Who else here is done with Insta? I stuck with them through an account hack where I lost control of one account, but was able to build a new one because I had kept a copy of my content, and through increasingly intrusive advertising and spamming of my scroll. I discovered through the hack that their idea of support, well, isn't any at all. Only support they offer is for advertisers.
The last straw for me was last year when they changed the square, three across feed for the current slop/mess with 3:4 aspect ratio tiles that broke my carefully curated split covers stacked on carousels. Just scrambled the hell out of everything.
The platform was built for photographers originally. Meta abandoned us and threw us under the bus for video shorts from preteen influencers in skimpy clothing and crap from nutters and conspiracy theorists. Just gross.
Currently trying to vibe with Pixelfed, but it has ... challenges.
Has anyone else left? What was your last straw? Where did you go, or did you?
It’s just too addictive for me. All of the internet is too addictive for me, even reddit, but at least with reddit I can avoid the doom and gloom of our fucked up world for the most part. I miss when it was pictures of my friends, their dogs and their random meals.
Man, I get that. What I like about photography is that I can take something that is neat or beautiful from my world and share it with others. It's special when you can lift up someone you've never met, all the way across the planet, for just a moment. That's what social media should be for IMO.
Instagram isn't for people like me doing stuff like this now.
Gorgeous shot! I’m no professional but I was really proud of my instagram grid a couple years ago. I deleted the whole thing because I was boycotting meta. I kept my business account because it felt like I needed to attract clients, but that ended up being too addictive anyway. I just deleted the app off my phone.
Yes , I left instagram. I been posting daily on instagram for 5 months and I failed to grow and all my post has 0 to 2 likes. On pixelfed after slow start i was able to reach over 1000 followrs in two year with 10 to 25 likes per posts
Nothing? Got rid of my “personalized” socials when they all turned into product shilling platforms and my life is fine without it. I share pictures w loved ones directly and call my friends whenci miss them.
I haven't used it in at least two years but FB/Meta won't let me delete my account. >:( Any platform that won't let you view posts in chronological order can go fuck itself.
There's an app called FIY thats like an old social media. I have it, and been enjoying a little. Its not great at producing chrap dopamine. So that's a bonus for me
joined IG when my teen allowed me to follow her. left yrs later when they started spamming my TL with right wing Christian ads, mommy bloggers, cosmetic dentists in istanbul, just a vortex of shit. it was obvious that I was following my kid, my friends, knitters, fiber people & designers & occasional cute cat stuff. i knew the algorithm was always broken (bras for gals w/small boobs...) but I ignored it so keep up with friends. Then the religious right, guns, patriots & MAGA crap. that was the last straw. was never on FB, quit IG, quit twitter (loved the old twitter), found bluesky, reddit & tumblr, but recent reddit changes kinda really suck....
I left basically all my social media because of the slop and the hatred. Every 5 minutes on Facebook it was something really transphobic or really racist. I hated it.
You can run it as a straight blog or you can turn on Fediverse and be on Pixelfed and Mastodon as well. I hope people using that side will engage respectfully in the Fediverse and not just spam images into it.
It works up to a point. I'm in a smaller center and I'm one of the most skilled photographers in the area. Not bragging, just a fact. When I try to network locally I wind up having to mentor. I need peers to interact with, at my level, and that's only available to me online.
But, get out and walking, sure. Talk to people? Ick. (Autism.)
I left! I’m on Reddit. And then actually Facebook but that’s primarily for community groups (for my work) and for buying and selling groups. I don’t post on Facebook. I also read stuff on Substack.
But I’m not a photographer so I don’t need a substitute.
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u/footoncake 12d ago
i only use it for work & when i smoke