New Delhi: Instagram, a social networking platform, has evolved into a marketplace for influencers, and founder Kevin Systrom wasn’t happy about that. “I think we’ve lost the essence of what makes Instagram Instagram,” Systrom said, in an interview with tech journalist Kara Swisher on a podcast.
Instagram has evolved into a business tool as creators and marketers use the platform to generate revenue, according to Systrom, who first used it to keep up with his friends and family. Instagram marketing, in his opinion, is his biggest regret. (Also Read: Bizarre: Drunk man forgets to attend his wedding in Bihar – check out what happens next)
He claimed that “Instagram’s incentives to go for more businesses, more artists, more partnerships, more ad dollars,” which may have unintended societal ramifications, is the problem. This, he claimed, “focused energy on people who are said to live infinitely wonderful lives, do the finest things, look the most beautiful things, and wear the most luxurious things.” (Also read: Rupee to replace the dollar? Indian money is one step closer to becoming an international currency – check out the list of countries that have agreed to trade in INR)
According to him, this leads to a “terrifying” dynamic whereby Instagram users believe that the well-designed interfaces they see in the app represent people’s actual lives. “Everything people put on Instagram is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how hard life can be,” he declared. It’s a competition to see who can be the best at everything.
The co-founder has already noticed the evolution of Instagram on his own feed. He claimed that some of his acquaintances no longer upload pictures of their normal lives, only “#ads”. Systrom stated that this is not the Instagram we started with, in my opinion.
As an alternative app where users can be themselves and capture themselves in real circumstances, he chose BeReal.
More than five years after he left Instagram in 2018 due to escalating tensions with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Systrom recently expressed his thoughts on the social media platform. In 2012, it replaced Instagram for a billion dollars with Facebook, which is now Meta. He is currently a founding member of Artifact, an AI-driven news app introduced at the beginning of the year.