[suprjami]

Instagram is already dead.

I run a popular account and watch my subscriber numbers. The turning point was when IG started shoving unrelated short-form videos into every second post in the feed. People left almost to silence and only some returned. If new users are growing now, it's very very slowly.

Anyway, I don't hold hope for your idea. You're describing a service which people are used to getting for free. As every social network has shown, monetizing never goes well. Eventually you'll get all the subscribers you're likely to get and capitalism doesn't like a plateau. One day you too will jam in short-form videos or whatever the flavour of the month is, because you have forgotten your mission and want to emulate someone else's success like TikTok. Then you'll be the social network people are saying is dead.

Maybe one day the EU or similar will fund a noninvasive useful social network with taxpayer money, which isn't beholden to shareholders or constant growth. That's the only way I see a social network working anymore.