Naturally we think of social media as being social but since the pandemic, and before then social media have become about keeping influencers happy and everyone scrolling, rather than chatting and engaging. It’s the utilitarian "We’re using social media to distract ourselves, rather than network....
Posts tagged “instagram”
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The Subtle Transition to Strava — May 6, 2026 -
Trying To Read Nested Data From a JSON File — Jan 14, 2022Over the last two evenings I have been attempting to read nested data. I have tried to parse the data and other methods but without success. I have browsed the web to try to find solutions but for now I am getting stuck. Learning is also about trial and error, and knowing where to find the right information. For now I am lost. At the end of this process I will be more self-sufficient....
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The Paradox of Instagram’s Twitter — May 21, 2023Within the last two days I saw a headline that is either amusing or tragic. The headline is that Instagram is creating a twitter clone, or even a Twitter competitor. This is amusing, or tragic, because Twitter and Facebook have always been competitors. You had the network of strangers that became friends, with Twitter, and the network of uni friends that became estranged years after graduating with Facebook.... -
The Fun and Games of Attempting to Migrate Instagram Data continue — Jun 5, 2020The Fun and games of attempting to migrate Instagram data continue. I have now spent several days on the task. I have my Instagram posts currently sitting on a local blog. The challenge has been to migrate it from my local WordPress installation to the main website.... -
Replacing Instagram With Eyeem and a Blog — Jan 17, 2020Replacing Instagram with Eyeem and a blog makes sense. When Instagram was new, before it was bought by Facebook it was a network of people who liked to take pictures sharing with friends and family. As it grew and as more people used it people followed less discerningly and so it became more of a popularity contest than a photo-sharing website.... -
IFTTT - Instagram to Twitter — Jun 22, 2016Instagram is still a healthy social network. It still finds an engaged group of users who want to share their adventures, meals, friendships and more with other users. Some of them love sharing selfies and others share beautiful landscapes. This keeps the network vibrant and young. Twitter on the other hand has neutralised peoples’ passion and engagement with the site. They wanted to become google reader, they wanted mass following of key accounts, they wanted to neutralise the social, conversational aspect and they have succeeded in their goal so effectively that now an IFTTT rule reduces the need to visit twitter. [caption id=“attachment_2980” align=“aligncenter”] Which network do you prioritise When you share your instagram photos as native twitter photos you are hiding that you are disengaged from Twitter. By hiding this disengagement from the social network you are hiding that you may not respond to replies, mentions etc. By not responding to those interactions you are negating the purpose of your presence on the social network. [caption id=“attachment_2979” align=“aligncenter”] The once social network Twitter continues to decline When you fail to interact directly with websites such as Twitter you perpetuate the notion that twitter is a place where bots interact with bots because humans are no longer present. When humans are gone, when interactions between users no longer take place then what remains of the “social network”? Two hundred and ninety six thousand people have added this recipe to their IFTTT accounts. A quarter of a million people have chosen to spend time on Instagram rather than twitter. For this reason it makes sense to share pictures via Instagram. We will see your instagram account and we can start following it. In so doing we spend our time more effectively. Instagram still has a future. If you post to the networks that you want to use there is a good opportunity that others will want the same. Lets cut out twitter. ;-)... -
How to Migrate from Instagram To WordPress — Jun 10, 2020Recently I migrated my photos from Instagram to a WordPress blog. The process took some trial and error. The first step is to understand how to read JSON files and format them in a way that WordPress can use. The next step is to import that data into Wordpress.... -
Cutting down on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube — Jan 15, 2019The Issue... -
Close to Success - Exporting Instagram images to WordPress Natively — Jun 2, 2020When Instagram was a self-run startup I loved the product. I loved that it was a way of sharing images with friends. I loved that it was fast and that it was light. I also liked that it had it’s own community. I liked that it was a way of sharing real life with people we conversed with online.... -
The Symbiosis of Influeners and Social Media — Jan 25, 2026Threads, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok are social media sites and apps rather than social networks. Their aim is not to promote conversations but rather to encourage likes, re-sharing and the cult of personality. It is for this reason that they have become less ‘sticky’ for normal ‘users’....
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Utilitarianism and the Death of Social Media — Nov 11, 2025In 2006-2007 when Jaiku and Forums had threads, these made conversations flow. When Twitter was a chatroom conversations flowed too, until the arrival of the hashtag. The issue with the hashtag is that it brought in people who are toilet social media browsers, rather than habitual social media participants. I could have written users, but that is part of the issue with Social Media and Utilitarianism....
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On Instagram's Video Saturation — Nov 3, 2025A day or two I opened the Instagram app and I scrolled down without seeing a single photo so I deleted the app from my phone. There was a time when instagram was a photo sharing network between friends, and friends of friends. Now it has become a video spamming platform for influencers we have never, and will never met. In essence it has become worthless, hence the uninstall.... -
Instagram and Net Neutrality — Oct 29, 2024When videos are older, or are not viewed often their quality will be downgraded until they are either viewed regularly or never at all. This decision showstype: posts that Instagram is forgetting that it should promote net neutrality rather than a two tier system where influencers get the red carpet, and normal human beings are treated badly.... -
The Fallacy of Please Like and Subscribe — Jun 25, 2024Over the years I have subscribed to hundreds of podcasts, YouTube channels, people on Instagram TikTok and more. I then stopped subscribing, and sometimes like, but never when I’m asked to by the content creators. The short reason for not liking and subscribing now is that if I subscribe I usually grow tired with the content and stop watching, so my subscription is an illusion. The reason I don’t “like” plenty of videos is simply that the videos are not worth a like.... -
Instagram Limits for Teens — Jun 1, 2024Today I read from Techcrunch and The Verge that there are new tools to limit things so that people can only get comments from friends and family. The irony isn’t lost on me.... -
Dormant Social Media Life While Sorting Through Drives — Feb 2, 2024Recently my Social Media Life has become dormant. I do visit Facebook every so often but I ignore Instagram, barely touch Mastodon or the fediverse, and in general have stopped looking at social media for a social life. It’s not that my life offline has become vibrant. It’s that online is empty of meaningful engagement, especially in winter.... -
Being European and Paying for Facebook and Instagram — Oct 31, 2023For those of us living in Europe we now have the option of paying for Facebook and Instagram, not to see ads. In theory this is fantastic and we should be jumping on the opportunity.... -
Asking for Permission on Instagram — Aug 5, 2023If you want to see how unhealthy social media is just look at this story about DMs on Instagram. Now if you want to DM someone that you don’t follow they can send just one text message....
