First World Problems: Instagram

If you have problems in real life, please just ignore this thread. In fact, most people can ignore this thread.

I know a lot of us here at ATS are not social media users. I don't really consider myself one either; BUT, I do use Instagram. I really enjoy it. It lets me connect to my family and friends via a private (according to Instagram and I'm not super worried about it) feed of photos. I can share pictures of our garden, and my baking experiments, and my Aunts and I can have a little discussion. I can share renovation before and afters, and my Dad can tell me where exactly we messed up but didn't know it. Our friends provinces and continents away can share milestones, and so can we.

For someone (me) who isn't really a "sharer", Instagram allows me to let my friends and family into my life in a way that's convenient and comfortable for me. It also let's me view the world, one hashtag at a time, mostly when I'm insanely bored.

Some of you may know, Instagram recently changed its "timeline". It's no longer chronological. This bothers me in the way it might bother an educated, liberal-minded white woman who enjoys sharing pictures of organic vegetables and "liking" pictures of tiny cabins and animals with heterochromia. I'm so annoyed by it that I probably won't use it much anymore.

I scroll through my feed maybe 3 times a week, I'm probably on the low end of Instagram usage, but most people are not. People are really into social media and sharing, so there are a hundred or more pictures in my timeline by the time I check it. I enjoyed being able to scroll back to the last picture I remembered seeing. It was a nice, finite experience. Now, posts from days ago that I've all ready seen are the top of my timeline, and new pictures that I love looking at, but might not necessarily "like", are hundreds and hundreds of posts away. The new algorithm just doesn't work for a small time user.

Please, Instagram, just let users define their own experience? I don't need an algorithm to tell me what I like. I want to experience the world in pictures; I don't want to experience my close friends and family's lives twice as much!

First world rant over. Thanks for reading, or ignoring.

I know what you mean..I was under the impression that IG was for visual story telling ..like a picture diary ? Now it's just a popularity contest...I am a pretty heavy IG user. I know that there are many little cliques of users copying their lives so much so that it's so hard to distinguish who's who anymore. You know the ones that dress their precious little toddlers in 200 dollar "depression chic" clothing. Meaning they look like they walked right out of a 1930's pic...with their stark white homes..sparsely decorated..only like with a chair..and a fern of some kind. Their children have one perfect basket of wooden toys and their husbands look like they are 'Ken' Barbie...okay..I think I just went into a rant myself..sorry..I just want to say I agree with you...lol