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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

#111

Post by dreamcompiler »

mateo1 wrote: post #87
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.

You can actually delete the Facebook app from your phone with adb (Android Debug Bridge). Here's an example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/samsung/comments/ay39vh/first_thing...

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#112

Post by bpodgursky »

neon_electro wrote: post #109
bpodgursky wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's some genuine confusion in this comment. Do you think that you are helping Americans get healthcare by... not working for healthcare companies? Most of these startups are aimed at improving access via telemedicine, accessibility apps, price comparison apps, etc. I'm not sure what you're imagining.

Nope, I'm helping Americans get universal healthcare in other ways. But I'm acknowledging that for me personally, working for, selling my talent to and/or profiting from the "healthcare" industry as it exists today without a universal option to provide healthcare to every American, full stop, is a breach of my own ethics.

I think it's more likely you are doing nothing meaningful at all to help Americans get healthcare, and feel better about it by making cheap posture posts online.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#113

Post by monista »

pndy wrote: post #107
monista wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird that Bibliogram doesn't work for you, for me, the main instance never worked, but most of other instances do work (both directly and via PrivacyRedirect addon).

Hell no idea why, but these stopped working; I've switched recently to LibRedirect btw - it handles more stuff. You should check it if you haven't yet

Thank you, I guess I'll switch.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#114

Post by JonShartwell »

lrvick wrote: post #31
chii wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I tried to avoid doing these things for awhile but nobody pays me to be ethical. it's because any way to make money that is currently legal (but some might consider unethical) is the fittest agent in the darwinian natural selection of economic competition. So any ethical businesses who forgo a more profitable, but slightly less ethical method, would be out-competed. Over time, therefore, what remains must be busine…

It is not up to the law to set the standard. That is giving people ethical permission to sell their skill to the highest bidder. No one makes you work for casinos, big pharma, anti-human-rights political groups, or surveillance capitalism companies. If you work for an unethical company you share responsibility for the harm they do. If a company you work for is behaving unethically, quit, and find another job. I promi…

It absolutely is up to the law to set the standard. Wishing people would all live up to your ethical standards for no reason will always have the same result: no difference. You can wish it all you want but it’s never going to actually cause an improvement to the world.

Making unethical behavior illegal actually does have an impact on what people do because it changes their cost/reward decision

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#115

Post by JohnHaugeland »

tomc1985 wrote: post #106
JohnHaugeland wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please consider not using phrases like "Indian giving" That's significantly racist.

That would be the first time I've ever heard anyone say that about that phrase. Please consider not correcting everyone with your wokeness; it is equally if not more intolerant than the people you lord it over. Is the phrase "giving someone a dutch oven" rascist? What about jerry-rigging? What about a Mexican standoff? If you guys are going to indiscriminantly purge "rascist" language, then be thorough about it. And…

Do you even know what "Indian Giving" means?

It's a slur that all Native Americans are thieves, who will go back on gifts and agreements, because (as the slur goes, incorrectly) they are too stupid and backwards to understand the concept of property.

If that's the first time anyone's ever told you that's racist, it's probably because you're the kind of person who responds to being told by calling someone "woke," then compares it to a fart joke, and tries to talk down to other people from what you imagine is a position of moral superiority, and nobody spends the time on you anymore.

It's a criticism, made on the basis of ethnicity. Of course that's racism. How have you gotten to a point in your life where you can't see that?

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#116

Post by quartesixte »

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…

Well, the good news is that there are plenty of companies out there who are solving Real Problems that need good developers.

Perhaps it’s time that bright, young, talented minds are dedicated to solving Real Problems again in the world.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#117

Post by solarkraft »

winternett wrote: post #48
ChrisArchitect wrote: post #21

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.

I'm a photographer and was always pissed. You couldn't upload stuff from a desktop for the longest time, except for with a stupid UA string tweak.

It's not like Instagram suddenly sucks.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#118

Post by mjhagen »

prawn wrote: post #47
dmix wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Apparently you and I are outside the market. This is exactly what I used Instagram, Facebook (when I was on it) and Twitter for. Only Twitter remains. There was a brief period (around 2005-2008 I think) where the majority of the people I knew IRL (incl. family) were online talking to each other, showing each other what they were doing, no political discussions, no fighting, it was a flash in the pan in the end. I don't think we can ever go back to that as there was no money in it.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#119

Post by mjhagen »

thiht wrote: post #77
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.

I used Instagram everyday, mainly to follow local restaurants and shops. The new feed is awful and made me uninstall it, because it’s now: - 1/3 ads - 1/3 suggested content - 1/3 actual content I followed, among which more and more tended to be sponsored That’s just not worth my time.

Yup, they finally did it. Same thing they did to FB to get me to leave is now leading me to leave one of the apps I really loved to use when it first came out.

Re: Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok

#120

Post by prawn »

mjhagen wrote: post #118
prawn wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Apparently you and I are outside the market. This is exactly what I used Instagram, Facebook (when I was on it) and Twitter for. Only Twitter remains. There was a brief period (around 2005-2008 I think) where the majority of the people I knew IRL (incl. family) were online talking to each other, showing each other what they were doing, no political discussions, no fighting, it was a flash in the pan in the end. I don…

Unfortunately, unless your family and social circles are all within some particular niche, you're at the mercy of the platforms exploiting the masses. I remember when Twitter was a bit like early Instagram, hanging out with friends, then the bulk moved to Instagram and just left business people and sub-interests. I'm lucky in that my Twitter feed is not very political/enraged like much of the US, so it's a pretty decent place for me.
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