less than 100 followers even after 4 years and I've made more connexion just by going to live art shows and getting a day job related to cultural mediation.
There was a time when I thought that the art scene had changed because of social media - which is true! - but I know now that it's not the place for me and that I'll be way happier as an artist and a human trying to get my stuff known in a more traditional/conventional way. I'm never gonna go viral and I won't be a millionaire overnight, but at least I won't trigger my performance anxiety trying to chase algorithms made to serve already rich multinationals...
Im an insta artist going on my 4th year. Not worth it. Use Artfol or smth, im too stuck into insta now that shifting is really difficult for me
We really need a new photo sharing app since it's not even a thing anymore! There's literally nowhere for artists who just wanna post pictures of their art and be able to grow like wtf? I'm just thinking about someone who wants to make it their job but can't even have a platform to share and be appreciated (and who doesnt wanna make videos) . It's so frustrating to me
remember when they tried to buy Snapchat and when they didn't get it they just stole all their features? every app has a story feature now. the cycle continues
Instagram does have a chronological order option - always interesting that it doesn’t seem like a lot of people know this. When you’re on the Home Screen of instagram and tap “instagram” in the top left, the default is “favorites” but changing it to “following” makes it chronological and only those you follow.
I hope some rich tech mogul comes up with an app like the old instagram. Then we can put instagram to the trash where it belongs.
I mostly used Instagram to look at photos and art, and occasionally to post photos of my pets. If I wanted videos, I'd go to CZcams. I never really got into TikTok.
I hate this trend of every social media platform becoming homogenized. They all have to do the same thing. Which ultimately means none of them stand out. So what's even the point of having multiple platforms? As soon as something new and "game-changing" comes along, everyone's going to jump on that trend. And the cycle continues.
"So what's even the point of having multiple platforms?" It seems the hope of Meta is that there won't be a need for multiple apps and that the app everyone will settle on will be Instagram. I don't know if that's a good gamble though...
as an artist with depression / anxiety, who struggles to post the artwork I do make, feeling like I have to now make video content along with art just to be seen on the site at all is.... incredibly disheartening..
Not to mention that they'll make it seem like you're losing followers, even though your analytics state otherwise. I was consistently gaining followers for months, but for whatever reason when I slowed posting a bit around 900-1,100 followers, it was practically *impossible* to stay over 1k for any length of time, despite me not losing likes or being in any sort of conflict. That's a huge reason why I abandoned the app. My account also had much less engagement, which added to the feeling that people were mad at me for some reason and just blocking me instead of saying something.
Literally
They could very easily make everyone happy by making a tab for videos and a tab for photos
This is partially why I use the desktop instagram site, which doesn't support reels. It helps me see my friend's photos without having them interrupted by some algorithm-selected tiktoks that don't interest me.
As an artist on instagram, starting my acct only a year or two ago, it has been extremely hard to get my work out there. Most of my posts, if not all, are fanart, simply because I know that fanart gets more attention than anything original. One of my biggest complaints about Instagram is it's formatting. The ratio between reels and pictures is so skewed that you can't really create content with both in mind, else important things get left out. I can't make a drawing for a post, and then expect it'll work for the reel, since reels are the full screen size, and posts aren't. The quality gets tanked, the interactions are close to none, why even bother?
@@cartermilan I could do that, but a piece created out of a 1:1 ratio for, say, a reel, will never be able to be viewed in its true entire context in a post. I want to have a work be able to be viewed as one singular piece, not five cut up chunks for a stupid Instagram post simply because the ratio is off! I could make a reel, I could show close up shots but thats not how it was intended to be viewed, and I'm kind of tired of changing my artistic view just for some stupid ratio switch. Plus it's more hours I frankly shouldn't have to put in. Reels take time. Post editing takes time.
@@cartermilan also I'm not making an excuse. I'm making a critic. I still use the platform and I still make my art. But I'm allowed to be frustrated with how my artwork is forced to be presented.
@@aeiou_ena Yeah, fully with you on this one. I’m neglecting reels because I refuse to sink time I could be using to make art in order to make low-quality reels about my art that I don’t get to make.
Also @ the whole “getting traction” thing, I’ve been posting for about 6 years now, and only recently did I stumble into the luck to make that initial jump to 1k. There were times when I felt disheartened about putting my art out there, since it felt like I was dumping things into a void. It really helped to remove myself from instagram. Since no one was looking anyways, I just posted something if I was proud of what I made. If someone saw it, cool. If not, also cool - that means I can spend more time making art instead of worrying about engagement. I know it’s not a direct fix, but it helped me give myself space to enjoy what I was doing a little more. Social media is extremely fickle, and tailoring your art to fit the whims of algorithms is the fastest road to burnout imo. Anyways sorry for the super long comment, I just had a lot of thoughts reading your comment.
(Also, if you’re comfortable sharing your ig handle on youtube, I’d love to see what you’re making. No worries if not, good luck on your art journey!)
@@cartermilan I get how the ratio change seems pretty unimportant tbh. But I will say, by your logic, very few features on Instagram are truly “forced”. They just heavily incentivize the parts of the app that they do want you to use, and design features around how they want you to interact with them. The whole aspect ratio change might seem small, but I think it’s significant when you consider that reels have to grab your attention in a short amount of time, and awkward crop/zoom out on a 16:9 ratio just looks bad enough that I’d probably scroll past it. Not to mention that there is a significant artistic difference between different aspect ratios for most artists - I personally hate drawing for a 16:9 ratio, and nothing looks right if I try to squeeze something into it either.
Vertical video sucks. I'm sorry that your art is being forced into that stupid format.
Yeah.. I am also an artist like some of the other comments, and I have to say.. I never jived with Instagram. I felt like I had to switch from DeviantArt when it updated to Eclipse because everyone was SUPER pissed about it and left for Instagram. I begrudgingly followed, but I could never seem to get the hang of it. Not only was it all, "Post on this day at this time specifically or else NO ONE will see your art!" but it also made it so my canvas size could only ever be square or it would crop it weird, or I would have to add some ugly black bars on either side to make it fit. Then the quality was bad so no one could even look at the finer details anyway. Recently I've kind of given up on it and switched back to DA. At least I can upload when I want and it doesn't look all pixilated.
i dont have a DA, but im considering getting one… what was wrong with Eclipse?
Honestly... deviantart is the site I get the most interaction from, weirdly enough. Twitter, tumblr, instagram, engagement just sucks.
wtf is eclipse, I haven't used DA seriously in years lmao
For those who have been away from DA or unaware, Eclipse is the update they made to the interface since DA is like.. 20+ years old. Basically everything was shuffled around, not even just the profiles.. everything was different and people just seriously didn't like it. I was of a mind that I could grow accustomed to it with time, but all my friends in my circle were unwilling to give it time and all vacated to Instagram. It's really.. not SO bad.. I'm still getting used to it myself, but it's tolerable. I say if you don't have a DA and were considering making one, definitely do it! You probably won't have trouble adjusting to it at all unlike old farts like me who have been on DA for 13 years. XD If you had one in the past and are curious, log in and take a look around. :) WhiteReaper I feel you on the engagement!
@@leesigalaxy eclipse isn't *horrible*, but as a customization junkie, I'm pretty sad I can't make my profile super cute anymore :(
These "experiments" are usability tests, theyre testing what features work and what doesnt, im studying to be a ui and ux designer so all this stuff is super interesting to me.
Yes! Thank you. (Not a UX designer, but work closely with them.)
I mean, you could make a good case that there are dark patterns involved here. So it's still scummy because they're clearly not prioritizing a good UX or healthy, growing user base (I actually wonder if they expect IG to close soon, so they're trying to make as much of that TikTok money as possible)
@@isabellamorris7902yeah ive actually spoken with my prof whose been in the ui/ux industry 20 years and he 100% thinks insta has dark patterns! It is scummy but i guess thats how social media companies roll, that theyll prioritize money over good ux. I definitely think facebooks downfall will play a part in their decisions
I thought the explore page was for finding new creators. I loved Instagram because it was so organized. Now it feels like a jumbled mess. When I go on Instagram all I wanna see is my friends cute baby, a cute dog, a funny meme and, a beautiful photo from somewhere I’ll probably never get to go but is still on my bucket list. I only have a quick break in the day to look at these photos. What I don’t wanna see is a bunch of videos (I’ve already seen on tiktok) or post from people I don’t follow and never wanted to follow in the first place.
I am a “fair weather” Instagram user and have never really liked the app. I use it to post my art though. I’ve noticed as well a SIGNIFICANT decrease in my engagement for photos of my art lately. I had no idea about reel-mageddon until this video. It sucks bc making an “art reel” requires you to also A. Be a film maker or B. Record and speed up your entire process, which doesn’t at all work for the way I create. It sucks because my art seems to be fading away to even further obscurity again.
Same. I used to get over 400 likes on Instagram, now I’m lucky if I get a 100 likes.
I feel the same way. I also post my art on Instagram and I feel like the only time I'm on Instagram is to post cuz i hate seeing reels and suggested posts in my feed.
This whole video I was thinking, could you just make a video that is a few seconds long of a single static image? No need to film a video, but it would get recommended as a video lol
This. I HATE making videos for my art, it never looks good and I genuinely never have ideas for this
It also c) requires you to share your process with the public, and enables easier reproduction of artist's work by plagiarists
I think sharing a process can be really helpful and is great for young and learning artists, but you should be doing it by choice, you shouldn't have to show it for minimal recognition of your finished work