Is Instagram Just a Shopping App Now?

Honestly, what has happened to Instagram? Almost every fourth reel I scroll through is an outright ad on top of which, most content creators are publishing sponsored reels more than actual content. And if they’re not selling content, well, then they’re selling a lifestyle, a story, something on someone’s agenda. Nothing feels like genuine content anymore.

From Sharing Moments to Selling Products

Instagram used to be about sharing moments, creating content that would aim to educate or entertain. Now, if I speak about some product or the other to someone, the next minute, I get an ad on it when I’m scrolling or some influencer I’ve never seen shows up on my feed.

This isn’t even about the privacy which is another very questionable aspect of Instagram. The fact that we get such timely ads is very suspicious but I think with the amount of “agree to terms and conditions” or “accept cookies” that we do, we have pretty much handed out our data to everyone.

Every promotional reel suddenly pops up with a link redirecting you to some merch page that you didn’t want to go to. All the organic content gets drowned out and the people doing this are pressurised to “monetize” because of how social media has become now. It has turned into a social commerce app.

Everything Is a Product Now

It doesn’t end with just literal products. We have lifestyles, trends, aesthetics, even taste being sold to us as a product. Instead of just sharing opinions or thoughts on a particular movie, song or product, people go further and try to sell it to us… just for the chance at going viral.

In essence, people just want the views, they need more publicity and more money. The more views they get, the better sponsors they can acquire resulting in more income.

Can we blame them? Not really. Content creators are pressured to “monetize” their work and in that pressure they stop making genuine content for people and resort to doing anything that can make them money.

#Instagram #SocialMedia #ContentCreation #Ads #SponsoredContent