Fremantle
Meta is getting rid of factchecking. Should you leave Instagram – and what are the alternatives? by Catie McLeod, 9 January 2025:
But with Instagram, she says, there’s “no easy alternative” – TikTok “has its own issues” and other platforms with similar reach just aren’t there.
“[For] people who live in the country or in remote areas or minority groups or [who have] small businesses, that is a really good way for them to communicate and reach other people,” she says.
“It’s just not possible to set up an alternative at this point in time. So, to put it bluntly, we’re in a bit of deep shit, to be honest.”
There are old-school photo-sharing platforms including Flickr, Tumblr and Hipstamatic but they don’t have the reach of Instagram.
While social media companies have based their business model on trying to keep users engaged to collect more data and use it to curate advertising, she says, places such as Australia could slow this extraction down with restrictions– such as those in Europe – on how much information they collect.
I guess I'm just not very social, because I don't really understand the whole idea of wanting 'reach'. I like putting stuff on the internet and keeping it organised, and over time it can be seen and used by whoever. I view it a bit like putting a book in a library — I don't feel like it's failed if it's not been borrowed seven hundred times in the first month.
But yeah, I'm not social. I'm not media either.
(PS: And as far as alternatives to Instagram go, I should probably mention Pixelfed! Not that I use it.)