It is the clouds and the light that have stood out in the week or so that we have been back in Encounter Bay. The clouds have been especially noticeable when we are walking along the coastline in the late afternoon.
The clouds dominate the landscape. Their strong presence overpowers everything else.
I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while: I no longer bother posting the daily poodlewalk images like these on Instagram. I used to, but I no longer see Instagram as a photo-sharing app. It was once, but now the ever growing presence of brands, brand advertising and an incredible number of influencers has turned Instagram into a shopping mall. Ecommerce not photography is now the core of Instagram.
Meta’s revenue from both its Facebook and Instagram apps is still almost entirely dependent on advertising. If the photos and videos are used to sell product, and Meta’s algorithm continues to push the short videos (Reels) over stills to defend itself from a rapidly rising TikTok, then Reels as Instagram’s TikTok video clone underpins Instagram’s home shopping network. We have gone from a photo-sharing app to a home shopping network.
It is bite-size videos that are currently popular not photographic stills. The latter has been marginalized and pushed into the background.