Sometimes, all the world’s pent-up frustration at the injustices of our society can only be condensed into one single utterance: Y u do dis. Indeed; y, Instagram, y. We’ve poured our hearts and souls into you, catapulted you from a basic photo-sharing platform into possibly the most influential form of social media right now; spent money that probably didn’t reach you (sorry) on filters, apps, and camera tools just to get the perfect ‘gram, and even mindlessly caved to the legions of Instagram “influencers” you unapologetically birthed. And for what, we ask? For you to turn on us in the darkest of times, to shed the skin we knew and loved so well, and release an all-new icon – an icon that’s pretty damn ugly, tbh.
Melodrama aside, if you haven’t already seen Instagram’s newest update, be prepared for a rude shock the next time you update the app and see it pop up on your home screen. The familiar, well-worn Lomo cam icon said its last goodbyes this morning when it was replaced with a brightly coloured, Microsoft Word-approved gradient, encased within what looks like a digitised rendition of the traditional pinhole camera – a tribute to how far photography has come, we’re guessing. Which leaves us demanding – why, Instagram? The “official” blog post announcing the update reasoned that the new look “reflects how vibrant and diverse your storytelling has become”, and audaciously stated that it was inspired by the community (ie. us). But that still doesn’t explain why Instagram felt the need to roll out all these changes at a time we can all safely say is their peak. After all, who can forget the algorithm update just a few weeks back that threw the entire online community into an outrage – how dare you mess with what superfluous photos we see on our feed and interfere with our desire to be superficial, everyone snarled. Why fix what’s not broken?
The desktop interface has already had its vicious makeover, we’re sorry to report, with zero traces of the brown Lomo icon and friendly blue borders signature of an Instagram feed. Right now, we’re still defiantly resisting updating the mobile app, just so we can hold on to the icon and its clueless, unpretentious past a little longer. That said, something tells us we haven’t seen the last of Instagram’s unwelcome updates, so brace yourselves, people. Dark days are ahead.
You must be logged in to post a comment.