
How Two Years of Instagram Stories Has Altered the Way We Love, Act and Play - pmcpinto
https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a22588567/how-two-years-of-instagram-stories-has-altered-the-way-we-love-act-and-play/
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vitorbaptistaa
I brushed it off as a mere novelty when Snapchat came with the idea of
ephemeral posts. I was wrong. It really changes our relationship with the
posts, which means we share things that we wouldn't share in other way. That's
pretty neat, but can be abused easily.

The stories are basically turning people into vloggers. Depending on how often
you post, you'll be in constantly thinking "should I be recording this?" or
"what's the next shot?". This can be really draining for the person and their
friends. There are few things that annoy me more than someone recording a
video in a bar or a club. Even worse when they use flash.

Casey Neistat, of YouTube fame, is a great example of a "serial vlogger",
someone that has been vlogging his life for decades. For example, on
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfIc944bSJ8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfIc944bSJ8)
he talks about his girlfriend (now wife). He has footage from 2005 on their
first date, hard conversations when they broke up, and (it seems) every
highlight of their history. It makes an amazing video, I'd love to be able to
rewatch those moments in my life. However, can you imagine living with a
friend that's constantly recording their lives (including you)?

That's where we are headed...

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EliRivers
I wonder how such a thing would affect people; currently, people change their
memories depending on how they feel and what's happened recently and what they
hope or expect for the future and how they remembered it the last time (I'm
not convinced this is inherently a bad thing). Being unable to do that, being
constantly confronted with recorded history differing with our own
recollections; what would be the consequences of that?

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donkeyd
There's at least one Black Mirror episode about this premise. If I remember
correctly, some others also touch this. It's worth while to watch a couple
episodes. They're not all great, but many are good food for thought if you
like to philosophize about the impact of technology on our future.

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vitorbaptistaa
That's a pretty interesting episode, S01E03 for those who are curious. The
Electric Dreams series also has an interesting episode on this (S01E05), but
focusing more on virtual reality than re-living your own past (although one
can easily imagine a VR of your own memories).

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mcjiggerlog
I've seen first-hand friends become absolutely obsessed with Instagram
Stories. It's really tragic to watch and honestly it just looks so embarassing
from the outside. I hate how forced and fake everything is.

I used to use Facebook quite heavily myself, but the only "social media" I use
now is sharing photos directly to friends/family on Whatsapp and making an
effort to chat to/call them every now and then. I honestly feel like I have a
much more social life doing that than I ever did using Facebook.

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uxhacker
It is interesting how the web has become about portraying oneself rather than
new ideas. In a way it has become a massive propaganda machine in how
wonderful the world is.

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fredsted
I think it's also the reason for all the conspiracy theories that are
increasingly running rampant.

No matter what you believe, there's someone out there saying it's a lie or
it's true, there's no absolute truths anymore; anything is real.

As a consequence of that, now that no-one knows what to believe, people are
starting to trust personalities like Alex Jones simply because they're
appealing or entertaining to listen to.

News is just content now. What you believe isn't the truth, it's identity,
your tribe, your personality. It doesn't matter if it's true, it just matters
that it's in line with the belief of your tribe.

~~~
uxhacker
Marshall Mcluhan would say that we have moved from hot to a cool media. Going
from the mainly text based internet of old to one that is very visual. Hot
media is a media of words and sounds and a cool one is that of rich media.
Somebody who is good at projecting an image does well in a cool media.

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anotheramala
As a 41 yr old I am glad I am too old for this.

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joe_the_user
Wow,

I merely do Facebook and few of my friends post very many "personal
experience" pictures. A few do and it feels like no one gets judged that much.
Other corners of the site may have a different ethos.

But this seems like a disturbing way to exist.

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yesforwhat
Social media is like alcohol, enjoy it for what it is and don't abuse it.

If you become hooked don't be surprised when it's a net negative in your life.

~~~
addicted
I found my withdrawal from social media and alcohol was very similar. The
difference is that there is no one tinkering with alcohol’s chemical
composition to make sure it is configured just to fit my personal body
chemistry.

Social media has a bunch of really smart people whose only job is to make it
personally addictive to me specifically.

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erikb
I have a hard time understanding what the social aspects of a photo sharing
site can be. Until now Instagram also had zero appeal for me, especially with
such ideas like that you can only upload pictures from phones.

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factsaresacred
It's a window to the world of people you know/admire/like.

Facebook, for me, became this staid place where people complained or posted
mundane stuff.

I open Instagram and I see:

\- one of my favorite music artists posted a pic from the highest railway in
Japan

\- a gaggle of models I follow are looking fine

\- some street art from Berlin

\- motivational story from Gary Vaynerchuck

\- the hashtag of my favorite city surfaces snaps that give me wunderlist to
return

There's nothing there to make me rage - no politics, no lame memes, no
arguments. Just a steady stream of aesthetically-pleasing photos to make my
mind wander for 30 seconds or so.

~~~
nasredin
\- a gaggle of models I follow are looking fine

A flock of models, some are into fitness, some are perhaps best described as
documentarians of their derriere, are also looking fine in my feed.

Escapism. People used to read pulpy books, now they are just looking at happy
(rich) people and juicy booty.

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nakedrobot2
is this an ad or a genuine piece of journalism?

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mcjiggerlog
Have you actually read it? It's clearly a critique of the feature.

