At the end of 2024, I wrote that I’d be stepping back from social media in 2025 due to its impact on my daily routine. As TechRadar’s Staff Writer for all things mobile, I know all too well that using my pocket supercomputer to swipe through vertical videos doesn’t exactly count as getting the best possible smartphone experience.
No prizes for guessing what happened next – I didn’t quit. In fact, if I had to guess, I think I’ve used Instagram’s mobile app more this year than in 2024.
And in the spirit of Christmas (or something like that), I’m forgiving myself for that transgression. In the past 12 months, I’ve accepted that, while I still need to cut down my smartphone screen time, social media isn’t going anywhere as a way to make plans and stay in touch, and that I can take on the benefits without dissolving into a puddle of Reels-fueled neuron soup.
However, the last year has also seen the prevalence of AI-generated photos, videos, and audio grow exponentially on social media, spawning memes and misunderstanding in seemingly equal measure. As we recently reported, “slop” was named word of the year by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster, in reaction to the deluge of low-quality AI content that hit our screens in the last 12 months.
I’ve always felt that it’s unfair to judge a platform solely on its user-uploaded content, so I’ve largely given Meta a pass on each consecutive wave of AI slop, even if I’d rather be nowhere near it myself.
But it increasingly seems like Instagram – famously a home for visual creatives and also an essential lifeline for musicians, actors, and comedians – is leaning towards the type of brainless, inane, and stupefying AI content that is filling user feeds.
I’m frankly troubled by the mid-feed adverts I see for Meta AI, which present as carousels of AI-generated videos and are often a bit messed up in some way or another. I’ve seen grotesque fruit-baby hybrids, Barack Obama DJing (can’t imagine that was sanctioned), and, most confusingly, an overweight Mark Zuckerberg running topless on a treadmill, which I can’t imagine the Meta boss would be too happy about.
As well as being uncanny to look at, these clips seem to be functionally useless and even antithetical to the point of social media. Is Meta hoping I’ll share these to my feed? To my friends? Who wants to see this? Is this self-expression or socially connecting in any way at all? What part of Instagram’s slogan, “Capture, Create, and Share What You Love,” are we dealing with by plastering a poorly rendered Michael Jackson lookalike onto my story?
More than that, this phenomenon doesn’t exactly convince me that Instagram is a good way to use my phone. I’ve been working on some fresh New Year’s resolutions to help me make better use of the supercomputer in my pocket, and this Meta AI push makes me glad I focused on more productive things in my new list (like, for example, playing more Fortnite).
Frankly, if Instagram keeps investing in this garbage instead of, you know, useful features, I might have to re-up on my mission to remove it from my phone’s storage. The best phones are so powerful and versatile that I’d feel remiss to spend even a second with them looking at this stuff.
So, you can consider this a provisional resolution, caveated by my self-admitted overreliance on Instagram as a platform and social network. If I keep seeing Meta AI content on my feed itself, it might be a sign that Instagram’s place on my phone’s home page could soon be vacant once again.
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jamie.richards@futurenet.com (Jamie Richards)
