Writer's Life - WTH, Instagram?!

The following is nothing more than a whinge-piece.  Yes, it shall be narrated by Bitmojis of yours truly.  You've been warned.

So...has anyone else noticed the changes to Instagram in the last few days?  I am less than impressed.  Don't get me wrong, I love IG.  It's my favorite social media platform.  It has the best (IMHO) community of writers and readers anywhere.  The format is great in its simplicity.  Post a pic and a caption.  Done!  Nothing else.  I super dig it, and I can't imagine where I would be without it.  The latest changes, though.  They stink!

Me looking at IG right after they made their latest updates.

Yeah, I know Instagram is owned by Facebook, but the whole point of two different platforms is that they perform differently.  My main beef is with the comments system.  This janky collapsed sub-comments garbage is so clunky!  Isn't social interaction the point?  If that's the case, why have they added an extra step for users to have to see different threads?  Path of least resistance, people!  That's the key with human beings.  If you make something more difficult, you set yourself up to fail.  And maybe it's just me, but I keep accidentally swiping myself back to the main post mid-comment creation, thus losing everything I just typed.

Again, why are they making it harder for users to have a nice experience?!  Buuuuuuuuuuh!

Nevermind that the algorithm is such a stupid PITA.  I still fail to understand this insanity.  Social isolation is crappy to begin with because it doesn't encourage sharing disparate opinions.  These algorithms are designed to show you more and more of what you like, edging out ideas that conflict with yours, and that's no way to grow a brain.  Different opinions and civil discussion is brainfood; nothing but the same thing stagnates.

I am rather choosy with who I follow, and I want to see everyone's posts.  Maybe this is where my thought process falls down because I know a lot of people only follow to get more followers*.  I can't even seem to manipulate IG to show me people I genuinely want to see!  There are two fellow authors and one book blogger I really enjoy interacting with, and I always have to go look them up because IG never includes them in my feed.

*Seriously.  Don't be that person who only follows someone to get a follow back and then unfollow them.  That is such a D-move!

*Sigh* Like I said above, I really love IG.  It's far and away better than than any other social media platform, for me anyway.  Facebook is really cluttered, and I don't tend to find readers there, and I find Twitter really annoying.  Again, I don't think it builds community, not in the fun way IG does.  I think the visual element is what makes it a winner.  It's still really great, just with a few more annoyances than before.  If you made it this far in my whinge-fest, or even if you quit early (no judgement whatsoever), thanks for reading!