Social media in general is in the following stage of Enshitification:
Launch
Growth at all costs, user focus
Use size to bring advertisers
Gradually shift focus to advertisers and money bringers
Ensure users are way too invested to quit
>> Sell out <<
It's no surprise that people only end up seeing "carefully curated" content, it's what "sells", or rather, ensures people stay in the stupid app. From TFA: "While sharing has tailed off, consuming content hasn't slowed"
I have an Insta account for some of the part time 3D printing I do, but since I'm not a "content creator", my stuff has almost zero reach. Whenever I open the app, it's roughly 1:1:1 posts of "recommended", someone I actually follow, advert. 2/3 of everything shown to me is stuff I didn't ask for, not to mention when the advertises are actual scams or fucking pyramids
I redownload insta like a month ago because I thought fuck it. Other than reels from old friends from highschool, it's all adds and the same regurgitated memes and stand up comics.
It was creepy that after nearly 4 years of being inactive it knew that I liked golf, and drink too much.