Fight the Algorithm
Recent changes to the Instagram feed and how it affects the digital artist community
I’ve had an Instagram account since the summer of 2012. And like many others in the beginning, I had no idea what to do with it. So I looked for interesting things to photograph and post up. I’ve never considered myself a photographer so my feed was fairly uninspiring and mostly empty. I wasn’t the type to post selfies with friends or of my latest tasty culinary treat. I didn’t really know what to post. I wasn’t clear on the use of hashtags and I didn’t know how to find “friends”.
At the time I was experimenting with generative art projects and thought they might be more interesting to share. That was also the type of work I was interested in seeing. I didn’t know how to find it though. A few random strangers somehow discovered a few of my posts and recommended some hashtags to try out. I started tagging my posts while at the same time browsing through hashtags to find interesting content and artists for inspiration.
One of my projects was a little generative art app named Deco Sketch. It’s a geometric photo effects app that allows you to paint with unique geometric brushes on your photos. Naturally I posted up my own experiments with Deco Sketch and tagged them accordingly. I slowly began to discover a small group of people who had somehow discovered it in the sea of apps on the App Store. It was exciting to see how they were using it and also be able to communicate directly with them and get feedback. They weren’t only using Deco Sketch but also a wide range of apps and resources to create art using their mobile devices. I learned about many other apps and techniques while also discovering artists around the world whom I pulled inspiration from daily. The community began to grow and would eventually be known as mobile artists or “editors”. By early 2013 my Instagram feed was a personal scrolling museum in my hand that was updated daily. I found my tribe.
“… my Instagram feed was a personal scrolling museum in my hand that was updated daily. I found my tribe.”
Around that time I met Eugene Kaneko and Scott Sykora who were working on their own app adventure focused on photo management. We shared wares and hit it off. I told them the about art community I had discovered and become a part of. Scott and Eugene were interested in expanding into the creative space and I was looking for a team to create new projects with. In a few months time we had our first collaboration and creative app, Tangent. I later joined Pixite and we eventually shifted our focus to creative apps
Other great apps were being released in the mobile art space like Decim8, Mextures and Isometric who were helping to support and build the community. There was a ton of great content coming from artists all over the world and my mobile scrolling museum was getting even cooler. My feed became a highly curated collection of mobile artists among other mediums like typography, 3D design, illustration, painting and street art. It was hard not to get lost in my Instagram feed for 20–30 minutes at a clip four or five times a day.
Fast forward 3 years. Pixite has released 8 creative apps. We’ve discovered 1000’s of artists internationally who make mobile art on a daily basis because and post to Instagram. It feeds them and provides an outlet for daily creation and community. They’re one of the most inclusive and supportive communities I’ve ever met.
“They’re one of the most inclusive and supportive communities I’ve ever met.”
In 2012, Instagram was purchased by Facebook. There were fears at the time that Facebook would eventually ruin the Instagram experience. There were incremental changes but none that strayed too far from the original experience, until recently. In June of 2016 Instagram rolled out a change that many feared would eventually come. Taking a cue from Facebook, instead of presenting the content in your feed in chronological order, an algorithm now displays the posts it thinks you want to see first with everything else appearing afterwards. Presumably this is based on users whose photos you “like” and comment on the most. In my experience something very different happened.
I gave Instagram access to my Facebook account way back when to do cross-posting. I’ve since forgotten about it. Every once in awhile I’d get a notification telling my my Facebook friend has joined Instagram and asks me if I’d like to follow them. Sure, why not. I don’t mind seeing the occasional family post mixed in with my personal art museum.
Two days ago I logged into my feed. I’d been busy curating another feed for one for our apps and life just gets in the way of your social media responsibilities with work and a family. For a minute I wasn’t sure If I was looking at Facebook or if I’d accidentally logged into my wife’s account which is hugely unlikely. The first 3 photos were from an in-law. Then there were various photos from old co-workers. A couple more from other relatives and ads, lots of ads. I get it, you need to monetize, that’s fine. But why Mr. Algorithm are you showing me content from people I’m connected to on Facebook that I actually don’t really interact with on either platform? Where’s my personal art museum? Oh, there it is, 20 posts down in some convoluted order where I don’t know what’s new or not without reading every tiny little time stamp saying when it was posted. I like my content fresh.
I gotta say, I was pretty bummed out. At that moment, I considered calling it quits and never bothering to login again. I’m not the only one apparently.
I understand that Instagram is owned by Facebook. No problem. I understand that they share data for advertising which is fine too. (Then again if you think about the amount data they have between the two platforms, it’s a little scary how much they know about you). However I’ve always considered my use of both platforms to be a little different. On Facebook I stay in touch with family and old friends with the occasional news bit here and there. On Instagram, I use it to curate my portable museum of international eclectic art. The bleed over muddles the experience.
I emailed a few mobile artists I’ve since become digital friends with. While they weren’t experiencing the Facebook bleed over, they were also frustrated by the lack of a chronological order. There’s a worry what effect this will have on the mobile editing community. According to Mr. Algorithm, those you interact with the most float to the top. This leaves the new artistic user with only a few followers and less frequent engagement thus interfering with their discoverability and potentially discouraging them from posting more. This becomes a “best man wins” scenario. While social media shouldn’t be considered and isn’t a competition, there is motivation as an artist to get recognition or feedback of some sort so that they can continue to push themselves and become better in their craft. On Instagram this comes in the form of comments and “likes”.
Instagram was never really meant for these sub communities but many use it anyway. It’s a simplified visual platform that’s easy and quick to consume. That keeps it simple, as it should be. My bigger concern is of the new use of machine learning and AI to feed us more of what we interact with and like. This limits perspective and can be very damaging. Variety is healthy as are the opinions of others be it artistically or conversationally.
I’m excited for advancements in AI but I’m also terrified on how it will be used by major players in the advertising space who also provide a social platform for a large part in how we communicate. It’s already affecting the 2016 electoral race. Whatever candidate you’re supporting or engaging with, what do you think Facebook is feeding you more of? Of course you won’t consider another player, everyone you follow supports the same candidate you do! So you think.
Let’s just hope we don’t all end up wearing off white t-shirts and slacks drinking flavorless protein drinks while listening to the same 20 song playlist because Mr. Algorithm has trained us to do so. Or maybe we’ll rise up thanks to a Chuck D and Weird Al Yankovic duet named “Fight the Algorithm!”.
Ben Guerrette is the Creative Director at Pixite. He has developed a multitude of creative apps, art installations, and websites, and is well-known in the digital artist community.
