Men Come in All Shapes. Women?

When it comes to men, society accepts them in all shapes. If society is a game, and men are a set of characters, those characters can come in many forms: bald, chubby, fat, tall, short, etc.

The only expectation society has for men is, at least, to be successful. And that success is only measured by money. It’s funny when you think about it.

Society accepts all shapes when it comes to men, but when it comes to women, society expects them to be one shape. So if it’s a game, the woman character is supposed to have just one body type. It doesn’t matter the ethnicity or skin color.

It’s quite funny. Not for women! But funny as an observer of society.

Sexy: Instagram Default Setting

There are so many things on the internet that can make a guy horny. Because everything is, in a way, sexualized for no reason. It’s hard to see something not sexy.

I understand, on the other hand, that it’s hard to get somebody’s attention. Because everybody wants to make things faster, and making things sexy makes people click on it. I mean, if a YouTuber intentionally shows cleavage or some dirty title, dirty plot, fine. If I click on it, it’s on me.

I Just Wanted Food Videos

But on Instagram, I only go there to watch food-related content. I click on it. One, food-related videos. Two, same. And the third one, some random sexy content that I didn’t ask for.

So, I click the three dots and say, “Don’t suggest this kind of content.” Because I can go anywhere if I want to get horny. It’s not that hard to find sexy content. But Instagram clearly knows I’m not there for that. And that’s what bothers me.

Also, I have to go to the feed and select the food videos. Otherwise, some random sexy content will pop up.

Repetitive and Boring

And this sexy content is not even that good. It’s just this repetitive content. They just take the concept, and everybody makes their version. Just a different character, different people. But the editing, the camera angle, the music. It’s the same. It seems they are forcing you to like something.

Based on my behavior, I see myself not even spending more than 10 minutes there. Because there’s nothing good there anymore. Most of the content is AI slop anyway.

AI Is Not the Problem

But it’s fine if it’s experimental AI content. I enjoy them. Some things are funny, crazy, odd, and strange content. As much as people say they created it using AI completely, it’s okay. It’s like the early days of Photoshop. People just go crazy. That’s not the problem.

The Real Problem

The problem is that Instagram, based on your age and gender, suggests sexually provocative content in order to keep you there, even though you don’t have a behavior pattern for it. I mean, this isn’t the type of content you consumed in the past.

That’s a sign, in my understanding, that Instagram is on its deathbed.

We Lost Control of Randomness

The Remote and the Algorithm

Short-form video content like TikTok or Instagram Reels isn’t a new thing. We’ve been doing this for a long time with a different device. I remember coming home, taking the remote, turning on the TV, and just changing the channels because I didn’t want to watch TV. I just wanted the TV to be on. It’s more like looking for something — random cuts every time I change the channels.

I’m sure pretty much everybody has done it. We all liked that feeling of looking for something — a kind of relaxed but time-wasting activity. It’s not fully looking for entertainment. It’s just like a mood swing. I think that’s what short-form video content is.

The Illusion of Randomness

This content is presented to you in a strategic way — by changing very quickly, a few seconds, next, next, next — so random. It doesn’t have a narrative. This randomness is something we’ve always looked for or used regularly.

However, there’s a huge difference between surfing through TV channels for hours and surfing, or in this case, swiping through TikTok or short video content.

The core difference is, when you surf through TV channels, you have control over the remote, which means you choose the randomness. You can change the channel you want. You can click the numbers or go up and down in order — it doesn’t matter.

But that desire to consume random content is still decided by you because you have the remote. With TikTok, you have the content, but you’ve given up the remote. Somebody else — in this case, an algorithm (I refer to the algorithm as a group of decisions / an entity) — is the remote that you have no control over.

It chooses the randomness for you, which is not random. It’s kind of funny because it’s all calculated content — or at least appears in random order, which is also not random. Because they place it in a way to keep you on the platform, so you’ll watch ads or spend more time.

The more time you spend on the platform, the more money they make, or the company learns about your behavior. But that power, as an audience — giving up control of that randomness — is kind of fascinating.

Power Shift: Cable to Streaming to Algorithms

First, there was cable; you wanted to watch a show, whatever show you liked. The cable companies or the TV networks decided what time you should be in front of the TV to watch that show. You had no control there.

You only had control of the remote to turn on the TV and change the channel, etc. The cable companies decided when you should watch, and you waited — one week, maybe two months. Who cares? You didn’t have the choice. They decided for you.

Then streaming came. That flipped everything. Now the audience, the viewer, had the power to choose when they wanted to watch. They could watch an entire season or five seasons in a day. Binge-watch, done. Or they could watch episode by episode, week by week. Streaming took the power that cable and TV companies had and gave it to the audience — a punch to cable companies.

That power shift completely changed things. Once the audience tasted that power, the freedom to choose when to watch — they didn’t want to give it up. Once they experienced that control, they weren’t going back.

However, the viewer gained power to choose anything they wanted to watch through streaming by ditching cable, and gave up the power of watching something random for no reason, surfing through TV. They gave that power to TikTok or Reels.

It’s kind of funny because new media now uses our old relationship with TV, just in a different way – with a different kind of power. Certain powers we didn’t have before with TV, we have now. Certain powers we had watching TV, we gave up.

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