Have you ever pondered why everyone on Instagram seems to have a happy life and are leading such an eccentric lifestyle?
We might think “how can they be cheerful all the time?” They are constantly engaged in some or the other activities, they always have something to celebrate and be content with.
It is quite natural that we tend to compare ourselves with the people whom we see on social media like Instagram and think: “Why is my life so dull and uninteresting?” In fact, your life is not lame and boring, and it’s certainly not that you’re terrible or gloomy compared to others. It is because people on social media are living a lie.
So people, I would like to highlight this scenario, since this will be one of the primary reasons for the sinking of Instagram in the near future. At present, Instagram has become too mainstream that it stumbles towards nothing but selfies and adverts, rather than non-profit, valuable content.
Also, it has reached a point where people join Instagram just to gain popularity and to prove their existence. It is basically the ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO) and the society has come to a state that not having an account in Insta is like a shame!
People want to craft a unique, cool image of themselves, in front of others and to achieve that, they try to live up a fake image which might be quite far from fantasy life. But studies show that even though people post each week, their love for the platform died a long time ago. There exists several gripes about Instagram from the side of users, which are considered to be the ‘dark sides’ of the app.
Lack of Compassion or Empathy can be a prime issue. In Instagram or any social media for say, there is a dearth of care. Everyone is a stranger on the Internet. There isn’t any genuine face-to-face interaction. When you can’t talk to someone face to face, you are less likely to care about them. After all, they are simply a digital avatar.
The Notification System
The Notification System of Instagram is almost ineffective. The inability of the tab to distinguish comments from likes makes its presence completely futile. This again becomes worse when multiple accounts are set up on the same device and if you cannot turn off these notifications. Users have expressed the issue with the size or ratio of the picture while they try to post something on Instagram.
Users find it annoying when Instagram changes from a chronological feed to one driven by algorithms as they get to see the same posts or contents repeatedly when they scroll through their feed after a gap. The reverse also happens, that is, the users can’t see the updates of the people who they are following, when they are provided with unnecessary content and they feel stuck with the same users again.
When the old posts of our followers find place in the current feed out of the blue, users are confused as to whether it is an old or new update of that particular person. Sometimes users tend to believe those old ones are the newly posted pictures or videos but actually it is not true. So, when the previous posts make a comeback to the present feed, consumers get irritated with the application as it is not focusing on relevance and is not providing the updates on time.
If a user has a public account, they get a lot of spam or junk comments when they post something on instagram. The comments might be from completely unknown users, anonymous instagram ids (sometimes fake ids) which can be extremely negative or disgusting. There is no mechanism in instagram that acts as a barrier to filter such impolite comments. Also, when comments come in bulk, users find it difficult to sort out the comments of their near ones or the people whom they wish to acknowledge or reply back.
Laser Targeted Advertising
Instagram has laser targeted advertising, just like any Social media, but the rate is quite high and we know that’s how these platforms make money. The answer for the question: why do they want ads more? Is quite simple. They want to convert the potential customers to prospective customers. Fake people are often the products of high-level social engineering and marketing that’s made them into a certain type of demographic almost without them realising it. Instagram ads work by tracking the user’s activity on the app.
The more the person engages with a brand’s content by liking or commenting on its posts, the more likely he/she is to be targeted by ads from that brand. However, too much of ads that are inappropriate or misleading, develops aversion among the consumers towards the app.
Also, it has now become possible to become famous on social media and this ‘Fame’ is a powerful drug. Everyone wants to be famous and the trouble is, Instagram has become a legitimate way for someone to get famous. People use any means or go to any level to project their presence to the rest of the world, which can take negative shade too. This is why people can be so rude on social media, and why people can look so fake on social media. People have taken this as a profession and are earning a lot by depending on this application, which is a mutual benefit for the brands, app and the so called ‘Instagrammer’.
However, the fact is that most people aren’t living an exciting life. Life is boring for a lot of people. But they prefer showing off their beautiful side of life or just fake it. Because, you don’t get rewarded on social media for sharing your vulnerable side. There really isn’t much reward for sharing with others how difficult your life is. This is one of the major reasons why people choose to take social media breaks, just to stay away from these apps to refresh their minds, improve their mental health and to be at peace for some time.
In reality, Instagram or any social media, is probably a dangerous place to share too much about yourself because people on the internet are mean. Furthermore, sharing how miserable you are in real life is bound to turn off future employers. After all, browsing social media profiles seems to be part of the job process these days!
Instagram conveniently forgets to remind its users that they can only upload content that they have created themselves. This means that an account is infringing on copyright every time it reposts an image or video without first obtaining authorization. Because Instagram is aware that it is in violation of its own terms of service, there is no in-app repost function. Instead, they’ve allowed a culture of reposting to flourish, based on the premise that everyone has the right to utilise everyone else’s content.
So, the ground reality is that we are consuming more online media than ever, and we’re constantly seeing stereotypes in the media. Inevitably, people think those personas are cool and relatable, so they try to live up to those stereotypes.
Conclusion
Hence, Instagram or any such media has become an integral part of each of our lives and we do have the Fear Of Missing Out from the bandwagon. But, if the app continues to neglect these gripes of its users or admirers, we can undoubtedly say that it is nearing its end and after a few years, Instagram will also become a history!
