Does anyone else hate instagram

Just this month, a year study of teenagers and technology from Oxford University reached a similar finding. Rather, I think it highlights a lesson that social networks are often too reluctant to learn: rigid, one-size-fits-all platform policies are making people miserable.

Think of the vocal minority of Instagram users who would like to view their feed chronologically, for example. Or the Facebook users who want to pay to turn off ads. Or look at all the impossible questions related to speech that are decided at a platform level, when they would better be resolved at a personal one. Last month, Intel was roasted online after showing off Bleep, an experimental AI tool for censoring voice chat during multiplayer online video games.

Usually from a year-old. But the basic idea of sliders for speech issues is a good one, I think. Some issues, particularly related to non-sexual nudity, vary so widely across cultures that forcing one global standard on them — as is the norm today — seems ludicrous. Letting users build their own experience, from whether their like counts are visible to whether breastfeeding photos appear in their feed, feels like the clear solution.

There are some obvious limits here. Companies will still have to draw hard lines around tricky issues, including hate speech and misinformation. All that said, expanded user choice is clearly in the interest of both people and platforms.

People can get software that maps more closely to their cultures and preferences. And platforms can offload a series of impossible-to-solve riddles from their policy teams to an eager user base.

There are already signs beyond today that this future is arriving. Many folks have a nervous tic where as SOON as they are alone they go onto their phones, this is a real shame and a classic traveller mistake I used to make as well, so I do get it. People also use their smartphones as social shields: whenever they feel awkward or anxious in company, they pull out their phones to mindlessly scroll just to look busy rather than strike up conversations.

We use Instagram to share moments from our lives that we think our friends and family would like to see or we just like to self-indulgently flaunt. Worrying about getting the perfect picture for Instagram detaches you from living in the moment. Those perfect influencer shots usually take hours of work. Do you really want to waste thirty minutes just framing yourself perfectly with the view instead of taking a happy snapshot?

Trying to imitate these chicks in pretty dresses is only going to get you anxious and stressed on your adventure. Gosh-darn it! One day Will, one day…. Being on your phone all the time also puts a barrier between you and your authentic travel experience.

How about this — come off your phone for a whole day — see if you can do it, whilst traveling. I periodically like to ensure that I am spending time OFF my phone. I have a system in place to make sure I am never on my phone first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Instagram might be a terrible, toxic platform by default — but your experience on it is much what you make it. Instagram is still a great tool for travel planning and inspiration if you know where to look.

Find people that have something a little bit different to share. Seek out diverse creators that talk about social issues, ethics and politics of travelling, experiences travelling as a woman, POC, queer person… Instagram can be a wonderful platform for learning.

It can be done, I am sure. But we do it because we love it — we love providing epic and free content.

We love the knowledge that our content keeps you adventuring. That means that if you book your accommodation, buy your gear, or sort your insurance through our link, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Again, thank you! This is a fantastic, refreshing read my friend. I think travel should be more about the people we meet and less about the things we see that everybody can see, be it on the screen or in person. Ugh IG can be so toxic. Discovered that the hard way, starting a casual account to share travel pics with friends and family soon became being inundated with Travel MLM Sales Reps and people travelling to Santorini, that one temple in Bali and Hot Air Balloons in Cappadocia.

Not for me thanks! Just deleted IG from my phone and shared this with my newsletter. Thanks for smacking me back to reality!

All true! People will always share perfect accounts and perfect pictures. And as a blogger or instagrammer, you cannot escape from it. I personally have a love and hate relationship with Instagram. Or you know? Just delete your fucking account LOL excellent article Will!! As I was reading it I remembered how I travelled back in without a smartphone, all I had is that shitty small Samsung that can barely run Messenger? Will, I am slowly becoming a huge fan of the way you think.

I am not a real traveller. I thought I was, but I realised in the last few months, I am not. I am ok in the place where I am. And not looking at travel through the lens of social media…just bang on. Quite refreshing to see your stand on social medias. I for one have never been on Facebook, Instagram or the likes in my life and never will. I agree with you, many people rob themselves from the real experience with their bloody phones.

Travelling and exploring should bring with it a form of deep discovery and experience. You want to share stuff later on without the Hollywood fakeness, you can do it honestly through a blog for example, as I do occasionally! I was at Petra late and an intragam type couple were posing and climbing up on the buildings in fancy clothes fake posing. Very very irritating but amazingly one person shouted at them and then the entire crowd all joined in, forcing them to move on.

No interest in their surroundings only in themselves. I turn my phone off and check it for messages about twice a day. However even bloggers tend to cover the same places or write the same kind of things. Punters seem to want snappy vids made by attractive presenters rather than in depth intelligent discussion.

Leave them to it. Those of us who want some real adventure and to learn about the cultures we visit should just get on with it.

There are plenty of sources outside of the Hey! I get that it pays to approach it like a business, but you can go too far I think. Thanks for reading Lisa :. There is so much truth in realness in this! Very much enjoyed reading it! Thank you for your candor. Ah I totally agree. Too much time and effort, and not true to who I am. I try my hardest to leave comparisons out of it all cause it will get me nowhere.

I am normally a dress wearer… like wear them everywhere. The only reason I wear dresses is its less to think about when getting ready, no need to pick matching shit.. Hahaha I do love a good dress for that exact reason. Blergh instagram! I agree, I love it but I hate it! I feel like such a pompous ass every time I post and have to take 50 photos to even try to get the perfect shot… generally I still fail. So quick, so easy. People are funnier on it and more true to themselves I think.

Good old lovely easy Twitter. Just to get myself back on track. Fantastic post! I agree with ALL of it! Go do your thing! I love your feed. Just followed.

Thanks so much Christina!! Also going to try unfollowing and avoiding some of the accounts that spam out ads and post too much perfection. Sick of beautiful flat lays of makeup and lattes on marble counter tops. Going to concentrate on being myself, posting stuff I like, and enjoying travel a bit more!!

I think there are so many people out there who feel the same way so thank you for sharing. The more people who do speak out and who go back to sharing what they want rather than what they feel like they should post, the more interesting and varied the app will be. I thought most people would say I was overreacting or being babyish but turns out everyone is like me right now. I want originality — and when it comes to travel I just want to see amazing places!

Going back to sharing what and when I want to — and doing it for the love :. This was wildly informing. I have just begun to learn and use Instagram, and have already found it to be an odd place. One minute, you are up ten followers. The next your down ten! People seem to follow to attract follows back, and then bail. I was hoping it would be an interesting place to connect with other people. It used to be a lovely place to see photos of the world, interact, discover new amazing places, that sort of thing.

People who follow and unfollow just to get new followers drive me insane. Stop cheating, and just share good content instead — people follow good accounts naturally!! I dallied in the same way with Flickr a few years ago now. It is a big effort to get people to see and like your photos. In the end I found that most of the connections not all were shallow. I moved onto to Blogging where the connections can also be shallow but the blogging platform led me to meet other bloggers and being invited to post on collective blogging platforms and meet up events.

I have never been tempted to post on Instagram even though my friends tell me I should post my photos there , the platform reminded me of Flickr. I still post my photos on Flickr but only as a means to link to them from my blog and not use up bandwidth. Instagram used to be similar to blogging in that it felt like a really good place to share, connect, engage, etc.

This is so dead on! From an artistic standpoint that annoys the fuck out of me! I believe every photo needs to be handled and created individually, not as a streamline of quilt patchwork for a stupid app. I proudly do not own a single floppy hat. Hahahaha homeless-chic!!! I generally dress like a sort of scruffy teenager, in life and on the road. I try not to overedit too, just tweak things so that they look how they did to my naked eye at the time.

But oversaturated and overfiletered photos always seem to do better which as someone with a photography degree who knows what a good photo should look like tends to drive me crazy!!! Yep yep yep! I feel the same. It used to be my favourite social media, when i first decided to blog I switched accounts and began a new one featuring mainly travel photos which worked for a while but it had already begun to stress me out about which ones… then they changed the hashtag system and people were obsessing over the grids and I found myself doubting all my great photos and instant became rarer.

Not to mention I am a redhead with freckles, you cannot use contrast like a normal person unless you want to appear like a sundamage advert! I think the truth is we all have to start using instagram like we used to, be more real.

I have started to use story alot instead these days because i feel like you can be real again and just post without pressure of likes, you can still engage with people, even talk to them. But honestly what is the point in me not being able to see up to date posts of people I follow instagram? That just needs to go!

The only positive is that I allow more photos to be taken of me… and that every now and again i slow down to look at what i eat before it goes! Sorry mini rant, love this post! I love the stories because they are real and in the moment usually — some people airbrush and upload haha. Wonderful post, Emily. I have been thinking for a while that Instagram is turning into a bit of a monster! I worry what the next algorithm changes will bring!

The size and power of some of the big fashion and lifestyle accounts, and the sheer amounts of money thrown at them by sponsors and advertisers, has got us all feeling like we need to make our stuff the same, to keep up. My feed should be travel. And I want that to be real. If a fashion blogger really would wear something like that to sightsee, they can knock themselves out — I want to be comfy and disguise my sweat patches behind my extensive collection of plain black t-shirts!

I want to reflect that with my photos! Yes to everything you have written. Aw thank you for following me. Got some more lovely photos of Austria to share though so I will start posting again soon. Good for you sharing your latest photo. Screw it indeed. But I AM still pretty, in my own way. Everyone is! This is great! I am sharing this with my instagram groups!

The point is to be ourselves!! This post made me go out of my way to find you on instagram. I starting trying to change my philosophy on instagram earlier this year with the end goal of being giving less fucks.

Go figure. Haha well thank you for that! Amen Sister! I used to be an avid instagrammer, but as soon as I started using it to promote my blog and worrying about aesthetics and logarithms etc. I have totally lost interest in photography in general! Trying to go back to basics and snapping and sharing what I love, instead of what might impress my audience as much.

Thanks for saying what we were all thinking!! Thanks so mcuh Kristin. I want to do it for passion! It was always just a nice way to share photos and engage, for me, but now it feels like this whole… machine. Way too technical and ad-filled, not fun an authentic! Haha you never know, people might love to see a bunch of people in cords answering phones and insuring stuff!! So I need to keep it real and just be myself :. I have deleted it because of that purpose, because it gives me an unrealistic expectation which leads to me putting myself down.

Wow, deleting it is a big step! And I do love it, or I used to. Hoping I can find that passion and enjoyment for it again :. I agree.

Going back to caring less, because I need to! I totally feel this! I always wanted to be a person who was good at instagram, but I just get so overwhelmed.

Not only do the pictures have to be perfect, they have to fit in with all the other things you have posted too! I do love the idea of instagram as a whole but it is hard to get past the pressure to be perfect. Thanks so much! It is so hard to escape the pressure. So refreshing to read this! I often take pics to put up, that never actually make it up on Instagram.

Agree with pretty much everything you said Emily! I feel ancient compared to these young pretty 20 somethings that have no concept of bingo wings or wrinkles lol! Haha nope, I think all of Instagram will suffer if I put a bikini photo up. I want to get better at accepting the way I am. Apparently I only own one dress nice enough to make it onto Instagram. This sentence has been the funniest thing about IG in the past two months. Hahaha thank you!! Wow… With all the comments about InstaLifeDeterioration because some geeky programmer at InstaGoneFollowers decided to fix something that was working well.

Moving on…. This is such a great, honest piece. Our Instagrams should reflect who we really are, what the world is really like, and how travel really feels. All the polished accounts that look straight out of a catalogue are almost like lies — travel is rarely so polished and perfect. I dont have IG account but i can feel your pain, and I did not even pack any outfits for my SA trip, because seriously who does give a damn when we constantly on the move?

If my pictures on my blog looks not perfect than so be it and haters gonna hate anyway. I also read IG has change algorithms and that drove many nuts, but my landlord is a photographer and he just dont care about all the likes and pods, and his IG has gotten followers just in a few days. I say this is because I think I want to bring back the travel blogging and social media back to the old days, because seriously, this industry does not lack comparison and perfection, this industry lacks originality and authenticity.

Thanks for commenting Julie.