It has been confirmed that Instagram will soon offer the ability to buy and mine an NFT, in Meta's newest attempt to stifle innovation and force cryptocurrency on unsuspecting users.
According to Engadget, Meta boss Mark Zuckerburg confirmed during a talk at SXSW that the company is investigating features that would allow it to mine NFTs on Instagram, completely missing the point of the social platform.
While I could fill this article with nothing more than the word "Why" repeated over four paragraphs, I wanted to express my disgust at NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and how they have no place on gaming and social media platforms.
We've already seen some strange decisions from Twitter in recent weeks, and it looks like Meta is also drinking the same water if it thinks NFTs are a good idea for Instagram. We are at such an early stage of this technology, here is why I think it should not be considered a feature for at least another five years, giving the tokens time to mature to a point where they can help, rather than hinder.
non-fungible meaning
If you have seen the term NFT used, these are non-fungible tokens that take a picture that will have a unique code of numbers attached to it. This code will be unique to you, which means you can sell or trade this unique code as you wish.
That's what Meta is planning for Instagram, as a way to extend the shopping experience you can already do in the app. But he already feels lazy.
At the event, Zuckerberg discussed Instagram and NFT, but wasn't ready to give a date when the feature would arrive. "I'm not ready to announce exactly what it will be like today," Zuckerberg said. "But in the next few months, the ability to integrate some of the NFT from him, hopefully over time he'll be able to build things in that environment."
Environmental is an ironic word to use here, due to the fact that NFT mining has already proven to be detrimental to the electrical grid we use every day.
According to Investopedia, reaching one NFT is equivalent to using the same amount of electricity as an average American home for about nine days. We have already seen many users turn to companies that advertised NFTs for their brands and products, only to quickly reverse their involvement. Team17 was an unfortunate example of this in the gaming industry, and we're already seeing a decline in the popularity of NFTs among mainstream users.
But deciding to link NFT to Instagram already seems half-baked. The mere fact that it is a social platform that deals with photos automatically means that NFTs are a natural fit for Instagram.
But those tokens are already expanding into other avenues. Seeing the term "play to win" with NFT made me feel uncomfortable. I started seeing it in the ads in between the YouTube videos I watched on the weekends and instantly hit the "report an ad" button.
Beyond the giant that the gaming industry has become, games are there to be enjoyed, to be used as a form of escape. It's spawned careers and dreams for many, but not once have you played the level of Banjo Kazooie and thought, "Maybe Gruntilda can pay my phone bill this month through an NFT?"
The same goes for social media apps. During the early days of MSN Messenger, MySpace, and Bebo, she kept in touch with his friends and family, perhaps even continuing all the conversations she had with them earlier in the day.
Having NFTs on social media apps is distracting and takes you away from the reason you are using those platforms in the first place. Also consider users who only occasionally access Instagram and other apps, and who would not be interested in NFT at all. It seems useless and useless in the long run, not only for users, but also for Meta.
But to me, NFTs are bad for everyone in 2022. There may be a time when the fourth or fifth generation of this technology is an advantage. Perhaps these next generation NFTs towards the end of the decade will also help the environment instead of harming it.
But as they stand, they are a waste of time and resources. At a time when Meta is trying to save face while enduring a series of controversies, from Cambridge Analytica to tackling hate speech on its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms, perhaps the company should focus on these issues first, in instead of trying to pursue an innovation. that already feels like a wild ride.