Everywhere has become a marketplace. Online people are always trying to sell you things, telling you why you need this lip product or subscription. Physical products, digital products, services, experiences, people selling themselves as “brands” – nothing is safe.
A major culprit in this constant marketplace is social media. Instagram, (aka Meta), in particular has unlocked the ability to turn the platform into a vessel for shopping and advertisements. A place that used to be for catching up on your friend’s lives, or creeping on a new crush, has turned into a key tool in the capitalism playbook where anything and everything can, and will, be sold to you. From a commodity to an idea or aesthetic, most posts on Instagram are an ad whether it’s blatantly mentioned or not, and mixed in are the posts you are actually looking for from your following.
Now, this has been a great business move for Meta, and along with it has enabled influencer & content creator culture to grow and truly become an attainable career aspiration. Pre-2020, YouTube really was the only social media platform that had won within the content creator category. Yet, now Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have come together to create an influencer/content creator trifecta. But is this a sustainable way to keep regular users interested? Or will we witness Instagram’s perception & positioning shift from a social media platform to a primary marketplace platform?
The Power Lies within the Majority
The power to shift how social media is used lies within the other 90% of Instagram users who aren’t celebrities, content creators, or influencers. One could argue that we, the 90%, the regular population, have gotten lost within the increase of commercialization of social media. Community and real personalities have been replaced by the mindset of “what is my brand?.” By assimilating to the greater direction of Instagram that supports and promotes compensation for creation, we’ve lost elements of social media that enabled us to connect with others and share about ourselves & our lives as human beings in a sporadic and free-spirited way.
In the 2010s, Instagram was truly about documenting moments of your life to share with others. It was a place to discover those with similar interests, styles, or passions so you could follow them and indulge together. Now, there’s an underlying pressure to perform and deliver posts that “make sense,” or seem interesting enough to appease the Internet audience and drive engagement, even when said audience is just your friends & mutuals.
Instagram culture has become too focused on becoming a lifestyle or fashion content creator for a social media platform that’s supposed to be about, well, nothing in particular at all. The shift of Instagram from mindless every day posting, to curated photo dumps and profiles creates this expectation to deliver an aesthetic.
Many are noticing & feeling the palpable energy of current-state Instagram, which has brought us #makeinstagramcasualagain. A call to think less about the way your Instagram layout is going to look, less about the curated photos in your photo dump, less over a caption. Your individual interests and identity will inherently stand out by posting things you want in your own way without constant focus on your brand or in-feed cohesiveness. Viewing Instagram as a place for zero-expectation interaction could help free the 90% from the shackles of performance and restore Instagram to its OG culture.
Authenticity is in. Living in the moment is in. Appreciating the little joys of each day is in. Let’s make Instagram, and social media in general, translate that relaxed joy.
New Kids on the Social Media Block
Fortunately for us regular folks, social media innovation has blessed us with newer social media platforms that recognize our pain. Lapse and BeReal have joined the market positioned entirely on the essence of living in the moment and being more intimate with friends, family, and mutuals. Recognizing the lack of original social media connection & entering within that segment is a very smart move. However, these two platforms will never be Instagram, and that’s ok! BeReal and Lapse are good replacements for those that are looking to enjoy spur of the moment updates & authentic connection. These are platforms that aren’t going to suck up all of your screen time, yet still allow one to engage!
As for Instagram, the original concept & intention of the platform has been pushed so far to the background to innovate as a consumerism destination. Users are more frequently looking to limit time on the app, or avoiding the app altogether by deleting it and/or their account. What could be of social media’s renaissance if Instagram (Meta) adopted a strategy that allowed regular connection to take a more prominent role on the app again? And how might the population feel more seen and connected if the focus went back to “social” and less on “media.” A great place to start would be bringing back chronological feeds to allow users to open the app and see what they missed from their own following list, a feature users have been begging for practically since it was taken away.
There is way too much noise on Instagram today, forcing users to see posts and content from accounts they don’t even follow. Don’t they know that’s what the Explore page is for?
And as for the users, what could be if we shifted the tone & intention of our own posting to “I like this so I’m going to post it.” No overthinking. No fear. Posting on Instagram, or social media in general, shouldn’t have to be anxiety-inducing. Although the evolution and interconnectedness of social media platforms today has instilled this underlying fear of being “exposed” on a a different platform than the one you originally posted on, the beauty of social media and the Internet is connection. Utilize your close friends, block/mute/unfollow accounts that aren’t inspiring or interesting to you, post your little dessert, your pet, or the sky. Who cares! We all just might find a bit more joy in the time we spend on our devices by focusing more on that, and less on performance.
So go ahead and put in your efforts to make Instagram casual again, or don’t! Afterall, it’s already begun. This could be the chance to reclaim the platform for normalcy.
2024 is the new 2014
#makeinstagramcasualagain (and chill)
THE IDENTITY CRISIS 