It’s far from the worst thing, but the rise of influencer culture is certainly a lamentable part of today’s internet. This post, by a college student and artist who uses Instagram to promote her online store, details how the algorithms actually work to force influencers to maximize what platforms want from them.

They like it when you post a combination of normal posts, reels, IGTV, stories, shoppable posts, etc etc. You know those little events they do in stories like the “I Voted” sticker? participate in that school spirit kinda junk. The algorithm likes it when you use the in app camera and filters, geolocation tagging, messaging, story buttons, all that stuff. use app more. have many different thing to offer you :) sell your soul :)

The influencer game certainly works for some once they hit a certain threshold, but it’s also clearly a set of shifting goal posts for the vast majority of people. It’s clear that Instagram has optimized their discovery/recommendation algorithm for people who treat Instagram like a full time job — even if that’s only a fraction of a percent, that’s still hundreds of thousands if not millions of people!

Adam “Apeland” Koford — a brilliant, hilarious, and genuinely unique cartoonist — reminds us big tech doesn’t really love you. And Jeff Eaton on the lie that algorithms were ever helpful arbiters.

Taylor Lorenz, who writes about internet culture for The New York Times, is almost certainly the definitive source of further reporting from this world.