I’ve been trying to parse my feelings towards Instagram.
Not IG as an app per se: it’s cute, I enjoy scrolling through it, I like web comics and hashtag secretdoors and cat videos and classic sci-fi posters… but as a communication and advertisement platform, even *I* recognize that my visceral hatred for it isn’t logical.
It’s something that’s been growing in me. An open mic host that was telling me “oh, just go to our Instagram page and you’ll see when and where the shows are”. Going there told me nothing. “oh, you know… when we make an announcement”… no address, minimal information “oh, well, you’ve got to look in the comments”… notifications for tags and messages hidden in the same place, annoyingly opaque search functions that work similar to but not quite identically to other apps, the uncertain and sometimes unstable connection between it and Facebook… last night when an artist said “if you want to find us, you can talk to us now or maybe message us on Facebook but Instagram is a sure-fire way to get us!” and I literally have a message from a venue waiting in my Instagram feed that I’ve been kind of passive-aggressively not looking at it because
I
Hate
Instagram.
And so, like I said, I’ve been trying to parse my feelings towards this beloved app because what it FEELS like, and what it LOOKS like, and what I’m sure it SMELLS like is that I’m just too damned old and can’t understand new technology… but it’s really, really not that.
Look at me go! I’m teaching myself video editing with Adobe Premiere, I relearn many video, photo and audio editing apps and applications as they release new features and new tools. For that matter – I learn to use new tools – devices, gadgets, I Love them. I really LOVE learning new stuff. Show me that chord! Show me that cord! Show me how that one’s played and the other one gets plugged in! Now let ME try it!!!
But a new communication app? Social media platform? Before you show your mathematic ignorance and “OK Boomer” me, before you lament my inflexible, stiff, uncompromising mind, and before you just flat out think I’m stupid… this does NOT reflect an erosion of mental flexibility! It reflects a buildup of impatience with new, arbitrary obstacles. It’s like the random update on your phone or computer that you have to sit through right when your workflow is getting good.
I’m making music. But wait, there’s something new – I’ve got to put down what I’m doing and check out this awesome new thing that’s going to replace email. AOL is totally creating its pseudo-intranet and since it’s controlling what people hear so you best get involved. AOL Instant Messenger is something you NEED to be available on. Oh wait. Now it’s ICQ. No – now there’s something new – you need to learn how to advertise yourself on this new thing, it’s called Myspace. I ignored LiveJournal and LinkedIn STILL just goes to my spam folder because I don’t know how to get rid of it. A couple of years later: Put Myspace down, there’s an ever-evolving platform called Facebook and now it’s not just college kids! It’s safer than MYSPACE because you can make sure it’s just… you know… YOUR KIND OF PEOPLE!
In between those we’ve flirted with Twitter, but it only reaches certain demographics (might NOT be YOUR KIND OF PEOPLE!), we’ve thought about various google social media forays. Youtube became the most-consumed music resource in the world, we’ve learned and discarded any number of must-have sites either geared towards the artist or towards the general populace… over the years must-have accounts have included Reverbnation, mp3.com, Friendster… we’ve gamed Napster and Limewire and for every one of these there’s a new service, a new start, and people who will ONLY communicate via it because they can’t get out of their bubble to realize that one day, this too shall die.
Well, hopefully.
I mean – social media has been showed to be quantifiably, demonstrably bad for you. There are studies linking social media to depression, as something that can exacerbate anxiety, as a time sink, as something that creates the same physiological responses as substance abuse and addiction. It’s a prime source of disinformation and has allowed for the easy dissemination of not simply ignorance but hatred. Obfuscating the sources of all of the above has allowed memes and posts to be weaponized by single bad actors almost as effectively as by actual nation states.
And it’s all in the name of putting something that I can’t control between myself and my friends and fans. Previous platforms and many of the tools I use are… tools. Email is a tool. My phone is a tool AND a service. A device. Something I learn how to use in order to accomplish a task. But social media platforms and info-based apps are a different animal. It’s not there to be used. It’s there to appear useful so that that the user can BE used.
Does that sound paranoid?
I’ll go back to the example of one of the tools I’ve been learning a LOT about : Adobe Premiere (a high-end video editing tool used in movies as big as Deadpool, Avatar and Hail Caesar). It changes a lot. I pay monthly for it. There’s definitely a learning curve. But every upgrade, every function, every panel is about getting me in and back OUT of the application as fast as possible. It’s about increasing workflow, ease of use. It’s about empowering me.
But trying to use social media as a tool : especially on any level where you’re not regularly purchasing ads and spending money on the system (the way most users think it can / should be used) – is a fool’s errand. It’s actively designed NOT for the purpose of getting you in and out of the site as swiftly as possible, but to purposefully keep you coming back, scrolling, checking in, consuming ads and input and outputting data. It’s game-ified to keep you fiddling with it, fooling with it, playing with the interface rather than just moving on… And taking it to the next level and paying into the system? It’s like taking out an ad on a pack of cigarettes. It’s not just “buying into the system” – it’s buying into a system that’s actively taking advantage of our friends and fans and does NOT have their best interests at heart.
And so I’m trying to understand why I hate Instagram so much. Over the past ten plus years all of these companies have inserted themselves between me and a fanbase I carefully built in an industry that I entered because I felt it had the most direct connection between artist and audience. Then they sold us on ease of communication, free and instant, and then the barriers become obvious… to the artist. The viewer is in the midst of a glut of input and probably will take a LONG TIME before they realize they haven’t seen anything from their “favourite” band for weeks or months… and the band can’t understand why people are only ever commenting “OMG! I wish I’d known you were in town last night!” – and it’s all because we let someone get between us. Instagram’s just the latest in a long line of pretty, shiny things, that really, really don’t have our best interests at heart, that want to be between YOU and ME.
So I think that’s why I hate Instagram so much.
I think I get it now.
But you’ll probably never know, because this is way, way too long to post on Instagram.
