The filters and effects drew me in. The user interface and design wowed me. But the community and the creativity keep me coming back every day.
I check Facebook and Twitter for the news, but I go to Instagram for fun.
My feed seems cleaner and more interesting, with much less of the stuff that I routinely tune out (like ads, promos and app activity). Granted I am following less people on Instagram, but most of them seem to put some thought and care into their photos (although food and cat pics are inevitable on any platform, not that there’s anything wrong with that).
I also enjoy Instagram’s weekend hashtag projects. A few weeks ago, I had fun posting entries to the motel-themed project, and found myself thinking very highly of Instagram and felt appreciative for the creative outlet.
A couple days later the Internet erupted with news of Instagram’s Terms of Service update, which (most notably) gave them the right use your photos in advertisements, without notifying you.
The headlines all sounded pretty bad, and for me it was a buzzkill.
But as the situation played out – and I thought about it more – I felt silly for being surprised.
The ads in question are similar to Facebook’s sponsored stories, in which Facebook takes your actions and turns them into endorsed advertisements for paying brands. We all know who owns Instagram (FB), so it’s really not much of a stretch from what everyone who uses Facebook has already agreed to. (The Verge points this out here.)
They gotta make that money and unfortunately that means selling advertisements. (Side note: Read this interesting post on Wild Rumpus, that argues against the ad-based business model.)
Marketers are so enamored with sponsored ads because they’re able to target based on the information we voluntarily provide with every tag, like and comment. Social media seems free, but we pay with our data and content. Granted, we do control the strategy behind our content, but for the most part I think we all know and accept who is in charge on FB. Still, it’s not always top of mind.
So why was I so bummed when Instagram made it clear that they wanted to use our content for ads?
Because it felt super creepy, and creepiness hurts the community.
Their plan to use our photos in sneaky ads – followed by their “sorry you were confused” apology – reflected the all-powerful Facebook and not my new favorite creative outlet.
If they would’ve approached this more like the cool, friendly, pseudo-independent Instagram we’ve grown to love, and less like the corporate Facebook we love to hate, I doubt it would have caused as many waves.
Lots of people pledged to drop Instagram, only to return once the company revised its terms of use. And to the company’s credit, they responded to user feedback pretty quickly. The “sponsored ads without you knowing it” thing was shelved, and now it seems like life is back to normal on Instagram.
So, now what?
As a user, I don’t want a bunch of ads on Instagram, but I know it’s a business.
I still value the community, but I don’t want to sweep this misstep under the rug.
Flickr rolled out a timely update to its iPhone app to take advantage of this opportunity. But I don’t have an iPhone, and most of my friends are still on FB and Instagram.
My plan is to stay active on Instagram, keep enjoying the community, and watching closely to see how this all plays out. At the same time I’m going to spend more time on my Flickr account and hope that community continues to develop with more attention.
I don’t think this is the end of Instagram; just a flare-up that reminds us who really controls our digital content.
What do you see in Instagram’s future? Are you considering dropping the service, or are we all overreacting?