I am really uneasy about the amount of content that is now shared only or primarily on Instagram (and Twitter, to a lesser extent).
There is little to no accessibility, sharing outside of Instagram is severely limited, searching for content is impossible, there is no organized archive whatsoever, and, in the case of Stories, the content literally disappears a day later.
I see a lot of great ideas and art happening there, but it’s so ephemeral and inaccessible that I worry it’s getting lost.
I think the ability for content to be ephemeral is really important and necessary.
But in a time where so much important information is being shared on Instagram—calls to action, antiracist self-education starting points, news, even open-for-business hours—it’s frustrating that the only way to consume or work with that content is to look at a screenshot of text, hope you can determine its provenance/veracity, hope you can remember it.
I am certain a lot of my concern comes from an obsessive, collector-mindset bias.
I also think my concerns about accessibility and third-party-owned non-archives of important information are valid.