Soaring Worldwide’s James Brown on the soon to be world ending not so surprising changes to Instagram.
If you’re a social media user then it will have been difficult to ignore the plethora of opinions regarding the incoming changes to Instagram.
Instagram, if you didn’t already know, is a social media platform that’s very heart is the pictures you take to represent your life. Images range from cute cats, people’s lunch time choices to celebrities subtly including some product placement somewhere within the frame. But it has its good points too. I am a fan of Instagram and I like seeing posts from my favourite celebs, friends and family. And also weird walker pictures from The Walking Dead’s account. Will I like the incoming changes? If they handle it well then I don’t see the harm.
At present Instagram portrays these nuggets of life in a chronological order but the internet went into meltdown recently with plans surfacing that, like Facebook, the platform was going to begin ordering posts based on what you have historically liked or interacted with. For example, remember liking that woman’s cat pictures on numerous occasions because you were feeling generous? That may come back to haunt you…
But the panic that has ensued is wasted. The changes aren’t even happening right away and Instagram has had to move quickly to put people’s minds at rest despite celebrities spamming our timelines with arrows asking us to turn on post notifications. We love you Mr and Mrs Celebrity but we don’t want a message every time you take a snap of your salad. In actual fact the changes, if they do happen, won’t be for a while yet because it’s still in the testing phase with small groups and judging by the outcry it may not even happen now. But if it does, will it really have the negative impact soothsayers (you lot…) are predicting? No probably not.
It should actually increase engagement on posts that are actually worth your ‘like’ and stop the rush of ‘polite likes’ because it’s, well…just there. If done correctly then Instagram will hand power to its users to build a timeline they can be proud of. I’m looking forward to wall to wall zombies, football, books and video games…and I’m cool with that.
It needs to be handled well and broadcasted to users in plenty of time of it happening but it’s hardly the world ender some are making it out to be. Perhaps more important is the inability to tell Instagram you are sick of seeing the same adverts appear again and again. You can hide of course but I want to vent my fury somehow too!
That’s not to say I don’t understand the unease but if you REALLY miss seeing someone’s posts because you don’t tend to like them they you could always go and use the search function or, yes, turn on post notifications…
…just remember not to do that for crazy cat lady.
Am I wrong? Am I somehow right (unlikely I know…), I’d love to hear your thoughts and where you stand on this so please comment below!