Platform feature design deliberately disrupts influencer curation norms to capture more content

Evidence

This move by Instagram clearly signaled two things: first, that the curation rhetoric of Instagram as a regulated repository with optimum posting times and frequencies to maximize viewer perception is being acknowledged, but also that Instagram wants users to break out of this normative practice popularized by its top Influencer Instagrammers so that more content will be shared more frequently; and second, that the curation rhetoric of Instagram as a highlight reel for only one’s “best images” is being acknowledged, and also that Instagram wants users to content dump on its platform instead of cross-platforming (over to Snapchat, for instance) to post their content. — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 262

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the “curation rhetoric” of Instagram — regulated repository with optimum posting times and highlight-reel-only for best images — which is central to understanding platform/influencer relations.
• SEED: Essay angle: how platforms mine influencer habits to reverse-engineer features that serve the platform’s engagement goals at the expense of creator norms.
• XREF: Echoes the tension between platform-driven engagement and user autonomy familiar from affordance and algorithmic-curation literature. — connects to: Platforms treat content corruption as a problem only when it threatens surplus extraction — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1609; Social media engagement peaks for content near the boundary of what platforms allow — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 403; the MOC “The Viral Refinery: How Preexisting Fringe Fears Get Smelted Into Mainstream Reality”