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Instagram Has Become SkyMall

clivethompson.medium.com

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Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#221

Post by zebnyc »

beardyw wrote: post #210
dunnevens wrote: post #183

I don't use Instagram much, but I am on Facebook too often. The limitations of the advertising algorithms are very interesting to me. For example: I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood experiences. Also follow pages which discuss American Christianity from a secular or journalistic perspective, and in Christian groups which interpret their beliefs from a left-ish ideology. "Liking" any post f…

Sorry to sound stupid, but I live in the UK and have literally never seen an ad from a church (except maybe on a board outside). What is the purpose of the ad? What is their motivation?

There are mega churches in the US which push the prosperity theology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology Many of their pastors make several million USD every year.

Also, There is a strong overlap between conservatives and right leaning politicians.

So there are money and power motives

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#222

Post by baby »

vmlinuz wrote: post #47

Ok, so I'm going to hijack this slightly... I'm an elderly (mid-40s) non-USian techie, and I've never done Instagram. On Facebook I mostly follow people I've largely lost touch with in real life (particular these past couple of years), and on Twitter it's news sources and journalists, plus a selection of 'celebs' from various niche interests like tech, sci-fi, winter sports and comedy. Am I likely to be missing anyth…

I resisted for a long time, but the reason I use instagram now is that some of my friends have moved to that platform. So I’m sort of split between fb and instagram now. Also, I like checking “stories” on instagram as you get a quick glimpse of what people are up to and you can send them messages to react instead of writing a comment, which is more likely to lead to a real convo.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#223

Post by baby »

afavour wrote: post #89
vmlinuz wrote: post #47

Ok, so I'm going to hijack this slightly... I'm an elderly (mid-40s) non-USian techie, and I've never done Instagram. On Facebook I mostly follow people I've largely lost touch with in real life (particular these past couple of years), and on Twitter it's news sources and journalists, plus a selection of 'celebs' from various niche interests like tech, sci-fi, winter sports and comedy. Am I likely to be missing anyth…

Maybe. I’m a little younger than you and I both post and consume Instagram Stories. It’s mostly of my kids and my friends kids. I like that the posts only last for 24 hours and there a no likes, etc etc. By contrast my actual Instagram profile and FB profile are very quiet. Maybe you have friends that are the same (but if you don’t care to watch endless videos of other people’s kids maybe give it a miss!)

I like that to comment you have to send them a message also, ends up leading to a conversation as opposed to comments on a post.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#224

Post by puchatek »

The one SkyMall i remember from a US flight ages ago was one for shoes with springs built into the heels which claimed they would make you walk faster. Deciding whether the whole magazine was a witty caricature of US capitalism or honest advertising took me a while. I then decided to keep the magazine as a souvenir but have unfortunately lost it since.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#225

Post by forgotmypw17 »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #220
forgotmypw17 wrote: post #150

My biggest problem with both Facebook and Instagram is that I feel completely out of control over what I see. There is neither a way to avoid what I don't want, nor a way to ensure I see my friends' posts. The timeline shows me the same handful of people in mystery sort order mixed with ads, and then I later find out I haven't seen months' worth of someone's content when I happen to visit their profile. The only half…

During election season I went through and blocked every forward source that wasn't highbrow, ie 99% of them. Unfollowed a few OCD people as well. Cleared things up a lot. After the latest revamp my favs no longer showed in the timeline. Went in and unlikd then liked again, and now they are listed prominently. Sheesh.

Well, that sounds straightforward, reliable, and transparent. :D

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#226

Post by grishka »

Maybe it's just me, but I dislike the whole concept of advertising in places that aren't related to shopping. I go to Instagram to look at my friends' pictures, not to be sold something I don't actually need. If I were to shop, I'd go to a mall, thank you very much.

Anyway, at some point Instagram ads (especially the autoplaying video kind, with sound) drove me crazy enough that out came jadx and apktool and I found a beautiful way to inject my own code into Instagram's networking. The code I injected rewrites the API responses before the rest of the app sees them. I can now scroll through my feed without annoying salesmen begging for my attention. I've also enabled a "secret" debugging menu while at it, where there are manual overrides for server-side settings, and there are at least several hundred of them — it's a bit creepy what they're A/B testing, like slightly different wording or different button colors.

The only problem that still remains is that the feed is still algorithmic, and there's nothing that could be done with that with client patches.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#228

Post by native_samples »

beardyw wrote: post #210
dunnevens wrote: post #183

I don't use Instagram much, but I am on Facebook too often. The limitations of the advertising algorithms are very interesting to me. For example: I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood experiences. Also follow pages which discuss American Christianity from a secular or journalistic perspective, and in Christian groups which interpret their beliefs from a left-ish ideology. "Liking" any post f…

Sorry to sound stupid, but I live in the UK and have literally never seen an ad from a church (except maybe on a board outside). What is the purpose of the ad? What is their motivation?

That's because churches in the UK are all bankrupt, more or less. I vaguely recall seeing ads for churches or Christianity in general in the UK some time ago, and I still see pro-Christian ads (usually just bible quotes) in Switzerland.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#229

Post by exikyut »

aledalgrande wrote: post #191

If you want to see SkyMall open aliexpress and with no search terms start scrolling. Some of my favorites: a watch with a lighter flame, toilet with motion sensor that switches a blue led on and champagne squirt gun.

I honestly wonder whether the people who make these things are having the time of their lives or in some kind of idea-sweat-factory trying to come up with things all day and burning out quickly.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#230

Post by exikyut »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #148
barrkel wrote: post #101

The canonical example of SkyMall equivalence for me is wish.com ads. They're odd enough that they're frequently clipped and commented on - https://www.google.com/search?q=wish+ads

What is wish.com? Comes up in a lot of search’s, shows me an absurdly cheap price for a product and then I can’t buy it, it’s out of stock or something went wrong

Aliexpress with venture backing from /dev/urandom
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