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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

#81

Post by prawn »

_zzaw wrote: post #52
prawn wrote: 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.

Yeah. It's horrible. I'm on there because that's where my audience is for now, but I despise both the platform and company to a degree that's hard to express in words. It's weird. You'd think that inspiring customer loyalty by building a good product would be considered good business, but even as I'm typing that, I'm realizing how comically naive it sounds. Meta and its ilk are 100% about lock-in (and, to no small de…

I always assume that abusing the "offensive" report option would put me on a list where they just crank up the ads even more. I do tend to report some ad categories (supplements, cults, etc) as scams though.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#82

Post by digital_x_ray »

I have moved to a pattern of “install instagram, login in, add a post, and then uninstall” i.e I’m only interested in adding content to it, for the purpose of broadcasting it to my friends. I can’t fight the algorithm, no matter how much I know about it, I know that I would be sucked right in.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#83

Post by bsaul »

jondwillis wrote: post #13

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…

i used to work as a develper for an adtech company, and it made me really happy to quit that world. Not every tech company is using ad-based business model. Look for others.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#84

Post by Nextgrid »

bpodgursky wrote: post #43
jondwillis wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should specify that I am an iOS engineer.

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

I did some work for a big London-based healthtech company and was horrified to see that their mobile apps were loaded with trackers, Facebook SDK included. Healthtech doesn't imply no tracking.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#85

Post by astrange »

vorpalhex wrote: post #15
jondwillis wrote: post #13

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…

Good, user respectful software exists in many forms. IRC is still around, gemini is pleasant, I like Matrix too. I don't think you'll get the huge audience of these other platforms. That may be a feature.

Is IRC respecting you when it has no encryption, no authentication, and frequently netsplits?

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#86

Post by mindracer »

digital_x_ray wrote: post #82

I have moved to a pattern of “install instagram, login in, add a post, and then uninstall” i.e I’m only interested in adding content to it, for the purpose of broadcasting it to my friends. I can’t fight the algorithm, no matter how much I know about it, I know that I would be sucked right in.

Similar for me, they recently? added the ability to upload from the desktop web browser so I only upload using this method now

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#87

Post by mateo1 »

digital_x_ray wrote: post #82

I have moved to a pattern of “install instagram, login in, add a post, and then uninstall” i.e I’m only interested in adding content to it, for the purpose of broadcasting it to my friends. I can’t fight the algorithm, no matter how much I know about it, I know that I would be sucked right in.

Coincidentally today I removed Facebook's app from my phone (actually just disabled it since I'm not really allowed to remove it...) because I logged in to check out marketplace and somehow ended up losing a couple hours of my life to the infinite video feed (comprised mostly by Instagram videos).

The good thing about this scourge getting out of hand is that we might see regulatory action in the future.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#88

Post by Kukumber »

Instagram is a nest for influencers trying to scam their communities with random products and drops, a cancer, conditioning new generations to consumerism and beauty filters, it should be banned

It's the complete opposite on tiktok, you see almost exclusively entertainers and creative people

So it's no wonder they are trying to copy this, but copying the UI won't be enough if you keep the same userbase

The only one close enough to TikTok is youtube, but their Shorts UI/UX is one of the worst i ever seen

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#89

Post by rightbyte »

bobkazamakis wrote: post #59
winternett wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If apple is pro privacy, they wouldn't be putting lidar scanning on their phones. Whether it's enabled or not, Lidar is military-grade tech that has no place on most cell phones, Let's not act like the entire industry isn't heavily invested in data collection... It does damage to real discussions about privacy and consumer protection for everyone.

> Lidar is military-grade tech encryption is military-grade tech too.

> encryption is military-grade tech too

Anything painted green and sold for 10x the price is military grade.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#90

Post by OmarAssadi »

astrange wrote: post #85
vorpalhex wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good, user respectful software exists in many forms. IRC is still around, gemini is pleasant, I like Matrix too. I don't think you'll get the huge audience of these other platforms. That may be a feature.

Is IRC respecting you when it has no encryption, no authentication, and frequently netsplits?

Not to totally dismiss any concerns, but most IRC servers support TLS. While not end-to-end in the sense that the server can read all of the messages, encryption is available. And in the case of IRC, with the most common use case being channels for particular communities which often need moderation, I don’t think the fact that the server can read the chat is a big issue. I wouldn’t advocate for it as a way to privately and individually communicate with people one-on-one, but I think it’s pretty okay for what it is.

The nice thing with IRC, though, is that by not being one massive centralized entity where all channels in existence reside, you’re not depending on one particular network in the same way you might be dependent on services like Discord. You can run your own server for your own community where you can set your own rules and manage everything the way you want to.

IRCv3 also has SASL [1]. And more rudimentary forms of authentication have been around for ages on most servers.

[1]: https://ircv3.net/specs/extensions/sasl-3.1

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