e176. What Was Social Networking?

Instagram recently made an announcement that they were going to be shifting their social networking focus away from “photos”. This decision prompted a collective “WTF?” from the users who saw it. You see, Instagram claims that their primary business isn’t photos (despite having a whole motif from their logo to their name based around polaroid photos) but instead providing entertainment. Of course, what many suspect really happened is that they saw how popular TikTok is getting and got spooked. If you’re a regular user of Instagram, you’ve no doubt noticed an increasing focus on video content as the site tries to compete. Similarly, YouTube and Facebook have recently started trying to focus on short video clips as well in an effort to copy (and crush) TikTok as the current belle of the ball. All the while, each site seems to be adding more and more advertising and caring less and less for the users they supposedly serve. Or do they? On today’s show Katya, Mav and Monica are joined by model Dane Halo to talk about the changing face of Instagram and what previous failed social networks networks can tell us about its future. Is social networking dying or is it a necessary evil? Listen and let us know if you agree in the comments. Citations and Links: * This episode’s Call for Comments* Dane Halo’s Modeling Site* Rose Glass Photography * Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme* Follow Dane on Instagram: @theredbomb_model* Follow Mav on Twitter: @chrismaverick* Follow Katya on Instagram: @justthatnerdkid* Follow Monica on Instagram: @monicamarvelous* Follow us on Twitter: @voxpopcast* Follow us on Instagram: @voxpopcast* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast* Please Subscribe to our new YouTube channel!* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!