I didn't find it useful to stay so 'in touch' with minute details of the lives of friends
Oh god, I wouldn't follow friends. I gave up FB years ago - details of breakfast, kittens and holiday pics. Not my thing at all. I don't want to get in to all that again. My thought is to follow crafters and gardeners, more anonymously. Thanks for your thoughts.
the non-chronological timeline is a massive turnoff.
Isn't this the problem with mobile social apps? They're 'immediate' - based on the constant use principle - hence notifications. They're not meant to be used on the basis of you interrogate them to see new activity. The apps then create a FOMO effect on their users -even when what you're seeing is mainly dross.
I include this forum as social media and it's the only platform I currently use (with some Youtube and some Guardian). Yes, Steve, that is exactly why I am so hestitant to get into the melee again. I already have info overload and the last thing I want is more time spent scrolling. Platforms also work off the principle of presenting a "perfected reality" which is a toxic way of thinking about the work and is designed to try to create envy and longing, keeping you hooked and hopefully buying lots of things on the way. Not things I want in my life either. They give you "the infinite stream" - no end to what you can look at, giving you a fake sense of connection, taking one out of the body and through the black mirror - "Looking Glass Country".
I use instagram in both professional, garden and personal capacity. The purely garden one fell by the wayside as priorities shifted and instagram's algorithm started prioritising video and thus bringing very little engagement.
The personal account also became tiresome after six years of very frequent updates and now tend to post twice a month if that. At least 1,1K followers on it assures some reach so you don't feel you're posting to a vacuum.
The professional one is really my favourite use, and probably why so many plant people love using it as a platform. As I sell vintage ceramics, I have found a nice tribe on there that posts lots of interesting goodies and quite frequently is rather educational, as the vintage market is so wide, it's impossible to have deep expertise in everything, so some online mates are always handy.
I use it, like a lot of us, for recording what is going on in my garden at a point in time... consequently I've not posted for many months! But this is really just for me (I have very few followers). More usefully, I often search a plant that I'm wanting to buy, as you get a vast number of examples of how it grows. But the wormhole to avoid on IG is 'reels' (the videos that are 'recommended for you'). Several hours (days even!) can be lost...
One thing I do is use Firefox "add ons" to block certain sections of various platforms. They are free and I imagine that other browsers offer similar blockers. On FB I removed all the nonsense options I didn't want to see. On Youtube I block "recommended videos" and never go in via the home page. So all I see are posts from those 15 or so people I follow. It has transformed how I feel about using it. Dead babies and fungal facial growths don't suddenly appear out of nowhere.
I also use Adblocker everywhere so never see no ads.
the non-chronological timeline is a massive turnoff.
how does it work?
When Instagram first appeared your timeline was a chronological list of posts from accounts you chose to follow. Somewhere along the line the app was acquired by Meta/Facebook which uses an algorithm to show you posts it thinks you want to see, including non-chronological posts from accounts you follow but also posts from accounts it thinks you'd enjoy. It's an absolute mess of a timeline.
Another issue is they've removed the ability to sort hashtags chronologically, so when you click on a hashtag it now only shows you popular images using that hashtag, instead of recent ones. I used to enjoy following certain hashtags of plants and seeing recent images posted by people so I could track the progress of my own plants against everyone else's through the year.
Growing tropical and desert plants outdoors in West Yorkshire INSTAGRAM/ YOUTUBE
FB works the same way - one reason I ditched the account.
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One thing that enrages me most days, is how sales platforms have, in the last years, have ditched literal search function. Etsy, Amazon and Ebay don't use your key words to literally provide what you have asked for. They too give you want they want to show you. Amazon and Etsy are just terrible, to the point of being useless now. Put in a search for chocolate coins and they will give you car parts, ask for a wooden elephants and they will give you crotchless knickers. Ebay, Youtube and Google is getting worse every week.
This is a search on Youtube for cobea (scandens). They completely ignore that request and give me Megan Thee Stallion. It's just outrageous.
Posts
The personal account also became tiresome after six years of very frequent updates and now tend to post twice a month if that. At least 1,1K followers on it assures some reach so you don't feel you're posting to a vacuum.
The professional one is really my favourite use, and probably why so many plant people love using it as a platform. As I sell vintage ceramics, I have found a nice tribe on there that posts lots of interesting goodies and quite frequently is rather educational, as the vintage market is so wide, it's impossible to have deep expertise in everything, so some online mates are always handy.
Go on, give it a try.
My professional is: https://www.instagram.com/georgelovesvintage
Another issue is they've removed the ability to sort hashtags chronologically, so when you click on a hashtag it now only shows you popular images using that hashtag, instead of recent ones. I used to enjoy following certain hashtags of plants and seeing recent images posted by people so I could track the progress of my own plants against everyone else's through the year.
INSTAGRAM/ YOUTUBE