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I don't understand Instagram language. My GF uses it. It is full of digital influencers, people who make money because they are digital influencers. Young peopl

I don't understand Instagram language. My GF uses it. It is full of digital influencers, people who make money because they are digital influencers. Young people with sometimes funny but generally pointless and most often ridiculous dancing moves to an equally ridiculous repetitive song. People buying expensive things, doing idiot things talking about uninteresting details of the uninteresting lives of equally uninteresting people... I don't understand the hypnotic effect it has.

pembrook 5y ago
I'm almost certain you could make the same argument about this site. We're all here clamoring to post overly analytical and smart-sounding things in response to news headlines in the hopes that we'll get meaningless upvotes from strangers. When looking down on the things that other people like and do, it pays to look in the mirror first.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
grepfru_it 5y ago
It's television for the current generation. I've noticed my parents and inlaws cannot exist without having the television on. I mean they can, but pick a random day, show up at their house and the TV is on some show that they are remotely interested in but watching because they had nothing else to do. That's instagram/facebook/snapchat/etc.
- datavirtue 5y ago
  I have always had stuff to do. This sounds like mental torture.
  - freeflight 5y ago
    I consider it like white noise, having something running in the background somehow helps me better focus on what's in-front of me. In a way it's also a bit of a social substitute; When you live alone, and spend a lot of time alone, it can be nice to just listen to some human voices in the background as if you were not alone.
    - Apocryphon 5y ago
      As a civilization we've had this for over a decade now, surely this was what radio was like before television.
  - 0x008 5y ago
    That this thread includes a couple of comments like this is really interesting. It shows that HN is a very particular sample of the population.
  - 93po 5y ago
    most people do not have the energy, drive, or motivation to constantly be doing things. i guess it's both a blessing and a curse if you do.
ravenstine 5y ago
It's basically a porn site. Perhaps there's no nudity, but it's as soul-sucking and a waste of time as erotic pornography. The behavior of the user, the emotional high, and the business model really aren't so different.
- 0x008 5y ago
  In the same sense as reality TV or video games are like porn, yes.
  - ravenstine 5y ago
    Certanly, though I still argue that apps like Instagram are more closely designed around the model of voyeurism and dopamine-chasing that come to mind with porn.
epolanski 5y ago
I met one of the most brilliant people in my life. Smart, passionate about art, culture, politics. Brilliant student, top of her class from elementary through college. Fluent (as in certified) C2 in English and German. Terrific career as a public servant in foreign politics already in her late 20s. She would never, ever, miss a single episode of a “reality” about dating in tv, a show famous in Italy as “trash tv”. It was unwatchable, worse than Jersey shore. I asked her why such an intelligent and smart person couldn’t miss an episode of something so terrible and lame and she answered me “I know it’s awful, but for an entire hour I’m able to be lobotomized and not have a single thought, I can completely detach from reality and relax”. My current SO does the same with Instagram. Whenever she needs to detach from her thoughts she zombifies on Instagram. Might be cats or fashion bloggers but she tunes out completely and she does that intentionally knowing that’s the effect it has on her.
- lovecg 5y ago
  And hey, some of us use HN in the same way!
- thrashh 5y ago
  I don’t really watch those shows but I get the appeal. It’s a lot of people drama and it’s fun trying to see what’s going on in the minds of the contestants on the show. Sometimes someone does something and it doesn’t make sense, and it’s fun. It’s not for me but a lot of “dumb” shows can be appreciated with an open mindset.
  - epolanski 5y ago
    But that’s besides my main point which is the fact that low quality entertainment is actively seeked by people actively wanting to forget about life. It’s the intentional zombification that worries me, especially when coupled with 24/7 availability and per-user engagement optimization. Socials, especially passive ones where you consume awfully more than you interact are just those escape hatches from stress, thoughts and boredom.
    - 5y ago
kccqzy 5y ago
My way of using Instagram was that I only follow people I have talked to in real life. No influencers, no news outlets, no brands, no businesses, no "young people making popular dance moves" unless that's made by young people I know and have talked to in real life. The app has been making this way of using Instagram more and more difficult. It's not surprising because my way likely doesn't generate any revenue.
- stefandesu 5y ago
  That's how I (try to) use Instagram as well. It's still working more or less fine for me, but what bothers me is that it has also become an essential messaging app for me. I don't use Facebook or WhatsApp, so Instagram is the only way to stay in contact with some of the people in my life. I guess if I wanted to leave, I could ask them for phone numbers or email addresses. I should probably do that even before I actually leave. (By the way, my main messaging apps are Signal and Telegram, but I also have LINE, for my contacts related to Japan, and iMessage, mostly for family. So many apps...)
esotericsean 5y ago
I have an Instagram account where I post about modding retro game consoles. Turns out there's a huge community of very supportive people who do the same thing. It's not all TikTok influencers, there are niches on every platform. It's just like real life, there are good and bad people, places to go, etc. I love Instagram and some of the communities I've discovered within it. I hate that it's owned by Facebook.
toto444 5y ago
Same here. My wife spends hours On IG every day. I have asked some people how this is possible and their reply was : 'I thought I would not be addicted but when I installed the app I got hooked'. I genuinely do not understand why people like so much watching photos. I can spend a few minutes watching photos or drawings of things I enjoy but I tire really quickly. I can't even think of something I like enough to spend one hour watching photos of it.

pembrook 5y ago

I'm almost certain you could make the same argument about this site. We're all here clamoring to post overly analytical and smart-sounding things in response to news headlines in the hopes that we'll get meaningless upvotes from strangers. When looking down on the things that other people like and do, it pays to look in the mirror first.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

grepfru_it 5y ago

It's television for the current generation. I've noticed my parents and inlaws cannot exist without having the television on. I mean they can, but pick a random day, show up at their house and the TV is on some show that they are remotely interested in but watching because they had nothing else to do. That's instagram/facebook/snapchat/etc.

datavirtue 5y ago
I have always had stuff to do. This sounds like mental torture.
- freeflight 5y ago
  I consider it like white noise, having something running in the background somehow helps me better focus on what's in-front of me. In a way it's also a bit of a social substitute; When you live alone, and spend a lot of time alone, it can be nice to just listen to some human voices in the background as if you were not alone.
  - Apocryphon 5y ago
    As a civilization we've had this for over a decade now, surely this was what radio was like before television.
- 0x008 5y ago
  That this thread includes a couple of comments like this is really interesting. It shows that HN is a very particular sample of the population.
- 93po 5y ago
  most people do not have the energy, drive, or motivation to constantly be doing things. i guess it's both a blessing and a curse if you do.

ravenstine 5y ago

It's basically a porn site. Perhaps there's no nudity, but it's as soul-sucking and a waste of time as erotic pornography. The behavior of the user, the emotional high, and the business model really aren't so different.

0x008 5y ago
In the same sense as reality TV or video games are like porn, yes.
- ravenstine 5y ago
  Certanly, though I still argue that apps like Instagram are more closely designed around the model of voyeurism and dopamine-chasing that come to mind with porn.

epolanski 5y ago

I met one of the most brilliant people in my life. Smart, passionate about art, culture, politics. Brilliant student, top of her class from elementary through college. Fluent (as in certified) C2 in English and German. Terrific career as a public servant in foreign politics already in her late 20s. She would never, ever, miss a single episode of a “reality” about dating in tv, a show famous in Italy as “trash tv”. It was unwatchable, worse than Jersey shore. I asked her why such an intelligent and smart person couldn’t miss an episode of something so terrible and lame and she answered me “I know it’s awful, but for an entire hour I’m able to be lobotomized and not have a single thought, I can completely detach from reality and relax”. My current SO does the same with Instagram. Whenever she needs to detach from her thoughts she zombifies on Instagram. Might be cats or fashion bloggers but she tunes out completely and she does that intentionally knowing that’s the effect it has on her.

lovecg 5y ago
And hey, some of us use HN in the same way!
thrashh 5y ago
I don’t really watch those shows but I get the appeal. It’s a lot of people drama and it’s fun trying to see what’s going on in the minds of the contestants on the show. Sometimes someone does something and it doesn’t make sense, and it’s fun. It’s not for me but a lot of “dumb” shows can be appreciated with an open mindset.
- epolanski 5y ago
  But that’s besides my main point which is the fact that low quality entertainment is actively seeked by people actively wanting to forget about life. It’s the intentional zombification that worries me, especially when coupled with 24/7 availability and per-user engagement optimization. Socials, especially passive ones where you consume awfully more than you interact are just those escape hatches from stress, thoughts and boredom.
  - 5y ago

kccqzy 5y ago

My way of using Instagram was that I only follow people I have talked to in real life. No influencers, no news outlets, no brands, no businesses, no "young people making popular dance moves" unless that's made by young people I know and have talked to in real life. The app has been making this way of using Instagram more and more difficult. It's not surprising because my way likely doesn't generate any revenue.

stefandesu 5y ago
That's how I (try to) use Instagram as well. It's still working more or less fine for me, but what bothers me is that it has also become an essential messaging app for me. I don't use Facebook or WhatsApp, so Instagram is the only way to stay in contact with some of the people in my life. I guess if I wanted to leave, I could ask them for phone numbers or email addresses. I should probably do that even before I actually leave. (By the way, my main messaging apps are Signal and Telegram, but I also have LINE, for my contacts related to Japan, and iMessage, mostly for family. So many apps...)

esotericsean 5y ago

I have an Instagram account where I post about modding retro game consoles. Turns out there's a huge community of very supportive people who do the same thing. It's not all TikTok influencers, there are niches on every platform. It's just like real life, there are good and bad people, places to go, etc. I love Instagram and some of the communities I've discovered within it. I hate that it's owned by Facebook.

toto444 5y ago

Same here. My wife spends hours On IG every day. I have asked some people how this is possible and their reply was : 'I thought I would not be addicted but when I installed the app I got hooked'. I genuinely do not understand why people like so much watching photos. I can spend a few minutes watching photos or drawings of things I enjoy but I tire really quickly. I can't even think of something I like enough to spend one hour watching photos of it.