Fun & Famous
WHY THE ‘NEW’ INSTAGRAM IS INCREDIBLY ANNOYING
Instagram changed very sneakily last week. In the night, no less. I woke up to a message from a friend who wrote in a state of utter panic: “I only have five likes on a post, Kiek. Five. Instead of thirty.”
A complicated story in one sentence? The app's timeline is no longer chronological, but based on your likes and comments, you are shown more of your followers. So if you're popular with many followers and likes, your photos are still somewhat visible in the app. If you're a bit less popular, tough luck, and you miss out on hearts because you become less visible. Noted by my friend.
“Zet je postmeldingen aan”
In the days following the update, one photo after another pops up on my screen with the almost desperate text: “Turn on your post notifications.” Because, if you really like someone or stalk them neurotically, you can opt to receive a notification every time that person uploads a photo. Which I find a bit ridiculous, because don't you follow on Insta only the people you like enough to see photos of? Anyway, a friend of mine decided to turn on notifications for her thirty ‘favorite’ people. After two days, she went completely crazy from all the push notifications. So it turned out not to be such a good idea.
“Instagram creators, WHY does this suddenly have to be different?”
It was quite nice to see your dinner photos around mealtime, #TGIF hashtags on Friday mornings, and dance and cocktail pics on Saturday nights, right? Instead, the app now determines for us what we like, also based on the profiles we visit often. Photos from less popular users are buried in the depths of the unpopular Insta landscape, where the photos of the aforementioned friend are now also housed.
Now that's already quite unfair for my friend, but what do you think about small webshops? For them, less engagement on a photo can directly lead to less profit. In a world where it seems to revolve around who collects the most hearts, this battle is now fought unfairly. If I grab my phone right now, the first ten photos are definitely from popular bloggers that I do find ‘nice’, but I hardly see my friends anymore. While I do give them hearts and follow them for that reason. By following people, I indicate who I want to see in my timeline. That really doesn't need to be determined further for me. Or is this a prelude to having to pay soon? What's up with that, Insta?
