they’re stress testing the user base. they don’t give half a flying fuck how outraged you are. they only care about whether you’ll quit the platform. which you won’t.

Outrage, yes, but what about decreased usage? What’s the effect on revenue and stock price? C-suite pay?

What’s the difference? Most of what’s on there is an ad for something. A lifestyle, a look, a road trip destination, a festival, a food.

Thoughts and takeaways, plus 3 viable solutions:

Thoughts

1️⃣ I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Enshittification might be a good thing. Here’s why

I don’t “like” that things have gotten this bad, but I do like that the worse things get, the more we can collectively organize and pressure reform to fix these things.

2️⃣ These tests are usually run on relatively small subsets of the user base. Remember when they rolled out hiding likes? That was rolled out periodically as well.

They typically also run different types of user bases. They already know the hardcore “influencers” and people who have built a public following will never leave the platform, since they’re too invested already, and are the people/publications that contribute the most to network effects. I.e., you’re on there because they’re on there.

3️⃣ Remember when Tim Kendall (former executive at Facebook) says that they talked about Zuckerberg having ultimate control over these 3 distinct goals?

1. Engagement: Drive up your usage. Keep you scrolling, liking, commenting, and remaining active on the platform.
2. Growth: Encouraging you to keep coming back and inviting your friends, and getting them to invite their friends, and so on.
3. Advertising: Make sure that as growth and engagement are happening, advertising revenue is maximized.

That’s what’s happening here—this is dial #3 being turned up.

Solutions

1. The most obvious: Delete your account

I know, I know—network effects are tough to break.

Tell your friends and family to delete theirs. Make yourself unreachable on Facebook-owned platforms.

Most people are posting less as traditional posts, and more as stories. If stories is your thing, Signal has stories. This is a really secure, private, and still convenient way to share whatever you want throughout the day.

If your favorite restaurant changes your dish’s recipe, you’d prolly stop going, right? Well, that recipe’s been changing, and we continue to put up with it despite an increasingly worse product.

2. For those looking for an alternative: Use Pixelfed

It doesn’t have nearly the same type of content or user base size that Instagram does. But the same way that we built Facebook little by little, the same can be done for healthier alternative platforms.

This might also help your reduction in using social media, if you’re looking for that.

3. For those who can’t/will never leave Instagram: Use an open source native mobile app (Android-specific)

If you have an Android-based mobile operating system, there are apps like MyInsta and Instander that give you a native Instagram experience while blocking all of the ads.

They also have app-specific settings that allow you to customize your Instagram experience even further, such as (but limited to):

• Downloading photos/reels/entire carousels
• Reduces data sent to Instagram (analytics, ads, and other requests)
• Ghost mode
• Block reels, posts, stories, explore, comments, or whatever else
• Tons more

I run a basketball media outlet (InThePaintCrew) and a lifestyle/photography page (LifeViaChicago), and being able to modify the experience to remove the noise/clutter when a native Instagram app is needed is helpful.

ah, one gotta love the enshittification

Think of how much time I get back in my life if my wife couldn’t send me 50 reels everyday

Many say they would stop using the app entirely if the ads become widespread.

oh don’t threaten me with good time. It would be amazing if my friends would be forced to stop using instagram so I would not be forced to log in just to catch up on stories or keep in touch

But users are too addicted to “traditional” social media, so no matter what happens they won’t stop using it.

They complain a little and stop there.

My Instagram feed is already 90% ads. There are almost no posts from people i actually follow, and most of those are artists i like trying to sell their tour or merch. It’s a fundamentally broken platform as is

People will get outraged, scream for a bit and then accept it and keep using the service.

The additional ad-revenue will outscale the few users that quit by far and thus enshittification continues.

Tho i guess we should be happy for the few that escape the shothole instagram because social media is cancer anyways.

People need to stop using Instagram.

Wouldn’t it be funny, if that would end the doom scroll cause suddenly it’s a disturbance and can’t be skipped like other non liked content, so it breaks the trance and leaves the user with anger instead of numbness?

Just delete your account and uninstall. It seems people forget they have that option.

An “ad break” icon will appear with a countdown timer that prevents users from browsing through more content until they view an ad, at which point the counter starts running down.

So the user has to interact with the ad prompt, they aren’t just presented with an ad?

If so, that sounds like an even worse experience.

Come on Instagram, just give a goddamn reason to delete your app.