There are several factors that contribute to a simply bad app.
Instagram is a bad app now.
I used to have a parrot, so I used to like watching parrot videos, over 5 years ago. Instagram captured that taxonomy, and logged it as my preference, it didn't ask me, it just did it, and now 5 years later, Parrot videos are always at the top of my feed.
There are many reasons for that-
Probably the first is the developers that created the feature, that just wanted to collect a check and go home to enjoy life, so they didn't create a feature for me as a user to opt out of the content bubble.
Now that the company hears complaints about users being trapped in content bubbles, they don't take action to fix the issue because it won't generate more money for them, and they're too busy trying to stop user bleed in comparison to TikTok's growth.
There is also a plethora of creators who live in undesireable living circumstances that desperately need money to survive, so they resort to any measure they can to generate income. This drives spam, fake celebrity accounts, stolen content, and numerous schemes to gain views and influence on the platform. Instagram does not do much to counter this, because they benefit greatly profit-wise from the activity, even though it's often promoted to the growing distress of platform users.
People are exploited, users are exploited, animals are exploited, disinformation is promoted... all for views on these platforms, yet nothing changes, because profit keeps rolling in.
The solution for me in the past 2 years has been to only post things that don't exploit others and then to log off until I have something else useful or entertaining to post. I think IG and many other platforms like it have foregone their utility for someone like me who doesn't want to be obsessed with it... I just want to share my music, comedic posts, and ideas and to connect with people that like them and others that do the same... I don't want to have to pay to be seen, profitable corporations can do that maybe, not me, who really doesn't profit off of my posts.
If a platform can't properly respect that without trying to manipulate me, using it makes no sense to me.
Instagram is a bad app now.
I used to have a parrot, so I used to like watching parrot videos, over 5 years ago. Instagram captured that taxonomy, and logged it as my preference, it didn't ask me, it just did it, and now 5 years later, Parrot videos are always at the top of my feed.
There are many reasons for that-
Probably the first is the developers that created the feature, that just wanted to collect a check and go home to enjoy life, so they didn't create a feature for me as a user to opt out of the content bubble.
Now that the company hears complaints about users being trapped in content bubbles, they don't take action to fix the issue because it won't generate more money for them, and they're too busy trying to stop user bleed in comparison to TikTok's growth.
There is also a plethora of creators who live in undesireable living circumstances that desperately need money to survive, so they resort to any measure they can to generate income. This drives spam, fake celebrity accounts, stolen content, and numerous schemes to gain views and influence on the platform. Instagram does not do much to counter this, because they benefit greatly profit-wise from the activity, even though it's often promoted to the growing distress of platform users.
People are exploited, users are exploited, animals are exploited, disinformation is promoted... all for views on these platforms, yet nothing changes, because profit keeps rolling in.
The solution for me in the past 2 years has been to only post things that don't exploit others and then to log off until I have something else useful or entertaining to post. I think IG and many other platforms like it have foregone their utility for someone like me who doesn't want to be obsessed with it... I just want to share my music, comedic posts, and ideas and to connect with people that like them and others that do the same... I don't want to have to pay to be seen, profitable corporations can do that maybe, not me, who really doesn't profit off of my posts.
If a platform can't properly respect that without trying to manipulate me, using it makes no sense to me.