Member-only story
SOCIAL MEDIA/HEALTH/TECHNOLOGY
I Bought Something on Instagram That’s Going to Change My Life
At least, that’s what it says.
What I needed was the $40 storage ottoman on TikTok that literally everybody is selling in a desperate bid to cash in on affiliate marketing. If the videos are to be believed (and they’re not), you can put this thing together in under 30 seconds and then jump up and down on it, should you so choose.
But what I got was something completely different, and I got it on Instagram, which seems to be more trustworthy than TikTok. I have zero reason to believe that.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that all the social media sites eventually became nothing but portals to some of the cheapest, tackiest, sketchiest products ever created. But it’s still disappointing.
You can barely find an original tweet anymore on Twitter for all the ads and porn bots and weird videos that are squished into every free pixel of space.
Instagram seems to promote a slightly higher quality of crap — I found Oats Overnight there, which is basically all I eat now because it’s healthy, fast, and easy. And if you can get past the cold, slightly slimy, Medieval-gruel texture of it, it’s actually very tasty.
