Editor’s Note

“If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.” – The Social Dilemma

Shortly before this research was submitted, Instagram made its biggest (and most prominent) money move yet. For the first time in years, Instagram released notable design changes to its home interface (see fig. 1). The “Likes” and “Create” tabs were moved to the top of the screen and replaced with “Reels” and “Shop” tabs at the bottom of the screen (Mosseri).

As Chapter 2 discusses, Instagram’s dedication to building habitual users and producing habitual behavior is designed to increase its revenue. The positioning of the “Shop” tab directly where the “Likes” tab used to be is a perfect example of why Instagram dedicates time to developing habitual user behaviors: thumbs have been trained in locational tapping to check notifications. Now, those thumbs can check out instead. The addition of “Reels”—Instagram’s newest video creation feature—adds another tool to Instagram’s wheelhouse which keeps users in-platform and creating monetizable content.

Though the following research was conducted based on the previous model of Instagram’s home interface, the findings still effectively demonstrate how strategic platform conditions set by Instagram’s rhetorical context influence traditional advertising elements. However, it should be noted that with this change, Instagram has taken a definitive step away from social and is decidedly positioning itself as capital.

Now, instead of users interacting, consumers are transacting.