People often say that Instagram is such a creative medium, but I have some doubts about it. I mean, can we say that about some medium only because many creatives are using it to showcase their work? It may be a good medium for creatives, but I wouldn’t call it creative.
For me Instagram is a way to connect with people, to have a conversation about things that interest me. Although lately the biggest conversation is Instagram itself and its algorithm. And yes, I want to add to this discussion here.
I think that the algorithms are killing our creativity and spontaneity. We don’t post what we want to post anymore, we post what we think will please the algorithmic gods. We don’t tell the stories that are inside us, we tell stories we think we should be telling. We discover a thing that works and we repeat it till it dies its natural death.
We say we seek the real people, the authentic (this word has lost its meaning) stories, the ones that are not composed for the algorithm. And at the same time we do our best to beat the system and to be favoured by the same computer we say we want to avoid.
If you’ll pay attention you’ll see the same photo showing up in you explore feed over and over again. When one person was successful with it, more will try to repeat that success. For a while, in my feed, it was a picture of a book with the title page instead of the cover. It was everywhere, everyone was posting it. Now, tell me, how is this creative?
For me Instagram is often repetitive and I keep unfollowing people who keep doing the same thing. I follow more people who don’t care about being big on Instagram, who just seek connection and want to share a piece of their world with us.
I love the ‘messy feeds’ and I’ll chose them over the curated ones every single time. I want to see the live, I want to see you, I want to feel that we’re living the life unconcerned about what algorithm things about us.
For me it also means being more on here, coming back to my blog, restarting my newsletter, sharing more of my world without the pressure of likes and growing followers numbers. For me it means being more me, writing and sharing what I want, telling little stories, connecting with people who also look for something else.
I’m not swearing off Instagram, I just want to be less there and more here, for the sake of my creativity and sanity. That’s it.
annamboland.com 
I feel this way about SEO, where posts are written for the search engine rather than from the heart. As an ex marketer, I have to say that it’s a powerful tool, but as a content creator, I say that writing for the algorithm sucks if you don’t do it well. Anyway, thanks for this post!
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Yeah, I know what you mean. People are telling me that I should keep SEO in mind while writing my posts, but I just don’t want to. I want it to be honest, written from the heart, as you said.
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To mi przypomniało historię, jak parę lat temu Instagram zalały zdjęcia owsianki posypanej całymi zmrożonymi malinami. Bo takie oszronione maliny uznano za fotogeniczne. Nikomu nie przeszkadzało, że raczej trudno zjeść takie danie…
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O tak! Czasem ma się wrażenie, że instagram nam ciągle jedno i to samo zdjęcie pokazuje.
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