Hey Platforms, Listen Up.

the.uptick issue i

Platforms, Plz Fix The Following:

1) Snapchat

Instagram has disrupted the way stories are told. They’ve bettered user experience, and I’m beginning to expect Instagram features on Snapchat. Instagram allows me to tap forward and backward within a story (by tapping on the left-hand of the screen to go backward and on the right-hand of the screen to go forward), and allows me to swipe towards a new story. I like these features and I’m beginning to build mobile muscle memory for them. User interaction features among similar media formats create user expectation, and platforms should constantly mimic what their competitors are doing better than them.

2) Instagram

Instagram’s non-chronological feed-ranking algorithm is not working. Here’s what I’ve gathered: the new algorithm prioritizes posts that have gained a sizable initial uplift (some combination of comments, likes, and shares) — if these posts pass a certain threshold, they appear in user feeds as users open the platform. For example, if a post gets X number of likes, comments, and shares within its first Y minutes of publishing, Instagram will feature that post in user feeds within a Z-hour period. (A hack is to go #hashtag heavy so that your post gains enough initial uplift to become visible in the Z-hour period).

What this actually means is that the posts users see first come from the accounts they follow that have the largest followings, rather than the accounts they care most about. Over the last few weeks, my feed has been filled with posts from the handful of fashion blogs I follow. I’ve been missing posts from friends, family, and colleagues. I unfollowed several large accounts in hopes that the algorithm would show me content I actually want to see.

If anything, Instagram’s feed-ranking algorithm is widening the gap between larger accounts and smaller accounts. And, I’d put money on the fact that Instagram’s user base values personal connections more than celebrity or business accounts.

3) Facebook

Stop pushing marketplace unless you’re going to allow me to filter through the kinds of products I’m actually interested in purchasing. 😡