I started writing this blog three and a half years ago. It was intended as an online journal of our lives and that’s what it still is to a degree. Although I have been trying to write more in the last few weeks I go through periods when I write very little at all. But there is another place I write, and I write there almost every day. That place is Instagram and I suppose what I do there could be called microblogging.

Instagram is a funny beast. When I first started using it, posts were shown in chronological order, the whole point was that it was ‘instant’ – people posted pictures of what they were doing right at that moment. If you were so bold as to post a picture that hadn’t been taken just then there was even the #latergram hashtag to use.

But over the last six months or so it has changed. And I have changed the way I use it too. As Instagram is owned by Facebook it didn’t take long before a similar algorithm to the one which determines what you see in your Facebook news feed was also introduced on Instagram. Instead of seeing posts in chronological order, the Instagram algorithm now uses a combination of factors such as previous content you’ve liked, engagement on posts and things or people you’ve searched for to decide what it is going to show you.

As a result fewer people are now using Instagram to post pictures of life as it happens. There are more ‘curated’ feeds that have a theme or post to a schedule. And Instagram has also become a place for brands and ‘influencers’ to make money so there are a lot more adverts and paid for posts now too.

So how have these changes affected how I use Instagram? Read more