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Hello friends. Mine My name is Kate Knibbs, and I’m a senior writer covering culture and media at WIRED. My colleague Steven Levy has generously loaned me the newspaper, so I’ll be the Plaintext guide this week instead. If I remember correctly, before it came out he said, “Have fun doing my newsletter, please don’t go off on a tangent about the Kardashian-Jenner Industrial Complex. My bad!
Clear view
Instagram hurts right now. What was once a repository for photos of friends and family is now a junkyard filled with knockoff TikToks known as “Reels.” It’s watching reels. Almost Like watching Tik Tok, except with an algorithm pulling videos to match your interests, Reels are the familiar mess of multi-level marketing schemes selling gut health supplements, strangers pushing sponsored content, amateur stand-up shows, commercials and—if you’re a parent—sad videos of sick babies. There’s the occasional cute dog clip, but overall, Reels is a shameful attempt to copy a rival social network that only serves to destroy Instagram’s appeal and alienate its users.
This isn’t the first complaint—in fact, many angry influencers have been talking about it all week. Reality star Kylie Jenner retweeted a viral plea from a photographer named Tati: “Instagram Instagram. (Stop trying to be right, I want to see cute photos of my friends.) Sincerely, everyone. Her older sisters Kim and Kourtney Kardashian reposted the note moments later. The Kardashian-Jenners have more reason to be fascinated by this change than I do; After all, they use Instagram to sell themselves and their products, so any change in functionality would threaten their multi-million dollar business interests, in addition to seeing their friends’ cute photos.
Before this kerfuffle, Kylie most recently made news for taking unbelievably extravagant 14-minute private jet rides for fun. I don’t support her behavior. But when she’s right, she’s right. And as the Verge reporter Ashley Carman pointed out, Kylie has a record of taking social media by storm with her criticism. In the year In 2018, the company lost $1.3 billion in market value when it announced it was shutting down Snapchat after a redesign. If you’re missing Kylie for social media, you’re in trouble. Should a 24-year-old climate villain have so much influence? No, but she does.
And now Instagram is in crisis. Adam Mosseri Installed The day after Kylie’s post came out, a face-to-face vlog, turned into a video, is trying to convince people. Good, actually. Adam, Adam, Adam. Don’t piss off our feet and tell us it’s raining!
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