- Joined
- Feb 11, 2008
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Isn't that around the time that Instagram became 100% ads? I stopped logging in when they started asking for me to prove things "for security" and haven't logged in since, because it's just 100% ads in the feed now.
Yeah, that probably would correspond to when Instagram really went downhill. I still log in there but rarely post. I do enjoy the content from a few particular brands and some posters but yeah, the number of ads on there has gotten out of control (I’m also not really a big fan of all the videos from random users that show up on my feed on there).
Agreed with both of you guys on Instagram. Honestly, social media in general is a tough place for me, these days.
As you wrote, IG is filled with ads and bots. And the explore function is so distracting with all of its video content. So instead of browsing the people that I choose to follow, I end up being shown a bunch of nonsense... which more often than not is either Boston terriers or weight lifting stuff. And if I click on one of those, then the algorithm just sends me more of that.
Facebook... I can't even. I do enjoy how easy it is for posting family pics and such, but just going on the app will quickly drown you in a cesspool of arguments or moronic comments or posts designed to only get clicks and responses.
I'm into browsing Reddit for sure, but it doesn't have the community feeling. It's hard to get to know people on there, and comments are quickly lost in the fray.
In many ways, chat forums like Styleforum are absolute dinosaurs in tech. But I've been putting more work into keeping this going - like the podcasts and this collab - because it's kind of the only option to really post and discuss these things. And even if you wander over to more current events / politics / COVID-19 stuff... it's still far more intelligent and respectful than anywhere else. That's valuable.
It's certainly the only place where I feel like I actually know people and have friends. Things can be clunky here, and it does seem hard to get younger customers onto to platform, but it's still the best we have... at least IMO.