Instagram Algorithm data science


0 Poem about Instagram 

Fear of getting older

Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful

Will I still love you when you're no longer young and beautiful

Are digital devices sentient

1 Fear and Anxiety in the Age of the Digital

One of my biggest fears in the world (on Instagram) used to be not getting any likes on my posts. If I didn't get a like within an hour or so I would archive or delete my post. But more recently, after I've gotten out, I wanted to delete and archive my posts less. I don't think it's embarrassing if you only get one or two or five likes or even twenty likes in a post (I used to think getting 20 likes in a post was too little, but that's actually a lot of people if you think about it that's like a whole classroom of people). 

    20 people is a full classroom of English in high school, maybe an elementary school classroom full of people. 20 people is maybe a small sushi restaurant full size of people. 20 people is more people than would fill a typical normal-sized Starbucks, inside and outside, if there is an outside. It would take you about one block to walk past 20 people on a normal day on a normal-business level busy street in New York City. 20 people is enough people to invite to a birthday party, and you're lucky if everyone shows up and brings gifts. So I don't know why I used to be embarrassed when I only got around 20 likes on a photo. That's 20 gifts. And my birthday's not everyday. 

    I feel like the fear and anxiety in the age of the digital exists for everyone in my generation, which is the generation between Gen Z and Millennial. I feel like I'm neither Gen Z or Millennial, but something in between. I was born in '97, and I feel like most Gen z are teenagers and Millennial's are like 30's. I'm 27 rn. Pur. 


In all honesty, even if only one person likes my post, I will keep that post up for that one person. 

    It doesn't matter to me anymore if my post has a high like count, despite Lord Narf ("Bitch I ain't gotta lie/Hate on me but your picture got about six likes/She got her tits on the web no price" - Can't Breathe (from album Sick (2016)). Even if my picture only gets about six likes, I think a) it doesn't matter because I doubt anyone looks at my feed anyway and b) I care about that one person seeing my post even if it's not much.     
    
    Even if only one person likes my post, that post meant something to that one person. I feel like I used to archive posts out of embarrassment after it only got like five or so likes, but that's actually not right. I shouldn't do that. 

2 Instagram Detox

I'm currently on an Instagram detox. I posted stories about three days in a row about a week out from getting out and it felt like I posted too much. I also felt I was a bit too much cómo mariposa by liking other people's posts and stories and honestly it felt like #laborundercapitalism. And it felt like I was doing too much so I'm trying not to open or even go on Instagram for a few days while I sort out my personal affairs. 

    I used to go on Instagram way too much. But after being locked up for a year and a half, I had gotten used to not going online or smoking cigarettes or doing drugs. In a way, it was better than rehab. However, even after I came back home, I still ended overusing Instagram for what felt like a few days. I felt like I went too much on other people's profiles and stalked people's profiles who I didn't know who were probably in NYC or somewhere else in the world and I just liked a bunch of their posts and they probably thought it was weird. 
   
    Or maybe they felt happy about it. Maybe those likes meant something to those people. Idk. You can't really tell from the body language across countries. I used to vape and/or smoke cigarettes all day and go on Instagram all day. But I've realized that that is also a form of labor under capitalism. Everything just seemed so depressing, though when I did that and even without the cigarettes it's depressing. Everything is depressing, maybe. I don't know. Been trying to say "I don't know" less often. 
    
3 Desire 

Before I get into what I meant by 3 Desire which I don't really know while I'm typing this right now, I want to talk a little more about what I mean by being in-between Gen Z and Millennial. I feel like Gen Z and Millennials use certain emojis and certain patterns of speech esp. in typing and certain slang where I feel like I'm in between. 
    
    I probably have like five different Instagram crushes. Maybe 10. And I don't think it's unhealthy. Not that it's healthy. Desire is a more awkward topic to talk about maybe because I'm uncomfortable with my sexuality. Or maybe overly comfortable, in some ways. I feel like the desire represented by the like of a post or story is one that is embedded in the body language required to like a post or story. 
    
4 Michael Jackson

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if Michael Jackson was still alive and was using Instagram. If Amy Winehouse was still alive and using Instagram. I feel like it was really unfair the way he died, by injection or somewhat? 

5 Algorhythm

I suppose I'm also writing this because I'm trying to figure out the algo-rhythm. I feel like I've been out of touch with the algorithm. Of course, the algorithm is something that only came about fairly recently in Instagram history. It wasn't always there. At first, the post order was based on time stamp. I feel like it was a lot easier back then. I don't think I ever really figured out how the algorithm works. 

6 Ads

In 2021 when I was transitioning I bought so many things from Instagram ads. I used to think the ads were kind of annoying, but now I appreciate them. They used to ask me to buy things but now they give me pushers to apply for jobs and bootcamps. I also listen to all the ads on Spotify and SoundCloud, partly because I have no money, partly because it builds character. 

7 Forever

One good thing about the Internet is that everything you post on the Internet lasts for at least a very long time, if not for a long time. One of the problem this solves is the prevention of so-called book-burning or burning of lost synapses. A lot of culture has been lost over the millennia but if we use Instagram right maybe the culture of our times can be preserved after our deaths. 

Instagram: @60secondfairytales




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Revisiting Caffeine

* * *  It's true, caffeine is a socially sanctioned  addiction  that is more pervasive than any other addiction.  I've been reading through r/decaf and going through my own ups and downs when it comes to caffeine and /or coffee and my present presentiments about it. On the night before Christmas, I prayed to G-d to release me from the grasp of caffeine, and on Christmas, I spent my first day in a long time without caffeine. I didn't even drink decaf coffee that day.  And I'm not even going to lie, I did not have a very tea day that day. I mean, I didn't even have tea! I think I pretty much spent the whole day lying on the couch in the room adjacent to the backyard door, with the sunlight streaming in through the plexiglass (?)--I think it's more like plexiplastic--door and with me lying on the brown couch alternating between consciousnesses. It wasn't my first time in recent memory doing this--sleeping all through the day, but I think it was my first time in...
Read more

秋风秋雨一场梦 《第一章》

Image
  秋风秋雨一场梦 author’s note- 我是想写一个爱情故事关于两个大学生同学，就像致我们单纯的小美好同样的幼稚童年小说，只是就讲两个男的。我知道中国人有点不像美国人一样包容同性恋这件事，以毕竟我在简书上发布的文章被禁闭了，所以我觉得我得小心翼翼地写，不要自找麻烦。但是，因为这是我自己的博客，那我想写什么就写什么吧。我一直都想写网络小说。这是我第一次试着写自己的小说。谢谢关注和阅读虽然我的中文基础没那么先进。而且我很多词感觉不太对劲，然后很多成语是我自己编的。所以，谢谢读者，你的耐心和原谅，我都 appreciate 。那么，故事正时开始！ 1 喝点咖啡想想看 2004 年， 8 月 9 号。外头狂风狂雨，风刮地嗡嗡响，大家都往里面去呆着。妈妈跟小孩，到里面的图书馆，看渔港里的鱼游着转，各种少年小朋友放学进咖啡店望着外面的雨景，男女朋友一起到电影院看恐惧片。而邱峰正就坐在他家卧室里，喝着杯小咖啡，想事情，写作。 邱峰今年要 32 岁了。他的生日就是明天，可是他还没约好什么计划。他正在想他是不是要约他的女朋友菁菁一起去吃个晚餐。他最爱吃的肉面就是他心目中的愿望。算了吧。菁菁一定会很忙。她毕竟是个高名鼎鼎的大律师，长期工作很晚。应该会没有时间跟他吃牛肉面吧。他心里开始郁闷，怎么好像没什么别的朋友可说的？叹气。 忽然，他的电话开始嗡嗡响。邱峰这时叹口气，拿起他的 Motorola razr ，接电话。 “ 哈喽，邱峰大哥，你忘记了吗？今天是你小说发布会！都已经 4:30 了，你怎么还没到？！ ” 原来是小旭，他的 PR 人。他老叫他 “ 大哥 ” 。邱峰低头看了一下他的手表，确实是以 4:30 ，发布会 4:45 就正时开始。不说他还能不能赶得上去，他还需要吗？
Read more

My Anxiety - Doechii

Image
 1 Dialectical Behavioral Therapy ?  Recently my therapist has been trying to push something on me. Dialectical behavioral therapy. She has been suggesting that I come to the dialectical behavior therapy group for weeks, and I've been telling her I already go to so many therapies that I am running out of the ability to keep track of when I'm going to them. So I told her I'd think about it.  The concept of dialectical behavior therapy intrigues me though. My therapist told me there were many different techniques and skills involved in dialectical behavior therapy, one of them being radical acceptance. Radical acceptance is the concept (I think?) of radically accepting things in your life as true, even if or especially when you don't want to accept them. An example of this is me with my anxiety, like radically accepting that I have anxiety, and accepting it when it does come up.  But I think more than things like radical acceptance and mindfulness, I'm interested in d...
Read more