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Instagram Has Become SkyMall

clivethompson.medium.com

231–240 of 341 posts

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#231

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…

It's definitely just you. Women go on Instagram to see fashion with links to shopping "the look".

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#232

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…

How do you detect ads? If not in following empty response?

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#233

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…

How do you detect ads? If not in following empty response?

Ad posts have additional fields in them. They have to, because they're shown in the UI as "sponsored" and with extra buttons and stuff. Ad stories are retrieved via a separate request, so it just suffices to either return an empty response or throw an exception from there.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#234

Is there anyone else out there who refuses to buy something if they first learned about it from an ad?

There's lots about the human experience that you can't control, and advertising works on those levels too. You are affected by the mere exposure to it. You're not just sold a product - you are told about the brand, values, how they approach the world, how it's acceptable in these times to express yourself, lots of stuff. And you see it and you learn it. It doesn't really matter what you think about afterwards, you are already affected, because that's how humans work, and advertisements are exploiting how humans work. The solution is to not be exposed to it in the first place, and because you can't really block them all, to accept that you are affected and work with that. Denial will bring you nowhere. But, it can be a good milestone to realization.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#235
The examples taken from instagram are probably very region specific and further matching a profile.

However, I must agree that IG ads got worse and worse. So what is very common here:

1. Take a stock picture of Americans lining up for petrol at a petrol station because of an extreme situation/limitation.

2. Link to a website that looks like a normal webshop (the ad is done by an account that only exists on facebook and its page is empty, not promoting a shop)

3. The user gets redirected from the shop website (that actually exists and can be loaded manually from desktop) to a fake website, that looks like the website of the largest local news outlet.

4. There is an article about how to get rich with crypto and some celebs promote it. On the bottom of the page you can register with your phone number. You will get redirected to a trading platform that most likely rips you off.

Way to go instagram. Allowing scammers to their platform.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#236

Is there anyone else out there who refuses to buy something if they first learned about it from an ad?

No. There might be the perfect suiting product to me. There is, however, a huge red flag for all these companies and products. This usually drives my buying decisions (against them).

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#237
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There is neither a way to avoid what I don't want, nor a way to ensure I see my friends' posts There's both on Facebook. You can set it so you always see a person's posts and you can click on any post to see less of that type of content (or none from the poster).

How do I check what my current settings are, list all the people I've set to "show always", and all which are hidden? I also do not recall ever hiding anyone intentionally, because then I'd probably just unfollow them. I could be wrong, however. Also, is there a way to see friends I'm currently not following, in case I did that by accident? Thank you, that would be very helpful. Edit: I am reminded now of the setting…

There's also an option (maybe it was by adding them to favorites) to make it so you always get a friend's posts.

You can also do the 'see less of this' on ads.

Alternatively you can also just install FB Purity or a similar extension to tweak what you see better.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#238

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…

It's definitely just you. Women go on Instagram to see fashion with links to shopping "the look".

Some people go to instagram for fashion, but that is definitely not all women nor just women.

I personally just wear a black shirt and black pants almost every day, am not all that interested in fashion, and am a woman.

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if you see an ad about something, you never recommend it. Sounds like you let advertising influence you quite a bit.

Sure, if you're going to insist on an overly literal reading of my words.

Maybe its reverse psychology by competitors

Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall

#240

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…

Can you share the modified apk or any tutorial to make similar modified Instagram apk?
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