Personally I think Instagram (The core product, not stories or reels) is to today what Facebook and MySpace where back in the day.
Obviously though that is being eroded away by Instagrams lack of confidence and insistence to fight TikTok, which I also find strange I mean yeah its a vertical feed of video but really why you go to it is really different for why you go to IG, TikTok has more in common with YouTube than IG.
Instagram just did a huge update I think a week or two ago that makes it more like TikTok and people are revolting because it went from "see what friends are up to" to constant ad spam, worse than before.
I always think FB/Meta is about to go the way of Myspace with a popularity drop off but I'm clearly biased as I deleted my account years ago and people still talk about using FB a lot.
I was an occasional IG user and that update was really jarring. I figured alright, I guess I’m not an IG user anymore, and I uninstalled the app without much hesitation.
I think the ad spam was what did it. There was enough already, but it’s way over the top now. I had to constantly stop and check if I was seeing something relevant, as though there was never a long enough break from it to just enjoy my friend’s photos.
This specific decision might actually be that bad and may get rolled back, but people have gone up in arms about Meta’s decisions since the wall was introduced and the news feed was introduced. Plus other features like the FriendFeed acquisition cementing the like button. These are all things that people assume are obvious near requirements for social media and some other Web 2.0 sites.
> I mean yeah its a vertical feed of video but really why you go to it is really different for why you go to IG, TikTok has more in common with YouTube than IG.
I imagine that's actually the point. IG has little need to build for the people currently on Instagram. They're getting that ad revenue already. Their goal is to get new people to join IG and trigger ad views, and TikTok proved that there's a huge crowd of people that can provide for that goal. They just need to expand the product to appeal to them. So that's what they did.
I get what they're thinking but it's very small minded of them to just assume the existing people will stick around if you change the fundamental product they signed up for.
I think it sort of used to be, but now it too, has passed on.
Once Instagram Stories started more and more real friends started just posting Stories clips and less photos and updates. Now my feed has all my friends just posting random Stories clips, and actual photos are dominated by advertising and influencers.
IG doesn’t have any of the people directory. It’s heavily focused on bigger brands, profiles, influencers, and seeing random stuff from these entities I have no personal relation with.
Facebook of old was like what the OP was saying. IG is only marginally like that with friends pic posts.
This is regardless of whatever tiktok stuff since I don’t use IG much for the same reasons as OP.
Facebook was popular in the era when it wasn't used as a people directory however. It was used as instagram is currently until older people came in and the website became very commercialized.
I don’t literally mean a people director but closer to that than what IG is. Are you referring gtfo Facebook pre 2008? That’s a small time period to look at since that’s when it exploded in popularity and would otherwise be a relatively quaint site and company if it stayed the way it was in 2006, 2007. It still remained close enough to the same for me until maybe 2012 at earliest.
I agree - the best memories of FB I have is when people I know used it to post updates about their lives, often via sharing photos. AKA what Instagram used to be like before Stories took over.
I uninstalled Instagram this week because of all the video. Its not what it was when i started using it. Seems crazy that Meta can ruin FB and Instagram the same way at the same time. Bye.
Obviously though that is being eroded away by Instagrams lack of confidence and insistence to fight TikTok, which I also find strange I mean yeah its a vertical feed of video but really why you go to it is really different for why you go to IG, TikTok has more in common with YouTube than IG.