Instagram has become the new Facebook

I stopped using Facebook years ago. Originally, I thought this is a nice place to see pictures and hear updates about what's going on with my family and friends. Then it turned into a cesspool of misinformation and conflict and got to the point where I hated looking at it. That was 10-15 years ago, can't imagine what it's like now. (I recently had to reactivate my account to use Facebook Marketplace, because I had some things to sell, and was told Craigslist is dead. It was a real bummer to have to use Facebook again for that purpose, I would really prefer there was a different platform to handle that kind of thing).

Anyhow when I stopped using Facebook, I switched over the Instagram. Not sure if that was before or after IG was purchased by Facebook. Anyhow, same story, for quite a while it was a nice place to share pictures with family, friends, and fellow enthusiasts (of whatever). And I have a ton of watch collectors that I follow, that follow me, and that I interact with on IG. Vintage watches got more active for me on IG than here on OF for a while, although it's shifted back here in recent years.

Long story short, I was just realizing recently that I am starting to hate looking at Instagram, just like I used to hate looking at Facebook. Most of the stuff in my feed is garbage content that is the exact opposite of why I originally wanted to be on IG, which is a nice benign escape from the daily news. I can't control what I see, there is no paid option to limit advertising, and even the ads are not ads in the normal sense, it seems like mostly endless political wars, culture wars, conflict drama BS. For a long time, the ads were just regular commercial ads, I didn't mind them so much, just tuned them out. Now it seems like the ads are all designed to get you completely worked up. I feel stressed out after looking at my feed for a few minutes and seeing all that crap.

I guess at the top of the feed there is a button where you can click on "following only", to try and limit what you see. That helps a bit I think, but you have to do it every single time you connect. I wish there was a paid option on IG where I didn't have to see all that stuff. I don't really want to leave completely because I have huge amounts of contacts, running conversations, technical information, photos, etc, all related to vintage watches.

Side note, I really appreciate this forum a lot, thank you to everyone who created and run this place. I don't mind paying a fee at all, to skip the adverts. It's like a little haven of sanity. But of course, not everyone is active on here, and IG reaches a much larger audience, so inevitably, you meet and interact with other collectors there.

I feel like social media has almost no value, or at least it's not being used in a way that has value, it seems to cultivate and engender conflict and negativity. It's really a crap situation; I don't know what it's going to take to turn things around.

Anyhow, not sure my point exactly, but was just thinking about these last few days. Curious what other people feel.

🎯 I feel the same way. The OF is such an enjoyable escape to learn, share and interact with like minded watch enthusiasts who also share other activities from cars to travel, etc. I wish more members would consider becoming a Tier 1 or Tier 2 supporter. It takes a lot of time and expense to keep this going.

I'm sure you are right. I pretty much stopped posting and being very active on IG in recent years, but started getting active again the past few months, so I think I'm just really noticing it now. I think it's actually a really unhealthy place to spend time these days. But I've got many conversations on IG, going back sometimes 10+ years, with huge amounts of information, pics, etc with other Universal Geneve collectors. And I really like sharing content and convos with other collectors. It's just that's about 10% of what's happening, and the other 90% is being force fed garbage. I'm not sure what to do about it. I don't really want to leave the platform completely, but it feels really toxic.

I stopped using FB a few years ago. I purposely shut down my account. I don’t recall the reason, but over time I recall feeling that the platform was getting more from me than I was getting from it.

I transitioned to Instagram, but was never actively engaged. I mostly followed friends and family who posted there. Then I found myself going to IG less and less when I noticed that there was a lot of random posts (and ad posts) interrupting/diluting the posts I actually wanted to see from people I actually knew.

If I went back to analyzed it, I bet my Instagram use started to drop significantly around the time I first discovered OF. And probably thereafter is an inverse graph of my OF usage going up and my IG usage going down.

I don’t have any social media and find it all terrible.
However, to the OPs first post, Craigslist is not dead. Just this month, I have sold a CJ5 on there and bought a 1978 cb550. There are certain things that would sell better on marketplace but for gearheads and motors, they seem to sell better/faster on CL, at least for me. My theory is that most gearheads don’t have FB and CL is their go to.

Never did social media at all. OF is the closest I get to social media. I guess we're mostly
social.......

Yep, and Amazon too.

There's a journalist, Cory Doctorow, who has written about this effect of online platforms starting out useful for their users, including social media sites connecting communities, and then going downhill. I recently bought his book and it's on my nightstand short list to start reading soon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

I feel exactly the same way. Over the years, I’ve deleted all my social media accounts, keeping just two on Instagram. And while the one I use for work is becoming increasingly unbearable, the one I’ve devoted exclusively to vintage watches for almost ten years has somehow managed to survive.

The algorithm throws all sorts of crap and ads at me there too, but the narrow focus and the carefully curated community still allow me to relax when I scroll through my feed.

In general, I think social media is a cesspool, and that the downsides of being on it outweigh the benefits. At least for people like me, who can’t completely shut themselves off from the nastiness and cynicism that so many people, far too many, real or virtual, spew into these spaces.

Agree. I hardly use social media anymore, even for watches. Omegaforums and the usual watch blogs are 95 percent of the watch comtent I consume. Instagram has become an awful place. Thinking about deleting my account. Facebook I only use for a couple of local neighborhood groups but would love them to move to email or other service, so I can quit it all together.