Instagram Reels

Why are Instagram Reels so unhinged?

I think everyone who has used Instagram reels knows what I'm talking about. One reel, you'll see an innocent landscape photo. The next, you are met with the most unhinged piece of media that has ever graced your eyes. Instagram reels and unhinged degeneracy go hand in hand. But why is this the case? I'm obviously no expert, but I think I have a rough idea on why.

Part 1: Lack of Moderation

There are a lot of players in the short-form content game: TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and probably more that I don't know of. All of these platforms have their own subculture and other quirks, yet none have the same reputation that Instgram has. Part of it has to do with Instagram's lack of moderation. Content moderation is obviously really hard, as the nature of how a message is interpreted varies greatly on a whole host of factors, primarily context. In addition, it's really hard to draw a line between what's inappropriate and what's not, and that often comes down to personal biases that are hard to implement on an institutional level.

This results in most moderation being against obviously blatantly inappropriate messages: whether it be hate speech, slurs, etc. Notice how I say most moderation, because Instagram seemingly does not care. If you scroll into any somewhat controversial reel, you'll fine a warzone in the comments that could probably be filtered out by any basic algorithm. There are probably some intricacies that I am definitely missing, but the fact of the matter is that Instagram allows much more uncivil content to be hosted on its platform.

Part 2: Lack of Monetization

This connects to the sterilization of modern online media, and the dreaded phenomena of demonetization and the spooky algorithm. I think the first time I heard someone try to replace the word "kill" was Pyrocynical (or someone similar), who started somewhat satirically replacing the word with "game ended". Yet, what was once a satirical figment of speech is now the de-facto way of speaking online: many career YouTubers will do a whole host of replacements, resulting in a bastardization of the English language and the formation of a practically new dialect.

YouTube is the most prominent example of this, as it's the main platform where content creators can actually earn a living off of making videos. TikTok is in a similar boat, but it's much harder to make any significant money on it: that being said, it's still significant enough to where people at least have a reason to care. Instagram, on the other hand, is known for not paying creators much. I don't have statistics on hand, but I do recall seeing a lot of comparisons where someone on YouTube might make tens or hundreds of times the amount they would make on Instagram for a roughly equivalent number of views. Thus, most people don't particularly care about making money off Instagram. Well, at least they don't care about directly profiting off of Instagram advertisement revenue. The resulting effect is that people are, at the very least, less hesitant about posting controversial or otherwise inappropriate content. Combined with Instagram's lack of moderation, this leads to people being gifted the ability to post unhinged reels to their heart's content.

Part 3: Subculture

Twitter is known for being the heart of cancel culture... and furries, and also Elon Musk and his ketamine induced tangents. YouTube is known for being much tamer, and generally being the lesser of the evils when it comes to social media. Reddit is for socially inept people (like me!) who don't want their friends seeing the things they post. What is Instagram known for?

Well, Instagram is primarily known for being a good place to share photos. However, Reels are not exactly known for having the same reasonably clean reputation that the rest of Instagram has. This is what Instagram has to say about Reels:

Create and share entertaining videos through Instagram Reels which offers text options, filters, and audio tools that can bolster your creative ideas.

Well, okay, what do they mean by entertaining videos? TikTok is already the biggest short-form content hub, and is known for being at the frontier of pop culture in most regards. In fact, a large portion of Instagram content is just copied and pasted from TikTok. And if you wanted to learn something or attempt to feel productive while probably wasting time, you would head to YouTube. Thus, there's a bit of a niche that isn't neatly filled by other platforms: degeneracy, and pure unhinged entertainment for us to enjoy. Now, you're telling me that there's a platform that can support and thrive off of this subgenre of short-form content? That's basically begging for people to get some... ideas!

Conclusion

Okay, I don't even know why I decided to write this. Probably because I need some writing practice, because I am slowly becoming illiterate. Thanks, Instagram Reels! There's probably a lot more factors that I don't know of, but I think this covers the main reasons why Instagram is so delightfully wacky and frankly insane.