Here's why all of your social media is trying to be TikTok now

If you've noticed a change to the way your favourite social media platform works lately, you aren't alone. 

Even Kylie Jenner, arguably the most online person in the world, seemed to be getting fed up with it this week when she griped about recent changes to Instagram's algorithm that prioritizes more short videos from brands and strangers over content from people and companies users choose to follow.

"Make Instagram Instagram again," Jenner complained to her 360 million followers. "Stop trying to be TikTok I just want to see cute photos of my friends. Sincerely, everyone," she said in the story, which her sister, Kim Kardashian, then shared to her own 330 million followers.

For the family that essentially invented the concept of social media influencers to push back against attempts by social media companies to influence what we see, it speaks to just how meteoric TikTok's rise has been.

Founded in 2016, TikTok has seen explosive growth during the pandemic to become the most downloaded app in the world in 2022, racking up billions of users. 

It only allows users to share videos, and it works with brands and influencers to promote products in those videos. This business model is starting to eat into profits at more established social media companies.

Meta Inc., which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, revealed financial results this week that hint at just how fast the social media landscape is changing.

For the first time in its history as a public company, Facebook saw its revenue shrink in the three months up until the end of June. And it expects that trend to continue this quarter. 

There's a certain irony to the evolution of these platforms in that Instagram began as a service that just shared still photos and its runaway success resulted in Facebook buying the app. Then video became the latest trend after the introduction of video messaging app Snapchat, prompting Facebook and Instagram to introduce features that allowed users to share short videos.

Instagram's latest push for more video is just the latest step in that evolution, according to Richard Lachman, director of The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University.

"Facebook and Instagram were seeing reductions in their size of audience, so they are trying to chase where the buzz seems to be," he said in an interview.

So far, the chief weapon in Facebook and Instagram's arsenals seems to be trying to mimic what TikTok does.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri explained what the company was up to in a video this week — tellingly, that video was released on TikTok itself — confirming suspicions that it was "experimenting with a number of different changes to the app." 

"I need to be honest. I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time," he said, acknowledging that many users are upset with the changes. "It's not yet good," he admitted, bluntly.