Meta bought it, tortured it to death over a few years, and has essentially reanimated it as a shambling, ad-heavy TikTok clone, oozing AI slop, but still wearing the old "Instagram" name like a skin suit.
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| I think my first Instagram post was this shot of Dinky taken at Castle Frostbite. |
I didn't get on Instagram until I got my first iPhone. I can't remember if it was still iPhone-only then or not. My pictures were normal ones: pets, food, fluffy clouds, shit I was doing. They were intended for my friends because I was one of those weirdos who thought that's what social media was for: y'know, being social.
I didn't know it was about trying to game algorithms and rack up followers for big-time influencer bucks. And with Meta at the helm, Instagram was increasingly optimized for that. Now if I were to open the app, I'd probably have to scroll through three or four screens before I saw a still photo from a friend I was following and not a video from someone trying to make money off me. (I thought the whole point of "following" someone on a social media app was so the app would show you new posts when they made them?)
I should probably do like I did with FB and just delete the Instagram app from my phone. I haven't opened it in months, after all.
