I found that via a New York Times article, "Text Memes Are Taking Over Instagram/Fueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression."
“You just post your thoughts,” said Mia Morongell, 20, a creator of the @lifes.a.bender Instagram account, which has amassed over 134,000 followers. “It’s like Twitter, but for Instagram. It’s like a blog where you’re airing personal thoughts and feelings.”...
In one recent post, Tanisha Chetty, 15, who runs the Instagram page @life.is.not.a.soup, posted an image of a mattress in a graffiti-covered room. Overlaid on it was a message, in chunky black-and-white text, which read: “We should care less about mental help. Girl, go insane! You are valid.”
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[T]ext-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures...
Isn't that another leaked picture from the Obama 60th birthday party?
I find myself disoriented by the absence of sunrise photos to reference what day’s post I’m reading. Using those as a kind of blog bookmark became habitual without me knowing it.
"Amassed". Sort of like garnering.
I absolutely l-o-a-t-h-e how text boxes have taken over instagram. Instagram used to be my one social network that didn't go utterly insane after roughly 2015, because people couldn't put politics on it! It was just pictures of people's gardens, kids, lunches and sunsets as god and nature intended. But slowly, first as captions on unrelated pictures and then eventually just turning into walls of text, Instagram has fallen. I started muting people who got political, but the people who DON'T get political have disappeared, so I essentially have an account just for one sister-in-law who will post pictures (with no text!) of my nieces and nephews.
Where have all the sane people gone? Maybe we all just need to go back to blogs and e-mail groups to stay connected as extended families. (I've honestly considered using Substack -- like if my family wants to hear what I'm up to I can just send them a newsletter.)
I cannot *stand* text on Instagram, and I zip right past it. I want to see pictures. If I wanted text, I'd go to Twitter. I have a Twitter account (2, actually). I'm never on Twitter.
I don't understand the appeal of Instagram. Bunch of pictures, generally not with any intention of being artistic.
Here is a dog. Here is someone you barely know with someone you don't know at all. Here is a building. Here is some food. Here is a stranger. Here is a book. Here is a door. Here is a flower. Here is another stranger. Here is another dog.
And so on.
Without any text, it's instantly boring.
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