1. RIP to instagram. (And to all fun spaces on the internet?) My instagram algorithm mostly just seems determined to give me an eating disorder these days lol. 2. I HAVE ALSO BEEN VICTIMIZED BY THE KALE SOUP. 3. If you ever feel compelled to share that more detailed personal history of your life on the gram, I personally will eat it up!!
I really enjoyed this essay :-) I’m so deeply addicted to Instagram and I check it virtually every time I take my phone out of my pocket to do something else but it just doesn’t hit the same !!
it made me think of this white pube podcast from last year discussing similar themes! You might find it interesting:
I'm going to listen to this!! thank you. I have been listening to a podcast called Off the Grid--it's a lot about marketing and the intended audience is small business owners and self-employed creative types, but the episode on grieving Instagram or feeling scarcity about leaving is really thoughtful:
OMG all of this Maddy-- really feeling it as a person on Insta also trying to share my work and my politics at the same time. But not gonna lie I wanna try that butter candle. I even sent it to Rose. LOL.
It’s simply TOO MUCH butter for that bread, but I suppose you could simply snuff it out and then use it like normal butter. Personally I am open to birthday candles made from butter—but I guess my cake would have to be bread then
It reeeeaally do be depressing these days. My friends do a white elephant/PPT presentation party and mine will be themed the “Top 15 Most Unhinged Ads I Saw on Instagram This Year”. I have a folder of unholy screenshots I’ve been saving, lol. Xenaworrierprincess memes are top notch tho. It’s how I originally found your substack! RIP to the glory days of niche gay content that isn’t videos 🪦
In the early days of Reels, I exclusively got videos from Russian or Central Asia that were way out of my cultural context (e.g. babies dressed up in costumes presumably from Central Asian pop birthday??). It’s so weird to me that targeted ads were and continue to be more accurate and tailored than the Reels algorithm.
The only social media I've been on in the last 4 years is facebook marketplace, lurking on lex, and reading what high school friends are paying each other for on venmo today and i hugely recommend it, one of the best decisions i ever made.
granted, i never tried to use instagram as an outlet for creative work, but i was very tied to the "importance" of having a media platform to share political news and opinions and such, like it wld be morally wrong to cut myself off from that mouth. now im if the opinion that even if its easy to "reach people", the overall flattening and reductive impact social media has had on political discussion is overall bad, and its not worth it.
Okay congratulations on your cottagecore lifestyle. I have been thinking so much about this thing my friend Mitch tweeted re: the specific hell of using social media to engage w news and politics:
Feeling this hard.. there was a sweet era pre stories when everyone was on it and you could see all the posts and it was just fun and social and creative! i miss that. as a visual artist, it's been feeling like a necessary evil for a while for connecting with people - but at this point it feels so empty and not worth the effort. im past due for making a newsletter i guess🥴
Yes! I remember pre-story Instagram and telling a friend that she should get the app because it was a lot calmer and time-consuming than Facebook. And now Instagram is Facebook...
Not sure if you're considering Substack or another newsletter platform but recently a friend asked me if she should start a Substack and I sent her this podcast, which provides a really realistic overview of what it's like on here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7q4SKgonTmhMj68fqxg4uO?si=62c3fc1629bf4f48
I can't help but feel like a lot of the creativity generated on platforms – whether Livejournal, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, TikTok, Substack, or whatever – is often in spite of the platform, or incidental to the platform, and that it persists until the platform grows so bloated or algorithmic or otherwise hostile that everyone has to leave from somewhere else. Humans love social and creative spaces, but social and creative spaces aren't inherently sources of revenue (and really shouldn't/needn't be in an ideal world...). Right now there's an influx of users to Substack, which seems to still be on the upswing.
Thanks for this Maddy. Hard agree on everything. I truly laughed when reading this because I tried to make exactly the same kale soup from exactly the same reel and had exactly the same terrible result...
I have such a vivid memory of my uncle sending me a $25 gift certificate to the American Girl Store in Chicago (my present was getting pulled out of school and driven down for the day) and my mom said, "great, you can get a pair of doll socks with that."
1. RIP to instagram. (And to all fun spaces on the internet?) My instagram algorithm mostly just seems determined to give me an eating disorder these days lol. 2. I HAVE ALSO BEEN VICTIMIZED BY THE KALE SOUP. 3. If you ever feel compelled to share that more detailed personal history of your life on the gram, I personally will eat it up!!
I have the kale soup in my saves but will refrain from making it now lol!
haha yeah i mean there are a lot of great ways to eat stewed/blended greens (saag paneer??) but flavoring is required!
I really enjoyed this essay :-) I’m so deeply addicted to Instagram and I check it virtually every time I take my phone out of my pocket to do something else but it just doesn’t hit the same !!
it made me think of this white pube podcast from last year discussing similar themes! You might find it interesting:
https://thewhitepube.co.uk/podcasts/instagram-has-ruined-art/
I'm going to listen to this!! thank you. I have been listening to a podcast called Off the Grid--it's a lot about marketing and the intended audience is small business owners and self-employed creative types, but the episode on grieving Instagram or feeling scarcity about leaving is really thoughtful:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2BKe4BLFfZMFUAeqM5BxBR?si=34a3f08ed8bb4686
OMG all of this Maddy-- really feeling it as a person on Insta also trying to share my work and my politics at the same time. But not gonna lie I wanna try that butter candle. I even sent it to Rose. LOL.
It’s simply TOO MUCH butter for that bread, but I suppose you could simply snuff it out and then use it like normal butter. Personally I am open to birthday candles made from butter—but I guess my cake would have to be bread then
It reeeeaally do be depressing these days. My friends do a white elephant/PPT presentation party and mine will be themed the “Top 15 Most Unhinged Ads I Saw on Instagram This Year”. I have a folder of unholy screenshots I’ve been saving, lol. Xenaworrierprincess memes are top notch tho. It’s how I originally found your substack! RIP to the glory days of niche gay content that isn’t videos 🪦
In the early days of Reels, I exclusively got videos from Russian or Central Asia that were way out of my cultural context (e.g. babies dressed up in costumes presumably from Central Asian pop birthday??). It’s so weird to me that targeted ads were and continue to be more accurate and tailored than the Reels algorithm.
The only social media I've been on in the last 4 years is facebook marketplace, lurking on lex, and reading what high school friends are paying each other for on venmo today and i hugely recommend it, one of the best decisions i ever made.
granted, i never tried to use instagram as an outlet for creative work, but i was very tied to the "importance" of having a media platform to share political news and opinions and such, like it wld be morally wrong to cut myself off from that mouth. now im if the opinion that even if its easy to "reach people", the overall flattening and reductive impact social media has had on political discussion is overall bad, and its not worth it.
Okay congratulations on your cottagecore lifestyle. I have been thinking so much about this thing my friend Mitch tweeted re: the specific hell of using social media to engage w news and politics:
https://twitter.com/czarmitch/status/1729587535175668036?s=20
haha this rings so true. the hardest part was getting used to the quiet and pace of not hearing from everyone all the time about everything
Omg I listened to Julien Baker on MUNA’s podcast Gayotic and it was sooooo all about this. and sooo how Instagram now feels like “always working”
just added to my episodes <3
Feeling this hard.. there was a sweet era pre stories when everyone was on it and you could see all the posts and it was just fun and social and creative! i miss that. as a visual artist, it's been feeling like a necessary evil for a while for connecting with people - but at this point it feels so empty and not worth the effort. im past due for making a newsletter i guess🥴
Yes! I remember pre-story Instagram and telling a friend that she should get the app because it was a lot calmer and time-consuming than Facebook. And now Instagram is Facebook...
Not sure if you're considering Substack or another newsletter platform but recently a friend asked me if she should start a Substack and I sent her this podcast, which provides a really realistic overview of what it's like on here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7q4SKgonTmhMj68fqxg4uO?si=62c3fc1629bf4f48
i'll give it a listen, thank you!
I can't help but feel like a lot of the creativity generated on platforms – whether Livejournal, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, TikTok, Substack, or whatever – is often in spite of the platform, or incidental to the platform, and that it persists until the platform grows so bloated or algorithmic or otherwise hostile that everyone has to leave from somewhere else. Humans love social and creative spaces, but social and creative spaces aren't inherently sources of revenue (and really shouldn't/needn't be in an ideal world...). Right now there's an influx of users to Substack, which seems to still be on the upswing.
Also I read this within a week of also reading a post on a different Substack (this one: https://greatpoint.substack.com/p/wrapped-indeed-monclers-sauce-eyebleach), which linked to a study about a lot of people on social media (including Gen Zs, who allegedly love it), would willingly pay to make everyone delete it. Gen Zs especially felt this way about TikTok, but I feel it more about Instagram, which probably relates more to how dominant each social network is generationally. Social media is a trap, everyone feels it, here's the study brief: https://bfi.uchicago.edu/insight/research-summary/when-product-markets-become-collective-traps-the-case-of-social-media/
Thanks for this Maddy. Hard agree on everything. I truly laughed when reading this because I tried to make exactly the same kale soup from exactly the same reel and had exactly the same terrible result...
you are the third person who's told me they made this exact soup!!! ty for reading :)
Thanks for the Oshkosh Outlets shout out 😘
I will never forgive them for closing the American Girl shop
I had a yellow plastic matching vest and mini skirt from there! A treasured possession!
I have such a vivid memory of my uncle sending me a $25 gift certificate to the American Girl Store in Chicago (my present was getting pulled out of school and driven down for the day) and my mom said, "great, you can get a pair of doll socks with that."
*birthday present