Instagram has long been accused of stealing features from platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Twitter/X. It appears that the company has looked to YouTube for its latest idea: unskippable ads that you have to watch for a period of time before being able to scroll further.
A Redditor posted images of the Instagram ad breaks. FireCubX writes that users will suddenly find they have hit the bottom of their feed, so to speak, and can’t scroll down any further. An “ad break” icon will appear with a countdown timer that prevents users from browsing through more content until they view an ad, at which point the counter starts running down.
I’m happy I only have a lemmy account
Wouldn’t it be funny, if that would end the doom scroll cause suddenly it’s a disturbance and can’t be skipped like other non liked content, so it breaks the trance and leaves the user with anger instead of numbness?
User tolerance of online ads is really being tested lately with the increase of unskippable crap. I suspect that some will stop rather than deal with it, but most will just tolerate it. Which is what they’re counting on.
I sure hope so. I use Instagram to follow my friends and local businesses, but I can get sucked into reels too. I have an app that specifically pops up if I spend too much time in Instagram to break that cycle.
What’s that app? I need that.
I need something like a smartwatch to just tap me on the wrist every 10 minutes so I can gather my thoughts. I want to be consciously deciding to waste all my time online instead of just losing half hour chunks of my day by accident.
In a Neal Brennan stand-up special (Piped link) he mentions he uses a Pavlok to shock him every 3 minutes on stage to remind him to smile.
My Instagram feed is already 90% ads. There are almost no posts from people i actually follow, and most of those are artists i like trying to sell their tour or merch. It’s a fundamentally broken platform as is
It’s not broken. The platform just isn’t meant for real people to communicate with each other anymore. It’s an advertising farm people show up to willingly because it used to be an interesting place.
Just delete your account and uninstall. It seems people forget they have that option.
What account?
Fucking Instagram. Facepals. Tweetle, or, “Borg” as it’s called now. The TicketyTark. Fuck all that shit. Hey look! Free garbage in exchange for everything about my movments and thoughts!
This was the deal in 2000. It’s been 24 years of marveling at how many people just - give all their shit away. Don’t even think about it. And then have the balls to complain when they get screwed.
Outrage, yes, but what about decreased usage? What’s the effect on revenue and stock price? C-suite pay?
Nothing.
What was the effect of the reddit migration on reddit; nothing.
People will get outraged, scream for a bit and then accept it and keep using the service.
The additional ad-revenue will outscale the few users that quit by far and thus enshittification continues.
Tho i guess we should be happy for the few that escape the shothole instagram because social media is cancer anyways.
they’re stress testing the user base. they don’t give half a flying fuck how outraged you are. they only care about whether you’ll quit the platform. which you won’t.
Exactly. They’re past the point of bringing in new users. Now they’re just focusing on extracting more value from the ones they already have.
And zero fucks were given about said outrage because none of them stopped using the platform or watching ads. Same story as ever.
People need to stop using Instagram.
What’s the difference? Most of what’s on there is an ad for something. A lifestyle, a look, a road trip destination, a festival, a food.
An “ad break” icon will appear with a countdown timer that prevents users from browsing through more content until they view an ad, at which point the counter starts running down.
So the user has to interact with the ad prompt, they aren’t just presented with an ad?
If so, that sounds like an even worse experience.
Many say they would stop using the app entirely if the ads become widespread.
oh don’t threaten me with good time. It would be amazing if my friends would be forced to stop using instagram so I would not be forced to log in just to catch up on stories or keep in touch
Just to catch up
Jesus what a sad personality
wait what? how is that sad?
Come on Instagram, just give a goddamn reason to delete your app.
ah, one gotta love the enshittification
