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Comment by 2OEH8eoCRo0 | Hacker News Reader

Most adults are addicted to this trash, imagine how addicting or harmful this shit is for children.

We need to do better.

Instagram is the kind of thing that I really want to like. I like taking pictures, I want to share them with friends, I want to keep up with close friends and whats going on in their lives even when living far away.

But no matter how much work I put in to tailoring my feed, it just shows me half naked people that aren't my friends.

I see lots of racy advertisements on FB, and I have no idea why. For general privacy reasons, I use FB in a dedicated browser. I do not 'like' companies or products on FB, nor do I follow any celebrities. I don't look at pornography, nor does anyone else at my IP address. Do they just show me this stuff because I'm a man? FB knows I'm married, so I wouldn't think I'd be in the most receptive demographic for this sort of thing. Whenever I check "why did I see this ad?", it always just says they're trying to reach adults in the US. But my wife never gets ads like this, even though they are purportedly ads for racy women's clothing.

I don't use FB much, and stuff like this makes me think I'm doing the right thing (OTOH, I just realized I forgot my good friend's bday yesterday, so I guess it's good for that one thing).

> Do they just show me this stuff because I'm a man?

I'd say yes. I made a fake Facebook account so I could participate in my locale's groups without being doxxed, as I've witnessed a single mother get doxxed by the mayor for disagreeing with his policy. I get shown racy posts and friend suggestions based on the fake demographics I set on the account.

I think your privacy efforts are working against you. You turned of personalized ads and wondering why the ads you are getting aren't personalized.

With nothing else to key off of, you're going to get the bottom of the barrel ads that they cant show to normal people (because there's always a more personalized ad to show them).

Fair point, though Facebook still knows a lot about me based on my friends. Also, I regularly click the ads and say “never show me this ad again”. If given the option, I mark it as inappropriate (which is the closest reason offered).

Instagram feed only shows you accounts you follow.

Search tab on the other hand shows you any accounts IG thinks are relevant to you.

This makes me question the veracity of your comment, unless you meant the Search tab (and even then it's based on your interaction in the app - if you don't click on half-naked people, the app won't show them to you).

Instagram feed shows you suggested stuff when there's no unseen content. I only follow a few people, if I open Instagram is mostly suggested things

I think the feed also shows ads/"promoted content"? Or that may just be the stories feature. I've had my account deactivated for a few months so I might misremember. Usually the ads I remember did not involve half-naked people, but I think it's a subjective measure, and so influencers' promoted content could be racier to some than others.

I’m pretty active on Instagram and I don’t do any specific “tailoring” of my feed. I see about 80% fine art, 15% friends posting about their lives, and 5% semi-famous people I chose to follow.

I don’t know what I’m doing right there other than heart-ing stuff I like and only following what interests me.

I’m sure Zuck will destroy it eventually but for now, Insta is the anti-Facebook for me and a source of much positivity.

Maybe do less tailoring? I hope it can be useful for you too.

Maybe I should start a new one and just follow a couple dozen people I like. I think a lot of the issue could be me following hashtags or topics or whatever instagram calls them. For example, if I follow backpacking, the first few posts will be relevant, then it will devolve into people abusing the hashtag system and me seeing content I'm not interested in.

If you follow the right accounts, it will actually turn into a nice experience. Personally I never followed many hashtags, instead I used to follow high quality photography accounts. I believe that a small percentage got sold at some point and turned into trash but the majority of my feed was quite tailored and nice.

May I point out that much of the 'positivity' on Instagram is pretty toxic too. There are people just showing the best parts of life and abusive people re-posting the kindest quotes. It all feels like smoke and mirrors to me.

if you've got Android I recommend getting barinsta, it's on fdroid. just gives you a chronological feed of your friends posts.

Yes, we need better parents who take responsibility instead of whining and putting blame on others.

There is no whining or any assignment of blame in the letter. It is a very cogently worded request to refrain from adapting a purpose-built app meant to drive engagement at all cost (Instagram) for kids under 13.

Of course there is a political play here: if this group gets Zuckerberg to back down and admit his product might not be good for people under 13, then an argument can be made against Instagram as a whole. Perhaps you disagree with that point?

Isn't it a false dichotomy? Can't we hope for parents to be more involved and also push for companies to act in a more socially responsible way?

Yes, this sh*t must stop infecting our children.

But in current conditions, sadly this trash will continue to harm our children if parents as well as those big tech companies don't tackle the problem seriously. It's sad that even they promote or allow it directly or indirectly.

Fortunately there are parents aware about this flagellum and it's harmful impact in the society, specially in our young people. And they don't allow that this happens to their children.

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