Instagram's new TikTok-inspired UI, which has rolled out to some users, lifts some dark patterns from TikTok, like no longer letting users quickly mute videos
It would make a lot more sense, imo, if Meta doubled down on the fact that it's really the only place (except Snapchat) to get updates from people you know. I think people still want that! And they don't want to do it through dancing videos.
I understand this has always been Meta's strategy, but it's frustrating to see it try to turn itself into TikTok when TikTok is doing a rather bad job becoming FB/IG
The benefit is temporary, but the damage is permanent. I wonder if companies were driven by long term incentives and goals (i.e., not a quarterly earnings cycle) if this would be different. I see these moves, if adopted, as the beginning/middle of the end for these services.
Users will hop to the next thing (which seems to be TikTok and BeReal instead of Instagram), until they do the same thing or until they're seen as “old.” As for streaming, there are a lot of competitors out there, and the market is hot and not restricting password sharing.
It's a shame @instagram is headed full speed into a knockoff version of TikTok. The tagline if you google instagram is “Your Friends are Waiting” - for what, to be buried in a sea of meme accounts and reel reposts?
I've long felt that FB/Meta will go the way of Yahoo & AOL. They'll struggle to find a hit/the next thing. It's crazy (but I see why) to me that they destroy the experience of the user base they already have. Why would more people join your service when you make it so unpleasant?
FB already doubled down on literally this exact type of content *years* ago and mostly just got told they were a shitty lame world-destroying app only olds like by the entire media ecosystem. Genuinely weird for me to see those same folks hand-wringing over product changes now ht…
@ShiraOvide Sure. But another way of putting it is they have never been for anything other than capturing your attention and renting it out at a huge premium.
@ShiraOvide oh absolutely! FB/IG are just whatever will hold your attention. If people were spending 80 minutes a day looking at a lava lamp animation on their phones, FB/IG would become lava lamps
It's interesting to watch companies make decisions squeezing their users for more money: Meta prioritizing & serving almost 100% ads in an Instagram timeline & Netflix w/ password sharing. It'll raise revenue until users quit/move to a platform that doesn't squeeze them.
This is an interesting point about Meta: Does copying TikTok (and shoving any conceivable feature into its apps) show a lack of conviction about what Facebook and Instagram are FOR? https://twitter.com/...
For many months now, as I wrote about here, TikTok has been aggressively trying to get people to follow their friends and family. The problem is that absolutely no one wants to see the horrifyingly cringe videos people they know are making https://www.wired.com/...