I’m Sorry to Report Instagram Is Bad Now | Hacker News Reader

I’m Sorry to Report Instagram Is Bad Now

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30 pointsmalvosenior9 comments

While I totally agree that Instagram is “bad”, I’m not sure why the author ever thought it was less toxic than the other social media properties when the article even says:

”A 2017 study showed that Instagram was the worst social media site for the mental health of young people, who said it made them feel loneliness, insecurity, and a negative body image.”

I think toxic has generally come to refer to when people treat other people poorly (ie. insults, name-calling, political extremism, uncivilized debate).

You're right that Instagram presents its own set of problems though... mostly related to self-image. But there's rarely any malicious intent on the part of users (compared to Twitter and Facebook).

I always took toxic to mean unhealthy or bad (that’s the dictionary definition at least) so in that sense it does seem like Instagram is toxic.

I'm happy to see more "social media platform X sucks" articles.

More of these articles means public perception changes regarding social media platforms in general.

The change from sorting based on popularity instead of chronological order was the beginning of the downfall. Since then, it’s been overtaken by instagram promoters and other junk.

Instagram blatantly ripped off Snap and now they're choking on their pilfered feature set. Good. Figure out your own damn innovation.

This reminds me of the time that Larry and Sergey tried to rip off Mark. They built a whole bunch of social stuff without really understanding why. Now Mark is trying to rip off Evan and building a bunch of stuff the kids like without really understanding why.

I know that all the tech giants have essentially stolen basic ideas from their predecessors but it is typically because they can see potential and a future that nobody else has envisioned. Yes, they steal the original concept but then innovate and expand. What IG is doing with Snap features is a desparate ploy to crush a competitor without truly understanding them, their users, or their marketplace.

Your mistake is thinking that Larry or Sergey or Mark or Evan knew what they were doing in the first place with their own companies.

It was driven by a "this is cool" at the very foundation. They wanted to do a thing and details were largely irrelevant. What GP is describing is adding things to a service which ultimately serve no use and aren't cool either. They're just there to say "there, look, we have it too now!" Which feels cold and loveless to the users.

Correct.

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