Take Me For A Ride ― Instagram

It’s true that I dislike Instagram, but I’m also a frequent user of it. My relationship with Instagram is similar to the cigarettes; it’s something that I don’t want to do it too much, but it happens without the realization of it. On the other hand, it’s also true that I’ve significantly reduced the number of cigarettes I smoke (these days, it’s 1 or 2) and the amount of time I spend on the app (60 - 80 minutes), but it’s still way too much for my brain as it brings nothing but absolute guilt of killing time and fear of health. I’m going to take the moral high ground, and I will not talk about the increase in numbers on the weekends. It’s sickening.

I’m not exaggerating anything, and I’m not a hustler, so it’s not about productivity either, but certain things bring guilt, and you become a victim of it. It’s harmless, but it can pile up anytime, and that’s when it becomes crucial to choose, limit, or dwell into it. Since I love contradicting with myself, I must admit that I’m more worried about the patterns.

Ironically, I found this quote on Instagram through some reel –

You must break the pattern today, or the loop will continue tomorrow.

Note: This post is not about me or cigarettes or guilt or productivity. It’s about Instagram, and despite my inability to focus on a particular topic, I’ll make an attempt to free my mind, which has been occupied uselessly..

Instagram continues to make changes in its interface, for good or bad, only they know, but I’ve noticed something which can go ignored if you don’t care about how you’re getting forced to stick to the reels. Now, I don’t clearly remember the changes they’ve made in their layout over the years, and neither I’m willing to check it for the sake of this post. It’s not that important, but I remember the layout that stayed for a while -

Let’s begin…

With the introduction of reels and the massive content engagement they started to bring, Instagram now tricks users into somehow getting to it through previous habits. I haven’t used TikTok, so I can’t say how much of it they have adapted, but I haven’t read anything good about TikTok, so I don’t have any problem pouring my judgment.

Tricking users?

When reels came, I hated them, so I switched to the older version of Instagram, but after a while, the app kept crashing. I understand that critical changes introduced to apps break their older versions, so I had to update the app to its latest version, and after 5-6 months, I finally let myself watch reels. The reason for my resistance was everything I’d heard and read about TikTok.

There was a time when I had the privilege of having screen time longer than the healthy sleep hours, and 80% of the reward was given to me by Instagram, and the rest were Gmail, Play Books, Twitter, Spotify, etc. I hit the post-nut clarity after checking Digital Wellbeing and saw a solid ten hours of screen time. I had to do something, so I uninstalled the app, and for a week, I came back to over 7 hours of screen time because I installed the app right away (probably after a couple of hours).

…but what about tricking users?

When Instagram allowed users to post content as a video, you can tap on it to mute/unmute. It was convenient, but the feature didn’t stay for long. If I weren’t precise, I couldn’t mute the stupid video I was watching. On the other hand, clicking over the video took you to the whole vertical filled with videos, similar to what Facebook offers now. All I wanted was to mute the video, but now, it was more of a short journey that my fat thumb took me to, where I had full blown fun scrolling through the feed. It was so delightful.

During this phase, videos and reels were two different types of content. The duration of the reels was between 15-30 seconds. I don’t exactly remember, and videos could be of 30 minutes. I don’t exactly remember. What about IGTV? I don’t exactly remember. Features were getting rolled in and out. It wasn’t overwhelming, but things were happening.

…but what about tricking users?

I’ll admit. I don’t know what I’m writing at this point. I didn’t want to ramble about anything I’ve mentioned, but it’s happening. Hopefully, I’ll get to the business, and everything will make some sense by the time I finish this post.

Fast forward, moving to some other update where Instagram removed the option to create a post, which once held its position in the center of the search and notifications. Yes, they replaced it with reels, so in order to post something, one needed to swipe left a couple of times, and then you could select and post something. In between swiping, you’d find the option to post reel. Everything you wanted to do, you had to go through something which involved reels. Maybe, that’s how they paved the path for users to post reels.

I must make it clear that I don’t exactly remember where the option to view reels first appeared in the app. As far as I remember, you could watch reels in the explore section, and then they appeared as a separate option somewhere on the primary interface.

Now, instead of posting JPEGs, I was watching reels. What else could I do? It was gazing at me, the cute little icon, and I have had the habit of clicking pictures, finding some quote, and posting it. It never took more than two minutes for me to post something on Instagram, and I’ve had this habit of tapping in the center of the bottom, which now has been replaced to view reels. I watched reels. It was comforting.

We are now moving to the recent update. I don’t care what else happened, and I’ve stretched this post too far, but it’s fun to write, so why not?

The recent update brought some changes that may look unnecessary, but are they? Instagram shifted “create” to its original place, moved notifications next to the messages, and replaced notifications with reels.

I see it more or less as a strategy that softly enforces users to unintentionally land upon the reels land. If you love cocaine, you can get it from anywhere, but it’d be nice to have the dealer live next door, but the first thing the mafia needs to do is get you hooked. Try it a couple of times and see what happens. Once it starts to bring profit, they move the dealer closer, and suddenly you find yourself snorting more. Slowly, you realize that it’s affecting your life, and now you want to quit or at least regulate, but any drugs accessible easily must get consumed without any delay.

Anytime I write about Instagram, I end up using cocaine as an example. What else to do? Metaphors We Live By

What’s more?

There are few more features that I’d like to mention -

Forced Scrolling

Again, I’m not aware of the exact time or year when this feature was pushed, but I remember washing my hand in bathroom and I had kept my phone somewhere near with Instagram open. As it was my first encounter with automatic scrolling, I was a bit surprised and impressed. Now I can scroll without scrolling. What a time!

Automatic right swipe

Same place, different time. I wasn’t surprised anymore.

My problem is not the reels, but the way it has been prioritized, and the the manner in which it gets shoved down user’s throat under their own expense where there’s no realization of the addiction.

For some odd reasons, the post seem incomplete. But who gives a fuck?

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