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Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

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Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#41
post #2

Is the Tucker Carlson story few days back, about the tiktok algo promoting edu and wholesome content within China, but twerking and gender transition in the west true?

If we rephrase the question as "Does CCP suppress or ban LGBTQ content?" then I can easily see the answer being yes.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#42
The top dark pattern Instagram employs is sending you internal notifications that you cannot turn off no matter of your notification settings. If you have multiple accounts it’s guaranteed you will have a little red dot sitting there making you switch to one of the accounts to clear it. I absolutely hate this and it’s going straight against their imaginary goal of being a responsible company that supports mental well being, screen time and other ways of getting a mental break when you might need it.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of jobs that don't require you to implement tracking/evil things. There's very possibly a pay cut in doing so..

I should specify that I am an iOS engineer.

There are a lot of legitimate b2c healthtech companies looking for app developers.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#44
post #4
post #2

Is the Tucker Carlson story few days back, about the tiktok algo promoting edu and wholesome content within China, but twerking and gender transition in the west true?

waiting for my Civilization: VII game to have 'boost twerking signal' when I reach modern age tech trees

https://www.news24.com/news24/xArchive/Archive/Porn-the-new-...

psychological warfare

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#45
post #28

TikTok and Facebook’s antics (existence?) have me seriously considering quitting tech. I feel like no matter what I do, I am feeding one of these societal cancers by implementing tracking for whoever is paying me currently, lifting dark patterns, etc, using the API of Google… I tried to avoid doing these things for awhile but nobody pays me to be ethical. My only marketable skill is software development and I pretty…

You can still work in the fintech or automotive sectors where you won't have to do ads. Most people I've talked with that were doing frontend and one who was doing Java were all working on ad related stuff. A disproportionate waste of time and energy.

It's rather telling that the ad tools on platforms are becoming the biggest facet of development jobs in social media. In looking through them myself, I've noticed how gamified and geared towards addiction they have become. Platforms encourage users to "experiment" until they find our what works, and everyone has to figure out how to target audiences properly, and the configuration options are very intense and varying (based on what is trending) each time... It's almost like playing roulette in a casino.

Lord have mercy on all the inexperienced kids and others who just want to create videos and have them seen when they try ads... A lot of experimental money is gambled away on ads daily... I'm pretty sure it's a big pile of income annually for platforms.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#46
post #5
post #2

Is the Tucker Carlson story few days back, about the tiktok algo promoting edu and wholesome content within China, but twerking and gender transition in the west true?

> Is the Tucker Carlson story [...] true? No

I dunno, I believe his ranting about M&Ms came from a real place. He sure seemed upset that their recent redesign left him less sexually satisfied.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#47
post #36
post #24

Instagram was trending down but has taken a dive in recent months. Just an unbearable proportion of ads and lame suggested content. You end up playing whack-a-mole trying to get it to stop showing you rubbish. It had been a not-insignificant part of my work but now I just resent using it at all.

Probably because what makes TikTok attractive isn't it's dark features that only Instagram would think was important, but how amazing it is at learning your interests with the lowest amount of required input (just swiping down quickly or not after a new video starts). I was one of those people that thought TikTok was a modern garbage machine that only produced low quality dancing videos of young girls for zoomers. Bu…

But I don't want any content recommendations. I don't like the idea of infinite channels and endless content to flood my skull. I use Instagram to keep up with what friends and family are doing. I just want to see the content my friends put up. Not the things they like, not similar accounts, not similar industries, not hot topics. And when I've caught up, I want to see the previous content, not unrelated accounts and promotions.

I work in travel content and on my work account I want to see the content of my clients and prospective clients I've chosen to follow (to see the work they're selecting or which videographers they're using), but instead it pushes everything else on me.

More than ever, these apps are about consuming content - ever increasing amounts of it. I seriously resent that.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#48

This author is describing stuff they are only affected by -- niche whining. "I don't know about you but I'm on vibrate all the time" etc. The pause/unpause vs sound muting has been forever on videos/reels. I'd say this is in line with general OS changes that leave all volume controls to the OS and people are just getting more used to going there to control that (i.e. in Android 13 etc). It's hardly a dark pattern, es…

IG has announced they're switching focus all to reels... Literally throwing the old focus out the window... Photographers are pissed.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#49
post #7
post #2

Is the Tucker Carlson story few days back, about the tiktok algo promoting edu and wholesome content within China, but twerking and gender transition in the west true?

I get bird and cat videos; plus some Kronk and Dr. Doofenschmirtz. It gives you more of what you watch and upvote. So the contents of your For You page are on you, after the first 5 or so videos.

You get bird videos a lot too?! Lol... I used to have a parrot and IG and TikTok think that's all I want to see now every day... It's really not smart... People aren't all one dimensional.

Their use cases/journeys need a lot of work.

Also, TikTok is not accounting for views properly (Mr Beast reported it on TikTok among many others), they redirect users away from certain accounts when links are shared on web sites, and they even stop certain videos from playing and shadow ban US users if their content talks negatively about the platform... Just like the country it comes from might do.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#50

TikTok and Facebook’s antics (existence?) have me seriously considering quitting tech. I feel like no matter what I do, I am feeding one of these societal cancers by implementing tracking for whoever is paying me currently, lifting dark patterns, etc, using the API of Google… I tried to avoid doing these things for awhile but nobody pays me to be ethical. My only marketable skill is software development and I pretty…

Check out Biotech! Lots of software development and machine learning going on with very, very minimal marketing activity involved compared to tech, finance, etc.
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