We Need To Talk About Instagram

Okay so let's be honest no one wants to write about this, every time I hear myself moan about it I cringe a little because on the grand scale of things it doesn't matter. But then I start to think about the time lost, and it doesn't seem a lot at first. But then you start to think about the amount of shots you took, maybe a flat lay you set up or perhaps hours spent on a cool makeup look. And it's hard not to feel robbed. So what's the issue I hear you cry. Well someone at Instagram had the wonderful idea of mixing up the order of our feeds. Imagine doing that on any other platform, and I'm pretty sure it would have gone out of business already. You log onto Facebook to see what your friends have been up too, only to see posts from a year ago when you lived together or worse just the same four posts for three weeks. It's confusing, it's frustrating and to be honest it's putting us off. 

So why do we use it. 

Yes we do it for the likes, but who doesn't like feeling like they belong. There is nothing wrong with feeling good, sharing your good times or your bad times. Some people have public profiles, some prefer to keep it private. It all seemed to just flow. But for a lot of people it's become a business, or a way of promoting your business. There's nothing wrong with that, most are very open about ads. 

As a blogger, if we had little time it was a great way to share with our readers what we had been up too. For others it was a way of feeling more confident, there have been countless movements that happened here 'free the nipple' we see you. As the platform grew, more and more people poured more time into set ups. When videos popped up, it blew our minds and then they added live video *coughs snapchat cough cough. They seemed like our best friends, who always gave us a boost on lower days. Even when  trolls took time out from their 'busy' lives to leave hate comments, grammers are quick to have peoples backs. Because it seems to give us an inside window into someones life. It's hard not to feel like you know someone, that if you met you would be buds. Some people are your RL buds, even your pet can have their own page.   

It's funny thinking back to Instagrams humble beginners, the concept seemed a little pointless so we all went about taking pointless photos that were mostly out of focus of our dinner or the sky. So seeing so many create magical content, it was the Kween of the social platforms. Sadly it went all Regina George on us, telling us what to do 'we have removed your photo for no apparent reason'  without giving us support err hello I've been hacked can you help 'sorry that's not our problem'. But then a darker side came out, not just from Instagram but from it's users. Yes I'm talking about bloggers buying followers and likes. Does Instagram care er... nope. We have been throw in the burn book and it's not pretty. We aren't even Cady at this point, were the vomit on her shoes and Instagram wants to remind us that they really don't care what we want . If you aren't throwing cash, then you can't sit with them. So it's no surprise we have all become 'moan girls' sorry not sorry. 

If you have never seen Mean Girls then I can't help you. 

So what now, it's not like it's going to get hit by a bus, and see how utterly awful it has become. Or maybe they will, while I like most are losing followers right left and centre I'm using it less and less. I don't find myself scrolling for hours, the effort of having to hunt down who I went to see has killed it. Why should I bother making an effort to create something, to have it in a place where no ones going to see it in the sea of photos. Then I start to think about Myspace, how once upon a time I would speed hours just picking out the right song and getting that above angle just right. Oh how we never thought any platform would ever top it. Myspace wasn't even half way sunk, and we were all jumped ship to Facebook and how we remembered we don't like anyone and Twitter become the one. While we're aware these platforms are a business, and there is money to be made got to cash those coins. We also are the users, and if we don't use it then it becomes another Myspace. So while I think we will all still use Instagram, it's only a matter of time before someone else comes along who gets what we the users need. 

Feel free to leave me your rants about Instagram, think of this as a burn book for it. Come on sweetie put it in the book ......

*note: I was going to save this for October 3rd, but couldn't wait.