I’ve started importing photos from my Instagram page to Pixelfed, a Fediverse alternative. The process is still ongoing, but the results look good so far. I skipped comments because moving those out of context doesn’t feel right, but the text I originally included with the posts is still there.

I only began using this Instagram account in the pre-vaccination phase of the pandemic. It was after working with Levke Harders on her piece called “Social Media as a Distinct Form of Knowledge Production," in which she included some discussion about academic Instagram. I wanted to see what was even possible in that context. But it was hard to get into Instagram because of its excessive advertising, suggested posts I never asked for, and follow-spam from scammers. I’ve also never loved the absence of an iPad app and third-party app alternatives. I wouldn’t mind leaving the place entirely; however, as with Facebook, it’s my only connection to some people, especially post-Twitter.

I still share a little there, but only if it’s something specific I’d like people there to see. Even then, Meta’s algorithm might have other ideas. Instagram makes sharing inconvenient, anyway. It wants you to post there first, whether with its app or its website. Sharing from there to other places is possible, but posting to there from other sources not, unless you’re one of their business clients. (Facebook is handled a bit differently, but I’ve given up trying to pay attention to Meta’s latest gimmicks in human engineering.)

Pixelfed is nice. I’m not sure how well it will work as social media for me because I haven’t yet been social on it. In any case, it integrates well with Mastodon. I also wonder about the 4 GB storage limit on my instance, Pixelfed.de, but that has to be plenty for the time being. Besides, nothing is locked in the platform or in that instance of the platform. It’s the independent web.