I like to consider myself a tumblr native, but I’ve been exploring other platforms recently just to see what all the hype is about. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed it, but it has been INCREDIBLY fascinating observing the behavior of instagram users.
Here are some habits I’ve discovered:
- Every few months, they go crazy over one specific animal that never used to get any attention and then never speak of them again. Sea lions were a BIG trend for a while, but I’ve seen them fade out and other animals such as hyraxes and American woodcocks fade in.
- Their gif culture is just as big if not bigger than it is on tumblr since they can use them in comment sections. However, they don’t just use whatever gifs they want. They’ve got a whole language. For a few weeks, all you’ll see as a reaction image is variations of “he made a statement so trash even the dog left,” and then suddenly it will switch to almost exclusively Speed. It’s wild how fast the trends rotate while spreading so far.
- These gifs also get specialized per post. Many fandoms will recreate the popular gifs with drawings of their favorite characters. Many creators also end up with comment sections full of gifs of their content. I have no idea why this localization is so fascinating to me but it is.
- The goal in comment sections is to “win.” But unlike tumblr, “winning” isn’t being the funniest, it’s being the funniest hater. Every comment section is a cesspit of hate, no matter how positive or creative the original post is.
- Despite the algorithm, posts reach the wrong audience a LOT. And of course, since this is instagram, rather than simply scrolling away or blocking content they don’t like, they feel the need to feed into those hate sections. It’s often hard to tell whether something like this happened or if someone is rage baiting, but either way, it makes for an incredibly toxic environment.
- In general, connections are just a lot less personable. It’s sort of odd how strangers can connect on a deep level so easily behind aliases on here, but become nothing more than a face when their real lives are on display on Instagram. It’s quite sad, really.
All in all, this didn’t have much of a purpose other than to say that this hellsite rules, and that Instagram users are terrifying. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
