“[For] people who live in the country or in remote areas or minority groups or [who have] small businesses, that is a really good way for them to communicate and reach other people,” she says.
“It’s just not possible to set up an alternative at this point in time. So, to put it bluntly, we’re in a bit of deep shit, to be honest.”
No mention of Pixelfed, but I can understand why. Will it only be seen as an alternative once a critical mass of users move there? And can that happen if they don’t see it as an alternative? Chicken and egg. I’m trying out, but it’s a little vapid when everyone I know is on Instagram.
You could just not share every little scrap of your mundane lives in its full photographic glory?
We really don’t need to see another picture of a coffee with a little swirl on top, next to a mass produced bun.
We agree on that and I find people who do that really annoying -often muting them-, but that’s not really how I use Instagram for myself. I use Instagram to post vacation photos or to share some unusual life news, maybe four or five times a year and that’s about it with posting. I just checked and I posted 3 times in 2024 and 9 in 2023, all vacations, death of a pet or moving news - All worthy of sharing with friends, imo. Otherwise, my main use case for Insta is to track things locally, like restaurants, bars, clubs, shows, events, etc. Unfortunately there’s not a better alternative for that sort of use case in another app right now. It’s a bummer because I would love to move off of social media and use an alternative, but local stuff can’t be accessed by things like RSS feeds and lots of businesses don’t really do newsletters anymore - or in some cases don’t even bother with websites.
There are a lot of people circlejerking in this thread about not using social media and patting themselves on the back, but people who like to go outside their house and who want and actually try to keep in touch with friends can find it pretty useful. Also, Lemmy and forums are practically social media - so stop being so hypocritical with your reality warped dissonance. I see too much of that already on Instagram and reddit.
That sounds like what Facebook was for before they filled it with nonsense, scams and racism.