Sometimes in life, things run their course. And I think for me personally and professionally that end for Instagram is quickly approaching. At one point Instagram was a sense of joy for me seeing all the creative works of others, now I feel like quitting Instagram every time I look at my feed. My feed now is nothing but unwanted ads, Bitcoin bros advice and people posting the same goddamn Tik Tok or SnapChat video of them trying to dance.
Facebook Ruins Everything
When Instagram was first on the scene it was just an app where you had to take pictures from your camera phone and put a silly, little filter on them. They eventually grew into a popular photo sharing app and Facebook came in and fucked it all up. Gone were chronological ordered feeds and every other post was an ad. Today Facebook or Meta, or whatever they want to call themselves these days to distance themselves from the bullshit they get caught doing, has made the photo sharing app mostly nothing but videos. Reels, Tik Tok dances and Bitcoin advice is all I see. Photos. Good luck trying to find 5 in a row.
I use to post my photos and get hundreds or thousands of likes depending on what I was posting. My posts had reaches into the thousands. I didn’t post for likes I posted for visibility. For prospective clients or past ones to see my work. Now my photos get 12 likes with a reach of 87. If you don’t post a reel or a video you already posted on Tik Tok, you’ll get no traction or engagement. Unless you want to spend the money to boost the post or take out an ad because with Facebook it’s the pay to play methodology that they want.
My Instagram was Hacked
I think my final straw was when my Instagram was hacked by some Bitcoin bastards. Not sure how they got my account, but they did. They then proceeded to change my password, the email and phone number associated with it so I couldn’t retrieve my account. Instagram even sent me emails asking if I made these changes and if not I could click a link to revert them. I clicked all the links and got error messages every time.
Do you think Facebook makes it easy to contact someone to report this? Of course not; they’re too busy promoting divisive content that permeates through the feeds of many unsuspecting and uneducated people. There is no customer support. No phone number to call, no email to send. Instead buried within their “help guides” was a form I had to fill out and hope they see it. Several form submissions later; nothing. Not a peep. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The hackers still have my account and are posting Bitcoin bullshit to my feed and stories. They’re taking photos of me and my family that I shared on stories from long ago and reposting them telling people to ask how I can turn $1k into $10k in a month. They’re reaching out to the people I follow asking for money or telling them to go follow this person for crypto advice. This is the point where quitting Instagram felt like the only thing to do.
I had to create a new Instagram account just so I can post photos from my recent work. I use Instagram as an extension of my portfolio. A quick little best of the best from recent shoots, games or what not. Only personal pictures were on stories so I could humanize my account a bit. Now I don’t even feel like posting let alone open the app.
All my new followers are crypto accounts and bots. Every post is a Tik Tok dance that should stay on Tik Tok or posts of random people posing for clout then trying to use a witty caption to make themselves appear more important than they really are.
Maybe I’ve become a curmudgeon or that old neighbor yelling for the kids to get off his lawn or in this case off my feed. Social media has become less about being social and more about people trying to impress strangers who don’t care about them.
And this is why I feel like quitting Instagram every time I open it up.
Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash