Instagram’s Latest Platform Tweak is a Big Deal
Why ‘Less’ is ‘More’
In the tech world, big changes often come in small, grayscale packages. As such, Instagram’s morning update likely went unnoticed by many. While the platform has long been a bastion of visual storytelling, it has also been historically lax with its limitations on gratuitous writing and hashtagging. That all changed today.
Per the update, longer bodies of text will now be submerged beneath a modest and almost invisible prompt. Tap it and you’ll see the rest of a user’s post, including ancillary hashtags. Until then it will be hidden by default. The result is a more streamlined and visual newsfeed, of course, but there’s more at play here. What’s Instagram trying to tell us without telling us? Brace yourselves, IGers. It’s going to get uncomfortable.
1. Hide The Hashtags!
In the early days of social media, the hashtag was a novel and utilitarian tool for discovery. It was also ugly — not QR code ugly, but resolutely unattractive all the same. As the platforms evolved, so too did the design standards of the modern web. Simplicity and cleanliness continue to reign over the world’s apps and platforms, and hashtags simply do not make the cut.
Over the past few years, the platforms have slowly begun to replace the hashtag with interactive sidebars stocked with trending keywords and headlines. Topical feeds were suddenly populated by smart data mining algorithms instead of overzealous self-curation. The hashtag’s dominance was waning. Though the platforms are still far from abandoning it altogether, they’ve certainly shed their reliance on it.
In many ways, Instagram has remained the last great stronghold of the hashtag. Users have long seemed content with their use, misuse, and even overuse. After all, they’re a dependable way to acquire new followers, discover new places, and meet new people. But Instagram sees what its users don’t — the writing on the wall. An epidemic of hashtag fatigue is coming, and they need to get ahead of it. The first step was de-prioritizing the hashtag in discovery feeds. The next step is burying it in yours.
2. Stop The Dissertations!
As attention continues to move away from owned media properties and toward social platforms, global hordes of essayists and thought leaders have debated the future of long form content. While the platforms experiment with solutions like Facebook Instant Articles and Google AMP, the people have been experimenting with the platforms themselves.
In the last six months to a year, writers of all kinds (bloggers, journalists, students, industry vets) have been vigorously testing Instagram as a venue for long form content. The platform itself didn’t seem to mind — there were no 140-character barriers in place to stop photographers from waxing poetic. Better still, the more you did, the more real estate you got on your followers’ newsfeeds. Was Instagram the answer?
Not if the platform has anything to say about it. The repercussions of long form content in-feed have been largely negative. The vast majority of Instagram users tend to view it as a respite from unsolicited essays on party politics and personal relationships. They want to see nice pictures, not walls of text. It’s what Instagram does. To ensure creators stay focused on the visual, the platform needed to de-prioritize the textual. So, they did.
3. But Don’t Stop Writing!
That isn’t to say you should stop using Instagram as a platform for writing — I believe it’s still the best place on the web to tell a short story. We just need to be telling them the right way. This morning’s update is Instagram’s way of reminding us to keep our priorities straight. A great visual will get your audience’s attention. Great writing will keep it.
Just, you know, keep it concise.
