I think the single best change Instagram done in a decade is the "ad break" that happens once you've scrolled through enough posts, which stops you for N seconds to stare at some random ad. I think I can scroll through 2-3 posts before my scrolling gets locked, and I close the app, and now I barely scroll Instagram at all anymore. Thank you Instagram!
The problem is that they measure this, and if it's true for many they will just change it until they find the right way to keep you there.
It's a giant machine dedicated to turn users into addicts. Regulation (sad) and most of all education is the only things that I believe can help here.
Tax them -> spend in education.... not that I think it will happen though! :)
That's me with old.reddit .com, best change they ever made was starting to block that. I haven't been on reddit in over a month and have, this may or may not be related, felt a lot less depressed and stressed
Conveniently, Reddit has auto-banned the last three accounts I tried opening with them [1], which really enhances the impact of the old.reddit changes for me personally.
[1] I have no idea why this is the case, AFAICT it's just anti-bot autoimmune disorder deciding it doesn't like some signal or other.
I don't really see people using Instagram anymore, it seems like it's mostly turned into a static photo album. For example, I've seen people use Instagram links on dating profiles. For more, see IG @...
Hmm, I think sometime in spring maybe. My wife tells me the same thing, she doesn't see those breaks. Not sure, I've had my Instagram account since 2010 I think, maybe like a reverse-grandfathering or just long-running A/B test?
I opened Instagram and scrolled now just to reproduce it again, and I saw one "normal" post before this "ad break" appeared for me: https://i.imgur.com/SS6kuKV.png
To add further humor on top of this, I think i.postimg.cc TLS certificate just now/yesterday expired??? Not sure if it's just me, but the certificate says it expired "Thu, 10 Sep 2026 20:49:55 GMT" although I did manage to upload the image, maybe different host...
Nope, cert expired so I'm not allowed to view it XD It's alright, other comments say that it's because of protecting your privacy, which I guess I haven't done
Well, in my case it seems like a win-win, less of a punishment and more of an extra feature I gained for making the right choice I guess. It's all the eyes of the beholder!
I have often argued for it on here, but I want eg the EU to ban these kinds of recommender algorithm's. It’s all about weaponizing your nervous system against you just to show ads. If we ban it tomorrow society literally becomes better not worse. Why do American big tech companies have the “right” to cook our brains? It affects our politics, our relationships, etc
I have started to like the algorithms. What I do want is an option to switch to plain old feed which twitter now offers.
Only problem with algorithm is that it is prone to occasional slips where you open a random cat video (or any other bait) and your recommendations start showing that more often, you keep clicking those and before you know it your recommended feed is full of that.
But if you know how to tame the algorithm for only the content you are interested in, it is amazing. I like my twitter, youtube and insta recommendations and have discovered many new creators who I wouldn't have otherwise.
Unlikely; your brain has been trained to enjoy it because it's a psychological hit inherent with the way the app + algorithm work together to be addictive and keep you 'engaged' instead of doing something else altogether.
Engagement dropping is bad for a corporations ad revenue -> shareholders; it's great for individuals and their physical and mental wellbeing.
I don't know what the right balance is, but there should be some sort of friction. Feeds shouldn't be infinitely scrollable, for instance, and users could be made explicitly aware of how much time they're spending.
Some people think this should all fall back on personal responsibility, but the way I see it, introducing highly addictive algorithms should've been regulated the same way adding addictive chemicals to food is.
Folks would just continue on page 2, like in the good old days! Pls take that with a pinch of salt.
There is just so much that can be banned and infinite scroll isn’t one of those things. After all, what kind of nanny state do we want and after how much content does the scroll stop?
The symptoms shouldn’t be addressed, the root cause of why folks feel they need to infinitely scroll through content that is probably providing them psychologically no benefits.
Monkeys and colourful marbles comes to mind, although I’m sure the monkeys lose interest after a while.
Bluesky likely knows this problem well. The pro is that I never find myself stuck there. The con is that I just end up somewhere else (including this orange website). Time to ctrl-w.
Although Bluesky is tiny, they are the biggest and most stable proponent of letting users control their feed. Even if they don't grow big, being half the size of a toxic social media platform is a damn good business model. Somebody can win with that, and I hope a diverse group of startups try.
Their lack of self-awareness is striking. Very often an insurgent would love to make half the revenue of the incumbent. He's not pointing out a problem with improving social media, he's pointing out the problem of being the incumbent that's dependent on toxic ingredients to their product.
Snarky reaction aside, and actually reading the article, it says that the problem is something along the lines of "we incentivized and rewarded business accounts to post large volumes, so now if you switch to chronological order you will see more of these posts which reduces user satisfaction".
Well, that just means that the company will have to adapt before their users start unfollowing spammy accounts and the whole "influencer" business takes a hit. Though tbh, not sure how much of a hit it could take but hey, when instagram says engagement falls, I allow myself to feel optimistic for a brief moment.
It can be good in the way that meals with green vegetables aren't consumed as voraciously as cheeseburgers and fries. It depends on the quality of what's in the feed.
On reflection I wonder if it doesn't drop more because it's a learned habit and it doesn't unlearn in the time of the study.
However, I suspect the other complaint — that chronological feeds get overwhelmed by corporate spam — is fully true.
It's one more regular reminder that none of these companies want to charge a couple of billion users a couple of dollars a month to give them exactly what they are asking for — a way to keep in contact with friends and meet new ones — because that's just not enough revenue for them, even if they charge for optional features.
We're all worth so much more to them if we are addicted.
I honestly only have these apps to see what my friends posted. I know they aren't likely to do it, but it would be lovely to have the friends-only view back by default in every meta app
Plenty of comments here saying what we're all thinking, so I THINK this is an appropriate thread to share my app which specifically removes the ads and algorithm and only shows posts from the profiles you follow.
Same probably goes for slot machines if you strip them of all the bright, flashy colours and comforting sounds and make it a black metal box, with only a number display.
Its almost like... it was inherently designed to be as addictive as possible?
I hope the point is bigger than a nit to pick, but a plain slot machine is still bad. Social media used to be good or at least interesting in a good way. Maybe it can be again.
I don't get how instagram is as popular as it is. I made an account last week to try to look for pictures from an event I recently attended.
First I was incredibly surprised and frustrated that their search functionality is effectively nonexistent, then, when I gave up and scrolled, if I tapped on a post to look closer, I had to deal with it interrupting whatever I was listening to.
Then, cherry on top of the shit cake, they suspended my account unless I did some video ID process. Nope, not happening.
Instagram felt like a more invasive and hostile user experience than any social media I've used before.
I think Instagram has gotten quite a bit worse over the past few years. I really only want to see posts from people I follow and they've made that more difficult.
The service that totally baffles me is Tik Tok. I know it's supposed to learn what you like, but it has never really surfaced anything of interest to me. It might even be worse than YouTube for me.
My ideal Instagram algorithm would be to show me only the people I follow, in chronological order. Then show me a marker that I'm at the end of my feed and at that point they can offer me their feed.
Everytime I stumble upon search on ANY meta made platform I'm dazzled by how anyone can make simple search such a shit feature. Messanger search is ridiculously not working for ten years now.
I think the single best change Instagram done in a decade is the "ad break" that happens once you've scrolled through enough posts, which stops you for N seconds to stare at some random ad. I think I can scroll through 2-3 posts before my scrolling gets locked, and I close the app, and now I barely scroll Instagram at all anymore. Thank you Instagram!
The problem is that they measure this, and if it's true for many they will just change it until they find the right way to keep you there. It's a giant machine dedicated to turn users into addicts. Regulation (sad) and most of all education is the only things that I believe can help here.
Tax them -> spend in education.... not that I think it will happen though! :)
That's me with old.reddit .com, best change they ever made was starting to block that. I haven't been on reddit in over a month and have, this may or may not be related, felt a lot less depressed and stressed
old reddit isn't really blocked, you just have to be logged in
Conveniently, Reddit has auto-banned the last three accounts I tried opening with them [1], which really enhances the impact of the old.reddit changes for me personally.
[1] I have no idea why this is the case, AFAICT it's just anti-bot autoimmune disorder deciding it doesn't like some signal or other.
I'll not login on the couch tablet so no more reddit for me on it.
If you're worried about addictive scrolling perhaps your "couch tablet" is worth side-eyeing.
I don't really see people using Instagram anymore, it seems like it's mostly turned into a static photo album. For example, I've seen people use Instagram links on dating profiles. For more, see IG @...
When did that start for you? I've never seen that myself, I can keep scrolling as long as I want
Hmm, I think sometime in spring maybe. My wife tells me the same thing, she doesn't see those breaks. Not sure, I've had my Instagram account since 2010 I think, maybe like a reverse-grandfathering or just long-running A/B test?
I opened Instagram and scrolled now just to reproduce it again, and I saw one "normal" post before this "ad break" appeared for me: https://i.imgur.com/SS6kuKV.png
Content not viewable in my region :P
Ay, I'm glad we now have country-specific internets, very fun :)
I uploaded the image to https://i.postimg.cc/Cx6fYh8p/image.png instead, hopefully you're not on corporate network blocking the (used to be) shady .cc tld.
To add further humor on top of this, I think i.postimg.cc TLS certificate just now/yesterday expired??? Not sure if it's just me, but the certificate says it expired "Thu, 10 Sep 2026 20:49:55 GMT" although I did manage to upload the image, maybe different host...
Nope, cert expired so I'm not allowed to view it XD It's alright, other comments say that it's because of protecting your privacy, which I guess I haven't done
Those ad breaks only appear if you opt out of personalized tracking.
They're a punishment for you because you won't let them collect data.
FB app does that too.
Well, in my case it seems like a win-win, less of a punishment and more of an extra feature I gained for making the right choice I guess. It's all the eyes of the beholder!
You get that when you refuse personalised ads.
Same! It's a great reminder to stop scrolling and close the app.
Tobacco exec says smoking falls by half with low-nicotine cigs.
"From today forward we will reduce our cigs nicotine by half!"
2 weeks later
"We are please to announce the acquisition of triple nicotine packets that show incredible product innovation."
Nobody says bring back cocaine-cola because sales.
Probably because there are strict laws outlawing cocaine sales, unlike nicotine
I have often argued for it on here, but I want eg the EU to ban these kinds of recommender algorithm's. It’s all about weaponizing your nervous system against you just to show ads. If we ban it tomorrow society literally becomes better not worse. Why do American big tech companies have the “right” to cook our brains? It affects our politics, our relationships, etc
I have started to like the algorithms. What I do want is an option to switch to plain old feed which twitter now offers.
Only problem with algorithm is that it is prone to occasional slips where you open a random cat video (or any other bait) and your recommendations start showing that more often, you keep clicking those and before you know it your recommended feed is full of that.
But if you know how to tame the algorithm for only the content you are interested in, it is amazing. I like my twitter, youtube and insta recommendations and have discovered many new creators who I wouldn't have otherwise.
> I have started to like the algorithms.
Unlikely; your brain has been trained to enjoy it because it's a psychological hit inherent with the way the app + algorithm work together to be addictive and keep you 'engaged' instead of doing something else altogether.
Engagement dropping is bad for a corporations ad revenue -> shareholders; it's great for individuals and their physical and mental wellbeing.
This can be true as well because I have been spending lot more time on twitter etc as well.
I don't know what the right balance is, but there should be some sort of friction. Feeds shouldn't be infinitely scrollable, for instance, and users could be made explicitly aware of how much time they're spending.
Some people think this should all fall back on personal responsibility, but the way I see it, introducing highly addictive algorithms should've been regulated the same way adding addictive chemicals to food is.
> Feeds shouldn't be infinitely scrollable
Folks would just continue on page 2, like in the good old days! Pls take that with a pinch of salt.
There is just so much that can be banned and infinite scroll isn’t one of those things. After all, what kind of nanny state do we want and after how much content does the scroll stop?
The symptoms shouldn’t be addressed, the root cause of why folks feel they need to infinitely scroll through content that is probably providing them psychologically no benefits.
Monkeys and colourful marbles comes to mind, although I’m sure the monkeys lose interest after a while.
They should tax Instagram for continuous scrolling. The longer one session gets the more it costs :D
Bluesky likely knows this problem well. The pro is that I never find myself stuck there. The con is that I just end up somewhere else (including this orange website). Time to ctrl-w.
It's not like this website has some nefarious algorithm to keep you engaged.
I also find myself here and keep bouncing off bluesky and I think it's just because I find the info and conversation here more interesting.
Although Bluesky is tiny, they are the biggest and most stable proponent of letting users control their feed. Even if they don't grow big, being half the size of a toxic social media platform is a damn good business model. Somebody can win with that, and I hope a diverse group of startups try.
>> If you go to a chronological feed, it ends up getting overwhelmed with content from companies, brands, and publishers
Not if you unsubscribe from companies, brands, and publishers. You're welcome.
For a lot of people that's a good thing
"Mosseri is not arguing that a chronological feed harms users. He is arguing that it produces less engagement and less time on the platform."
Seems like a great outcome, right?
Their lack of self-awareness is striking. Very often an insurgent would love to make half the revenue of the incumbent. He's not pointing out a problem with improving social media, he's pointing out the problem of being the incumbent that's dependent on toxic ingredients to their product.
cue the smallest sad violin
Snarky reaction aside, and actually reading the article, it says that the problem is something along the lines of "we incentivized and rewarded business accounts to post large volumes, so now if you switch to chronological order you will see more of these posts which reduces user satisfaction".
Well, that just means that the company will have to adapt before their users start unfollowing spammy accounts and the whole "influencer" business takes a hit. Though tbh, not sure how much of a hit it could take but hey, when instagram says engagement falls, I allow myself to feel optimistic for a brief moment.
Only half? That's sort of depressing.
It can be good in the way that meals with green vegetables aren't consumed as voraciously as cheeseburgers and fries. It depends on the quality of what's in the feed.
Will fry all the brains of humanity for double the engagement (and a promotion to L5).
Doesn't sound worth it to me.
So this is the result of "move fast and break things (humans in this case)".
It's a good start.
On reflection I wonder if it doesn't drop more because it's a learned habit and it doesn't unlearn in the time of the study.
However, I suspect the other complaint — that chronological feeds get overwhelmed by corporate spam — is fully true.
It's one more regular reminder that none of these companies want to charge a couple of billion users a couple of dollars a month to give them exactly what they are asking for — a way to keep in contact with friends and meet new ones — because that's just not enough revenue for them, even if they charge for optional features.
We're all worth so much more to them if we are addicted.
> engagement falls by half without the algorithm
Good?
I honestly only have these apps to see what my friends posted. I know they aren't likely to do it, but it would be lovely to have the friends-only view back by default in every meta app
A great start and a major win for humanity. Halfway there!
What’s the other half? ;)
Monetization is down when content isn't force-fed to users. Give this guy a raise.
Nobel prize for economics perhaps?
Plenty of comments here saying what we're all thinking, so I THINK this is an appropriate thread to share my app which specifically removes the ads and algorithm and only shows posts from the profiles you follow.
https://narro.info
Everyone loves to hate the algorithm but this is obvious
Yeah, we know! That’s the problem!
Same probably goes for slot machines if you strip them of all the bright, flashy colours and comforting sounds and make it a black metal box, with only a number display.
Its almost like... it was inherently designed to be as addictive as possible?
I hope the point is bigger than a nit to pick, but a plain slot machine is still bad. Social media used to be good or at least interesting in a good way. Maybe it can be again.
That's great, does he have any other good news to share with us?
Is that supposed to be bad?
Because people are lazy, they feed on feed.
I don't get how instagram is as popular as it is. I made an account last week to try to look for pictures from an event I recently attended.
First I was incredibly surprised and frustrated that their search functionality is effectively nonexistent, then, when I gave up and scrolled, if I tapped on a post to look closer, I had to deal with it interrupting whatever I was listening to.
Then, cherry on top of the shit cake, they suspended my account unless I did some video ID process. Nope, not happening.
Instagram felt like a more invasive and hostile user experience than any social media I've used before.
I think Instagram has gotten quite a bit worse over the past few years. I really only want to see posts from people I follow and they've made that more difficult.
The service that totally baffles me is Tik Tok. I know it's supposed to learn what you like, but it has never really surfaced anything of interest to me. It might even be worse than YouTube for me.
My ideal Instagram algorithm would be to show me only the people I follow, in chronological order. Then show me a marker that I'm at the end of my feed and at that point they can offer me their feed.
> I don't get how instagram is as popular as it is.
Stockholm syndrome.
Everytime I stumble upon search on ANY meta made platform I'm dazzled by how anyone can make simple search such a shit feature. Messanger search is ridiculously not working for ten years now.
Good stuff ! When’s it going to prod ?
They don't know that.
You can't currently turn off the algorithm in Instagram.
This person is talking nonsense.
> Users miss more content and spend less time on the platform.
And what is the effect of this on the user?
Oh right, you don't care.
For me this guy is directly repsonsible of all the negative side effects of this attention grabbing engangement BS and he should go to jail for that.
This is simply 21. century Tabbaco industry with all it had. The glamour, controversy and now the fall.
Good?
"The brands and publishers’ point is the stronger half, and it deserves engaging with. "
Just one example. It's odd to me that people are willing to put their own byline on obvious slop.
>Children will be smoking less if you don't offer them cigarettes
Because looking at pictures is the same as smoking cigarettes.
Good!
That's the point.
Engagement ~= addiction. Just a more euphemistic framing.
Good
Same with HN and its LLM powered comments script they run internally
Cry me a river, seriously.