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Instagram Is Facebook Now

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Re: Instagram Is Facebook Now

#151

Post by stirfish »

andrew_eit wrote: post #35

Facebook aside you really see this across the board on almost any platform, that once the product reaches it's 1.0 stage, (where it is good, does what the users want it to do, and has realised its vision) it begins a process of gradual decay, as the focus of the product managers (now panicking to find some statistics to improve to show their bosses) shifts from "building functionality" to "increasing engagement/reten…

> a product is put into a state of stasis, where bugfixes and the occasional relevant feature is built.

That gamification is a relevant feature to someone.

As a ADVERTISER

I want ATTENTION

So that MORE MONEY

Re: Instagram Is Facebook Now

#152

Post by kizer »

God I hope it all dies. Deleted FB months ago. All feed "algorithms" are awful! Whether it's YT, Instagram; they give terrible recommendations/content. But, we all know what the algorithms are really optimizing for (it's what happens when you're the product in a service, not a true user).

Re: Instagram Is Facebook Now

#153

Post by spacelamb »

epolanski wrote: post #87
thrashh wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t really watch those shows but I get the appeal. It’s a lot of people drama and it’s fun trying to see what’s going on in the minds of the contestants on the show. Sometimes someone does something and it doesn’t make sense, and it’s fun. It’s not for me but a lot of “dumb” shows can be appreciated with an open mindset.

But that’s besides my main point which is the fact that low quality entertainment is actively seeked by people actively wanting to forget about life. It’s the intentional zombification that worries me, especially when coupled with 24/7 availability and per-user engagement optimization. Socials, especially passive ones where you consume awfully more than you interact are just those escape hatches from stress, thoughts…

As a counter-point, I don't see this as worrisome. Your friend who is a public servant sounds professionally and intellectually fulfilled, and far better off and stable than others who've "failed to launch"/have unfulfilled ambitions due to failing to put in the hard work required (not necessarily due to laziness).

I know a couple people (plus myself at one point) who absorbed high-quality entertainment while being professionally unfulfilled. Activities included reading literature, watching artistic films, reading a middle-brow magazines like the New Yorker, and reading lots of New York Times articles. These took a lot of energy and gave a sense of achievement that could've been spent in accumulating career capital/developing career-relevant skills.

This wouldn't imply that entertainment is guaranteed to take away focus and energy from career development (plenty of counter-examples with historical figures), but it is possible for some people. So, I don't see low-quality entertainment as worrisome, so long as people have the main efforts of their life worked on, in tandem. Low-quality entertainment would be a problem, however, if it does distract from time spent on real, helpful work, versus as a stress reliever.

Separately, I would also separate low-quality produced entertainment limited by episodes from social media. They're very different, as social media is better optimized for infinite scrolling and outrage, while shows are more episodic (assuming a weaker, less-optimized pull for binge consumption).

Re: Instagram Is Facebook Now

#154

Post by erickhill »

I'm not doubting the main thrust of the article. But it's a big pet peeve of mine when Tweets are used in the body of an article as supporting evidence and they have all of half a dozen likes/retweets. It's as if 3 or 4 people on Twitter mention something and that's collected as hard-cutting facts. /rant

Re: Instagram Is Facebook Now

#155

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

I recently started using the "Tweak New Twitter" add-on, and it has been amazing. Twitter now functions the way I expect it to. I see ONLY tweets from people I explicitly follow. No trending, no random tweets.

Weirdly, however, because I don't follow that many people, it all seems a bit quiet and bit boring. I hate myself for it, but a (small) part of me wants to disable it just to get back to the random noise. Yikes.

Re: Instagram Is Facebook Now

#157

Post by 14 »

andrew_eit wrote: post #35

Facebook aside you really see this across the board on almost any platform, that once the product reaches it's 1.0 stage, (where it is good, does what the users want it to do, and has realised its vision) it begins a process of gradual decay, as the focus of the product managers (now panicking to find some statistics to improve to show their bosses) shifts from "building functionality" to "increasing engagement/reten…

Just today I went back on Facebook and it showed I have a message. So click on the link and no message. It was just Facebook saying “are you going to reply back” to a person I spoke to on marketplace. The thing was we already talked. I messaged him and he messaged me back and gave me his phone number. Our business was done but Facebook wants to put a fake “you have a message” notification to trigger some sort of dopamine hit or something. But instead it just pisses me off. I will talk to the people I want to talk to I don’t need a reminder to finish my conversation. Or the notifications about some obscure post someone I hardly know likes. So desperate to have me engage but I already engage plenty. I mostly use Facebook for marketplace now.

Re: Instagram Is Facebook Now

#158

Post by mattferderer »

andrew_eit wrote: post #35

Facebook aside you really see this across the board on almost any platform, that once the product reaches it's 1.0 stage, (where it is good, does what the users want it to do, and has realised its vision) it begins a process of gradual decay, as the focus of the product managers (now panicking to find some statistics to improve to show their bosses) shifts from "building functionality" to "increasing engagement/reten…

In short, see 80/20 rule. Once you've hit 80 you probably should look at growing horizontally.

I don't use Facebook but I'm under the impression they've done this somewhat with local market places, games & video streaming.

It sounds to me that you're sick of common abused marketing tactics or maybe it's just that I am & therefore that's how I read your post. Gamification, Deadly Sins, Reciprocity, etc..

Re: Instagram Is Facebook Now

#159

Post by kylehotchkiss »

davee5 wrote: post #58

Instagram has slowly been deprioritizing content creation and promoting content consumption. This was clearest to me when they recently moved the Post button up to the top, out of the way, to make room for more consumption buttons within thumb reach. For a good long time IG was the only place I could reliably see actual user-generated content. Moreover it was actual friend-generated content, and mostly they posted th…

Glass.photo is trying to fill a gap for actual photographers (not really a social network for selfies). Paid, but ad free. They’re close to sustainably profitable too.

Re: Instagram Is Facebook Now

#160

Post by kylehotchkiss »

deergomoo wrote: post #92

I used to have a really nice, tailored experience on Instagram. All I saw was genuinely good photography and art that I was interested in. Since Reels launched, my feed and the search screen is basically just softcore porn. Not sure what I’ve done to get the algorithm all hot and heavy—perhaps just being an 18-35 male is enough—but it’s rather embarrassing to the point where I don’t always feel comfortable opening th…

There’s a “sensitive content control” option in account settings. Set to “limit even more” and this type of content will actually stop showing. My search screen is just airplanes and Turkish construction videos now.
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