There is a ton of content with dark jokes, black humor, very provocative content and even "nazi" memes and people send it to each other to laugh about it.
Those reels usually have very few likes / comments but A TON of sends. I personally am on multiple group chats where we only send each other those kind of memes.
The thing is, instagram being a huge echo chamber. Before you have no idea those exists, and once you are in you see a ton of those
I deleted instagram last year and haven’t reinstalled it. Those reels are so addicting. I’m glad I never installed TikTok because I imagine it’s just as bad. I still suffer from YouTube Shorts but at least the mobile web UI is janky enough to eventually push me out of its trance.
TikTok is maybe the last bad echo chamber of the big short video platforms: stitches encourage some sort of debate and expose you to snippets of opposing view points, and the algorithm gives you at least a chance of finding new types of content you also like. But it's only the least bad, it's still very bad. Especial once you factor in your own confirmation bias and the comment algorithm
Although I will admit that Instagram has their advertising insanely dialed in. The content is gross junk food but the ads I have actually clicked before.