I got to use Instagram on my
fiancée's phone for the first time and honestly I'm impressed that so many people use... that.
@Gargron Yeah, I'm very similarly impressed that people use Instagram. UX is terrible, unless you are using "the app". And I'm a "desktop web" person. But so many... Popular things are designed for people who are clearly not me...
@Gargron Instagram is in a weird phase. They're trying to convert users to their TikTok clone Reels, so the user interface is shattering between two completely different paradigms.
@Gargron Right? And it’s not even just the UX. Most of the content there is so cringey that I can’t stand it for five minutes when someone wants to show “something cool”.
@Gargron Yeah, i used to use it regularly and then stopped. I opened it again a year later to check something and it was an unusable mess, like trying to walk through a maze of neon signs with mirrors and obstacles with the occasional photo I was actually looking for.
Such a reversal for something that started out deliberately minimalist
@Gargron It used to be a neat little photo sharing app with a friendly community and then things deteriorated ever so slowly. Now all users are stuck in that mess.
@Gargron when Pixelfed it's literally better
I have to use it because so many people I know are on there and expect me to be on there, but at some point I said enough is enough and built my own mod. No ads at all and way too many server-side setting overrides in the debug menu to play with. Still hate the algorithmic feed tho. Also reverse engineering is fun.
@Gargron it was really great when it first started, a real community. As expected, when Facebook bought it it started going downhill and now it's just terrible.
@kaedechan @Gargron the inability to have a chronological timeline, forcing celebrities into your feed, the absolute nightmare of reels, and advertisements have destroyed it IMO. I started using it just after launch in 2010 and it started going downhill not long after Facebook bought it in 2012.
@Gargron I would be worried if many people were using my girlfriend's phone.
@Gargron the most simple things can only get solved by googling for it. Try finding the posts you have liked.
The content is bland and the app is a UX nightmare.
@Gargron it used to be a good app. Then it got Zucked.
@Gargron Let's just say it's like a really sad person crying inside while holding the biggest smile they can muster. When you've not been there in a while, it's pretty disturbing.
@Gargron It's honestly boring lol
@Gargron I've been underwhelmed myself. And I'm someone who really likes photography and glamorous shots of models and is a rather visual person, so you'd think I'd be gaga for Instagram. Curious.
@Gargron yeah it's pretty terrible. Also the constant ads and "you might like.." it's too much
@Gargron
for quite some it's probably a case of 'frog in boiling water'; the UX degrading slowly over time in a way that they don't notice how dangerous the water has actually become.
@Gargron Instagram was better before facebook brought it
@Gargron Have you used any app made by Meta? They all suffer the same problems, ads everywhere and a convoluted interface.
People use them because people use them, no other reason.
@desikn No, I haven't had a facebook account for a long time.
@Gargron
real neuroatypical moment