‘Make Instagram Instagram again!’ That’s the headline that emerged this week as IG continues to shunt still photo feed posts to the back of the algorithm queue in favour of short form Reels videos. This is also coupled with IG’s increasing tendency to show you content from people you don’t know or follow in a bid for users to ‘discover’ new content. It all came to a head when Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian waded in and shared a much-memed statement by photographer Tati Bruening that reads, ‘Stop trying to be TikTok, I just want to see cute photos of my friends.’ In true Reels form, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri explained that video is what people are liking, sharing and engaging with, and while the platform will always support photos as they are part of IG’s ‘heritage’, the shift to video on the platform is inevitable.
If Kylie and Kim say it’s so then why, yes, we must surely listen! Now I wouldn’t normally expend words on the changes to a social media algorithm. Especially given that there are swathes of the real populace who haven’t detached their right hand and replaced it with a smartphone. For those who have reached the zenith state of being able to exist in a world beyond the clutches of Meta and other social media platforms – well done. But allow me to ruminate on the deeper effects of a TikTok-a-like IG and Mosseri’s statement that the shift to video is inevitable.
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