Instagram’s Influencer Rebellion
You may have recently seen influencers sharing a post with the text:
“Make Instagram Instagram Again”, The photographer ‘ Tati Bruening’ (username @illumitati) shared the post on their profile. However this wasn’t just an awareness post, Tati had created a petition in an attempt for users to sign and join the movement.
Other big names such as Kylie Jenner shared the post also.
So what is this petition actually looking for? Signees are angling for Instagram to:
Bring back chronological timelines
Stop trying to be TikTok – arguing that reels are simply recycled TikToks and that it isn’t promoting anything unique as a feature
Make images the primary focus of Instagram again
A platform that listens to creators, who made the platform so successful
Here are some comments from the petition:
“Instagram is a PICTURE-SHARING website at heart. No need for every app to be the exact same, and to destroy the visibility of accounts that don’t follow the unnecessary modifications. We wants to see our friends’ pictures and drawings, not 5-sec videos.”
“Instagram has become a train wreck... thx to Zuckerberg”
But what does this actually mean? In essence, creators should have a voice, and should have an impact and say on what platform they’re using.
However, there is also data to back Instagram’s changes – metrics are suggesting users were becoming less engaged with Instagram in general, younger audiences weren’t looking towards Instagram as their main platform.
The justification of ‘we already have TikTok’ is the exact reason why Instagram should be updating its algorithm; these changes put the company in a bit of a pickle – with the negative sentiment seemingly being quite strong.
But Instagram is still king - it’s still what most people use, it is still what people are comfortable with, and it’s not the first change the platform went through to get where it is.
Kylie Jenner has 360 million followers on Instagram, boycotting Instagram means potentially losing all of that reach. Also, in the same notion as sharing the petition, she later shared her cosmetics page which she again, promotes largely via Instagram.
This is of course a positive movement, it’s always valuable for platforms to hear what their users are thinking and since YouTube Rewind 2018, this is likely the strongest voice against any of the platforms.
