Photo: Instagram.com/kimkardashian
Meta-owned social media app Instagram has been under fire this week with criticism from celebrities on how it has vastly changed over time. Recent changes rolled out include a different timeline style which allows one post to take up the entire screen, which is more suited to videos and Reels as compared to static photos.
The social media backlash gained speed on Monday, when beauty and makeup mogul Kylie Jenner shared an image on the platform that read: “Make Instagram Instagram again. (Stop trying to be TikTok I just want to see cute photos of my friends.) Sincerely, everyone.” Adding a “PLEASEEEEEEE” on her Instagram story, the third most followed person on the platform ignited the celebrity criticism. Jenner’s dissatisfaction with the latest update of the app was later followed by a similar Instagram story that read “PRETTY PLEASE” from Skims owner Kim Kardashian, who is the seventh-most followed on the platform.
👋🏼 There’s a lot happening on Instagram right now.
I wanted to address a few things we’re working on to make Instagram a better experience.
Please let me know what you think 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/x1If5qrCyS
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) July 26, 2022
In response, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram posted a video on Tuesday to share how the app has straightened out features that make it more like TikTok, the hugely popular Chinese-owned video app. “I need to be honest. I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time,” said Mosseri in the video and added that Instagram was just in the early stages of the change. “I also want to be clear. It’s not yet good,” he said regarding the update. In response to Mosseri’s post, model and author Chrissy Teigen with 39 million Instagram followers tweeted: “We don’t wanna make videos Adam lol.”
Beauty YouTuber and influencer James Charles, who has 23 million Instagram followers, also commented, “The reason there’s so much growth for video is because we are being FORCED to post video … The shift to video is not industry wide, it’s TikTok-wide.” Following the continued criticism from popular names, a spokeswoman for Instagram added, “We don’t have much else to share on the changes beyond what Adam stated.”
