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NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is ready to meet Ultima Thule on New Year’s Day. On Twitter, the New Horizons team announced that the spacecraft “is healthy and on track” for the flyby of […]
The post NASA’s New Horizons Begins Countdown to Ultima Thule Flyby appeared first on Geek.com.
My parents are approaching 60. When they were young, they hung out at diners, or drove around in their cars. My generation hung out in the parking lot after school, or at the mall. My colleague John Biggs often talks of hanging out with his nerd buddies in his basement, playing games and making crank calls.
Today, young people are hanging out on a virtual island plagued by an ever-closing fatal storm. It’s called Fortnite.
The thread above describes exactly what I’m talking about. Yes, people most certainly log on and play the game. Some play it very seriously. But many, especially young folks, hop on to Fortnite to socialize.
The phenomenon of ‘hanging out’ on a game is not new.
Almost any popular game results in a community of players who connect not only through the common interest of the game itself, but as real friends who discuss their lives, thoughts, dreams, etc. But something else is afoot on Fortnite that may be far more effectual.
Gaming culture has long had a reputation for being highly toxic. To be clear, there is a difference between talking about someone’s skills in the game and making a personal attack:
“You are bad at this game.” = Fine by me
“You should kill yourself.” = Not fine at all
But many streamers and pro gamers make offensive jokes, talk shit about each other, and rage when they lose. It’s not shocking, then, that the broader gaming community that tries to emulate them, especially the young men growing up in a world where esports are real, tend to do many of the same things.
But Fortnite doesn’t have the same type of community. Sure, as with any game, there are bad apples. But on the whole, there isn’t the same toxicity permeating every single part of the game.
For what it’s worth, I’ve played hundreds of hours of both Fortnite and Call of Duty over the past few years. The difference between the way I’m treated on Fortnite and Call of Duty, particularly once my game-matched teammates discover I’m a woman, is truly staggering. I’ve actually been legitimately scared by my interactions with people on Call of Duty. I’ve met some of my closest friends on Fortnite.
One such relationship is with a young man named Luke, who is set to graduate from college this spring.
During the course of our now year-long friendship, Luke revealed to me that he is gay and was having trouble coming out to his parents and peers at school. As an older gay, I tried to provide him with as much guidance and advice as possible. Being there for him, answering his phone calls when he was struggling and reminding him that he’s a unique, strong individual has perhaps been one of the most rewarding parts of my life this past year.
I’ve also made friends with young men who, once they realize that I’m older and a woman and have a perspective that they might not, casually ask me for advice. They’ve asked me why the girl they like doesn’t seem to like them back — “don’t try to make her jealous, just treat her with kindness,” I advised, and then added “ok, make her a little jealous” — or vented to me about how their parents “are idiots” — “they don’t understand you, and you don’t understand them, but they’re doing their best for you and no one loves you like they do” — or expressed insecurity about who they are — “you’re great at Fortnite, why wouldn’t you be great at a bunch of other things?” and “have more confidence in yourself.”
(Though paraphrased, these are real conversations I’ve had with random players on Fortnite.)
There is perhaps no other setting where I might meet these young people, nor one where they might meet me. And even if we did meet, out in the real world, would we open up and discuss our lives? No. But we have this place in common, and as we multitask playing the game and having a conversation, suddenly our little hearts open up to one another in the safety of the island.
But that’s just me. I see this mentorship all the time in Fortnite, in both small and big ways.
Gaming culture is often seen as a vile thing, and there are a wide array of examples to support that conclusion. Though this perception is slowly changing, and not always fair, gamers are usually either perceived as lonely people bathed in the blue glow of the monitor light, or toxic brats who cuss, and throw out slurs, and degrade women.
So why is Fortnite any different from other games? Why does it seem to foster a community that, at the very least, doesn’t actively hate on one another?
First, it’s the game itself. Even though Fortnite includes weapons, it’s not a ‘violent’ game. There is no blood or gore. When someone is eliminated, their character simply evaporates into a pile of brightly colored loot. The game feels whimsical and cartoonish and fun, full of dances and fun outfits. This musical, colorful world most certainly affects the mood of its players.
Logging on to Fortnite feels good, like hearing the opening music to the Harry Potter movies. Logging on to a game like, say, Call of Duty: WWII feels sad and scary, like watching the opening sequence to Saving Private Ryan.
Moreover, Fortnite Battle Royale takes place on a single large map. That map may change and evolve from time to time, but it’s even more “common ground” between players. Veterans of the game show noobs new spots to find loot or ways to get around. As my colleague Greg Kumparak said to me, “every time you go in, you’re going to the same place. Maybe it’s skinned a little different or there’s suddenly a viking ship, but it’s home.”
Of course, there are other colorful, bubbly games that still have a huge toxicity problem. Overwatch is a great example. So what’s the difference?
Battle Royale has introduced a brand new dynamic to the world of gaming. Instead of facing off in a one-vs-one or a five-vs-five scenario as with Starcraft or Overwatch respectively, Battle Royale is either 1-vs-99, 2-vs-98 or 4-vs-96.
“It isn’t as binary as winning or losing,” said Rod “Slasher” Breslau, longtime gaming and esports journalist formerly of ESPN and CBS Interactive’s GameSpot. “You could place fifth and still feel satisfied about how you played.”
Breslau played Overwatch at the highest levels for a few seasons and said that it was the most frustrating game he’s ever played in 20 years of gaming. It may be colorful and bubbly, but it is built in a way that gives an individual player a very limited ability to sway the outcome of the game.
“You have all the normal problems of playing in a team, relying on your teammates to play their best and communicate and to simply have the skill to compete, but multiply that because of the way the game works,” said Breslau. “It’s very reliant on heroes, the meta is pretty stale because it’s a relatively new game, and the meta has been figured out.”
All that, combined with the fact that success in Overwatch is based on teamwork, make it easy to get frustrated and unleash on teammates.
With Fortnite, a number of factors relieve that stress. In an ideal scenario, you match up with three other players in a Squads match and they are all cooperative. Everyone lands together, they share shield potions and weapons, communicate about nearby enemies, and literally pick each other up when one gets knocked down. This type of teamwork, even among randos, fosters kindness.
In a worst case scenario, you are matched up with players who aren’t cooperative, who use toxic language, who steal your loot or simply run off and die, leaving you alone to fight off teams of four. Even in the latter scenario, there are ways to play more cautiously — play passive and hide, or third-party fights that are underway and pick players off, or lure teams intro trapped up houses.
Sure, it’s helpful to have skilled, communicative teammates, but being matched with not-so-great teammates doesn’t send most people into a blind rage.
And because the odds are against you — 1 vs 99 in Solos or 4 vs 96 in Squads — the high of winning is nearly euphoric.
“The lows are the problem,” says Breslau. “Winning a close game of Overwatch, when the team is working together and communicating, feels great. But when you’re depending on your team to win, the lows are so low. The lows aren’t like that in Fortnite.”
The popularity of Fortnite as a cultural phenomenon, not just a game, means that plenty of non-gamers have found their way onto the island. Young people, a brand new generation of gamers, are obsessed with the game. But folks who might have fallen away from gaming as they got older are still downloading it on their phone, or installing it on the Nintendo Switch, and giving Battle Royale a try. Outsiders, who haven’t been steeped in the all-too-common hatred found in the usual gaming community, are bringing a sense of perspective to Fortnite. There is simply more diversity that comes with a larger pool of players, and diversity fosters understanding.
Plus, Fortnite has solid age distribution among players. The majority (63 percent) of players on Fortnite are between the ages of 18 and 24, according to Verto Analytics. Twenty-three percent of players are ages 24 to 35, and thirteen percent are 35 to 44 years old. However, this data doesn’t take into account players under the age of 18, which represent 28 percent of overall gamers, according to Verto. One way Fortnite is like other games is that 70 percent of players are male.
There aren’t many scenarios where four people, from different backgrounds and age groups, join up under a common goal in the type of mood-lifting setting that Fortnite provides. More often than not, the youngest little guy tries to make some sort of offensive joke to find his social place in the group. But surprisingly, for a shoot and loot game played by a lot of people, that’s rarely tolerated by the older members of a Fortnite squad.
The popularity of the game also means that more eyes are on Fortnite than any other game. Super popular streamer Ninja’s live stream with Drake had more than 600,000 concurrent viewers, setting a record. The more people watching, the more streamers are forced to watch their behavior.
Fortnite streamers are setting a new example for gamers everywhere.
One such streamer is Nick “NickMercs” Kolcheff. Nick has been streaming Fortnite since it first came out and has a huge community of mostly male viewers. I consider myself a part of, albeit a minority in, that community — I’ve subscribed to his channel and cheered for him with bits and participated in the chat. In short, I’ve spent plenty of time watching Nick and have seen him offer a place of support and friendship for his viewers.
I’ve seen Nick’s audience ask him, in so many words, how to lose weight (Nick’s a big fitness guy), or share that they’re dealing with an illness in the family, or share that they’re heartbroken because their girlfriend cheated on them.
In large part, Nick says he learned how to be a mentor from his own dad.
“I remember being in those kinds of positions, but I have a great father that always sat me down and let me vent and then shared his opinion, and reminded me that it isn’t supposed to be easy,” said Kolcheff. “It feels good to bounce things off other people and hard things always feel much easier when you know you’re not alone, and I can relate to my chat the way my dad relates to me.”
Nick always has something positive to say. He reminds his audience that even if they feel alone IRL, they have a community right there in his Twitch channel to talk to. He sets an example in the way he talks about his girlfriend Emu, and the way he treats her on screen. When Nick loses a game and his chat explodes with anger, he reminds them to be cool and to not talk shit about other players.
And it’s easy to see his example followed in the chat, where young people are treating each other with respect and answering each other’s questions.
Nick wasn’t always like this. In fact, the first time that NickMercs and Ninja played together on stream, they brought up the time that Nick challenged Ninja to a fight at a LAN tournament years ago. But both Nick and Ninja have matured into something that you rarely find in online gaming: a role model — and it’s had an effect.
Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, far and away the most successful Twitch streamer ever, decided to stop swearing and using degrading language as his influence in the community and his viewership grew. When his audience said they missed the old Ninja, he had this to say:
I’m the same person, you guys. 2018 can’t handle old Ninja and… guess what, I can’t handle old Ninja because the words that I used to say and the gaming terms I used to say… they weren’t ok, alright? I’ve matured.
Jack “Courage” Dunlop is another Fortnite streamer who uses his influence in the community to mentor young people. He has befriended a young fellow named Connor. Courage helped Connor get his first win and has since continued playing with him and talking to him.
Not only is he being kind to Connor, but he’s setting an example for his viewers.
“In comparison to games like Call of Duty and Gears of War and Halo, the top content creators like Ninja, Sypher PK, Timthetatman, are a little older now,” said Kolcheff. “They’ve come from other games where they already had a following. If you look at me five or six years ago, or any of us, we’ve all chilled out. We were more combative and crazy and had a lot more words to say, but I think we just grew up, and it bleeds through to the community.”
These guys are the exception in the wider world of gaming and streaming. But they represent the future of gaming in general. As esports explode with growth, pro players will undoubtedly be held to the same behavioral standards as pro players in traditional sports. That’s not to say that pro athletes are angels, and that’s not to say that bad actors won’t have a following. Just look at PewDiePie.
The esports world is realizing that they can’t let their professionals run their mouth without consequences. As the industry grows, highly dependent on advertisers and brand endorsements, with a young audience hanging on every word, it will become increasingly important for leagues, esports organizations and game makers to start paying closer attention to the behavior of their top players.
We’re already seeing this type of policing happening on Overwatch, both for pro players and amateurs alike.
There is plenty more work to do. But the problem of removing toxicity from any platform is incredibly difficult. Just ask Facebook and Twitter. Still, it’s only a matter of time before esports decision-makers raise the stakes on what they’ll allow from their representatives, which are pro players and streamers.
Toxic behavior is being rejected in most polite society anywhere (except Twitter, because Twitter), and it surely can’t be tolerated much longer in the gaming world. But Fortnite maker Epic Games hasn’t had to put too much effort forth to steer clear of toxic behavior. The community seems to be doing a pretty good job holding itself accountable.
Believe you me, Fortnite is not some magical place filled with unicorns and rainbows. There are still players on the game who behave badly, cheat, use toxic language and are downright mean. But compared to other shooters, Fortnite is a breath of fresh air.
No one thing makes Fortnite less toxic. A beautiful, mood-lifting game can’t make much of a difference on its own. A huge, relatively diverse player base certainly makes a dent. And yes, the game limits frustration by simply managing expectations. But with leaders that have prioritized their position as role models, and all the other factors above working in harmony, Fortnite is not only the most popular game in the world, but perhaps one of the most polite.
We reached out to Epic Games, Courage, and Ninja for this story, but didn’t hear back at the time of publication.
Playing Fortnite on New Year’s Eve? The game is throwing an epic in-game event to help you dance the night away. Epic Games set up the in-game event, which will feature a giant […]
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For years, people have dreamed of living on Mars. Now, a group of lucky individuals might have the opportunity to colonize the red planet in 2032. R Daniel and Yari Golden-Castaño, a Boston-based couple, […]
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While people were enjoying Christmas festivities, a team of scientists attempted to drill into the mysterious Mercer Subglacial Lake in Antarctica — and they did it right before the New Year. On Friday, the […]
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Louis Vuitton’s luxurious LV Tambour Horizon Smartwatch is receiving a major tech upgrade. The company, which is known for its high-end goods, is adding Qualcomm’s new wearables chipset to this Wear OS product, […]
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Wii Fit Trainer Weighs In! Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is huge. Not just in terms of hype and importance and sales potential, but just in terms of sheer stuff. The Nintendo Switch mascot […]
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Marine debris is a problem on coastlines around the world — and the Gulf of Mexico is no exception. Researchers from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve […]
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The fate of Westeros will soon be revealed. In the meantime, entomologist Brett Ratcliffe has found three new contenders for the throne. The University of Nebraska professor named three of his eight newest […]
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Newspapers are suffering enough without being the target of a cyber attack. Some of the country’s best-known broadsheets over the weekend suffered printing and distribution delays due to reported malware. The Los Angeles […]
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NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is about to get cozy with a very distant space object. On New Years Day, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will fly by Ultima Thule, a distant “worldlet” located four […]
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California is now the first state to ban the sale of non-rescue cats, dogs, and rabbits in pet stores. State officials just created a new law, AB 485, to reduce puppy mill activity […]
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If it’s a lack of quality streaming content that’s keeping you from cutting the cord, maybe it’s time you checked out SelectTV. SelectTV by Freecast boasts the largest library of streaming content on […]
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For the first time ever, the New York City Police Department will be getting some robotic support from above during the New Year’s Eve celebrations at Times Square. The NYPD will be deploying […]
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The world’s rarest bird has a new home for the new year. A species called the Madagascar pochard, which was believed to be extinct for more than a decade, has been released into […]
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Aspiring musician? Learn how to record professional-sounding tracks with the Ableton Music Production Mastery Bundle, offered to readers of Geek.com for only $23.49 — a savings of over 90% off the regular price […]
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Nancy Grace Roman, known as the “Mother of Hubble,” has died at the age of 93. Roman, a NASA astronomer who developed the Hubble Space Telescope, died on Dec. 25 after a prolonged […]
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It’s been a year of headlines dominated by extreme weather and natural disasters, sporting events that brought the world together, and space advances that renewed our Mars obsession. From Facebook testifying to Paradise, […]
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Floppy-eared doggos are making their way to airport security sites next year. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is now exchanging pointy-ear dogs for floppy-ear ones, so the public will feel more comfortable when interacting with […]
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Lady Gaga has unveiled a new high-tech addition to her Las Vegas concert lineup: An anime cyborg. On Friday, Lady Gaga teased the anime cyborg on her Twitter account. This anime cyborg appears […]
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Netflix is further distancing itself from Apple: The streaming service recently removed iTunes billing for its new customers. “We no longer support iTunes as a method of payment for new members,” a Netflix […]
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People have explored the possibility of humans traveling to Mars lately. However, a recent Elon Musk tweet hinted that AI might be the first “resident” on the red planet. On Thursday, a Twitter […]
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If you’re ready to start the new year out on the right foot, this Humble Book Bundle is a fantastic way to learn. Jump in for as little as a buck, and your […]
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Opioid overdoses are a major health issue in the U.S., yet a new high-tech wristband might help doctors detect the warning signs of fatal painkiller reactions. A group of Carnegie Mellon University students developed […]
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Whether you’ve breezed through the week (or not), it’s time to enjoy the weekend. We’ve curated must-see documentaries, films, and TV series to watch on Hulu from Dec. 28 to Dec. 30. Small town heroes, deadly […]
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The weekend is the best for pre-holiday festivities, including shopping, cooking, and binge-watching classic Christmas flicks. We’ve rounded up must-see movies, TV shows, and exclusive series that you can stream on Amazon Prime from Dec. 28 […]
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Heads up, gamers. Enjoy unlimited access to thousands of ad-free game titles for the lowest price of the year. A six-month subscription to Wild Unlimited Gaming, which is normally discounted to $24.99, is […]
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Indonesia, the world’s fourth largest country by population, has unblocked Tumblr nine months after it blocked the social networking site over pornographic content.
Tumblr — which, disclaimer, is owned by Oath Verizon Media Group just like TechCrunch — announced earlier this month that it would remove all “adult content” from its platform. That decision, which angered many in the adult entertainment industry who valued the platform as an increasingly rare outlet that supported erotica, was a response to Apple removing Tumblr’s app from the iOS Store after child pornography was found within the service.
The impact of this new policy has made its way to Indonesia, where KrAsia reports that the service was unblocked earlier this week. The service had been blocked in March after falling foul of the country’s anti-pornography laws.
“Tumblr sent an official statement regarding the commitment to clean the platform from pornographic content,” Ferdinandus Setu, acting head of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics Bureau, is reported to have said in a press statement.
Messaging apps WhatsApp and Line are among the other services that have been forced to comply with the government’s ban on “unsuitable” content in order to keep their services open in the country. Telegram, meanwhile, removed suspected terrorist content last year after its service was partially blocked.
While perhaps not widely acknowledged in the West, Indonesia is a huge market, with a population of more than 260 million people. The world’s largest Muslim country, it is the largest economy in Southeast Asia and its growth is tipped to help triple the region’s digital economy to $240 billion by 2025.
In other words, Indonesia is a huge market for internet companies.
The country’s anti-porn laws have been used to block as many as 800,000 websites as of 2017 — so potentially over a million by now — but they have also been used to take aim at gay dating apps, some of which have been removed from the Google Play Store. As Vice notes, “while homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, it’s no secret that the country has become a hostile place for the LGBTQ community.”
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Mega Man Gets Equipped! Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is huge. Not just in terms of hype and importance and sales potential, but just in terms of sheer stuff. The Nintendo Switch mascot fighter […]
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It’s finally the weekend! If you’re not engaging in pre-holiday shopping, you might want to binge-watch some flicks on Netflix. We’ve put together must-see documentaries, movies, and TV series to watch on Netflix from Dec. 28 […]
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Think twice before throwing away this year’s Christmas tree. The traditional evergreen conifer makes a great canvas for garlands, baubles, tinsel, and candy canes. But once dumped in a landfill, the tree’s hundreds […]
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An algorithm may one day be able to anticipate your chances of aging well. Researchers at the Salk Institute analyzed skin cells of the very young to the very old, searching for molecular […]
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The European Space Agency is running a pulsar-based atomic clock. While most atomic clocks, as their name suggests, are based on atoms, the ESA has taken a different approach to time-telling. Operating since […]
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As if the critically endangered eastern lowland gorilla hasn’t suffered enough, scientists this week confirmed the inevitable extinction of the subspecies. Once abundant in the mountainous forests of Democratic Republic of Congo, the […]
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Christmas is over, however, Amazon is gifting us with another major sale: Digital Day 2018. On Friday, Amazon will discount digital content on its website, including apps, ebooks, games, movies, TV shows, and […]
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High winds and shifting sands on the shore of Stone Harbor, New Jersey unearthed a holiday mystery — the remains of a 25-foot shipwreck from the 1800s. The mysterious vessel is still partially covered […]
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Earlier today, when Instagram suddenly transformed into a landscape oriented Tinder-esque nightmare, the app’s dedicated users extremely lost their minds and immediately took to Twitter to be vocal about it.
As we reported, the company admitted that the abrupt shift from Instagram’s well-established vertical scrolling was a mistake. The mea culpa came quickly enough, but Instagram’s accidental update was already solidified as one of the last meme-able moments of 2018.
That was supposed to be a very small test that went broad by accident. Should be fixed now. If you're still seeing it simply restart the app. Happy holidays!
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) December 27, 2018
Why learn about the thing itself and why it happened when you could watch the meta-story play out in frantic, quippy tweets, all vying for relevance as we slide toward 2019’s horrific gaping maw? If you missed it the first time around, here you go.
A handful of memes even managed to incorporate another late-2018 meme, Sandra Bullock in Bird Box — a Netflix original that is not a birds-on-demand service, we are told.
Unupdate might not be a word, but it is absolutely a state of mind.
instagram when they saw the update wasn’t a hit:
when they quickly remove it:#instagramupdate pic.twitter.com/UHqrOxphRb—
𝔏𝔲𝔫𝔞
For better or worse, the Met got involved with what we can only assume is a Very Important Artifact for the cause.
When you hear #Instagram might update its format so you hold on tighter to your vertical scroll…
: Marble hand holding a scroll, Roman, 1st or 2nd century A.D. https://t.co/k0TgNTaeiS pic.twitter.com/cuxwORgWnT
— The Met (@metmuseum) December 27, 2018
But can we ever really go back? Can we unsee a fate so great, one still looming on some distant social influencer shore? Probably yeah, but that doesn’t mean we won’t all lose it if it happens again.
If you have some holiday cash burning a hole in your pocket, there are some sweet gaming deals today you’ll want to check out. You can get a PlayStation Classic for $60, a […]
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Disney is making Star Wars enthusiasts’ dreams come true with a new high-tech theme park. On Tuesday, Disney Parks unveiled a new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge theme park video on YouTube, which gave Star […]
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Instagram users were not pleased with Instagram’s recent horizontal scrolling update. On Monday, Instagram tested a major redesign that removed vertical scrolling, Business Insider reported. This change prompted many Instagram users to complain […]
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Writing the next big screenplay? Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, your manuscripts will be better with WriterDuet Pro. A lifetime subscription, which had previously been discounted to $99, is […]
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Instagram confirms that a bug this morning mistakenly rolled out a massive change to its feed that replaced the traditional scrolling with horizontal tap-to-advance like with Stories. In October, TechCrunch reported Instagram was testing tap-to-advance for browsing through Explore posts. But many users woke up to a shock this morning when their familiar vertical swipe stopped advancing the main feed. Many users immediately complained that the gesture felt awkward and annoying.
“Due to a bug, some users saw a change to the way their feed appears today. We quickly fixed the issue and feed is back to normal. We apologize for any confusion” an Instagram spokesperson tells TechCrunch. The company confirms it’s still testing the navigation style in Explore.
Instagram was attempting to test the feature with a small percentage of users, but the bug caused a much broader rollout to a few orders of magnitude more people than planned, according to head of Instagram Adam Mosseri. Users can restart their Instagram and the change should disappear.
Sorry about that, this was supposed to be a very small test but we went broader than we anticipated.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) December 27, 2018
Tap-to-advance makes it easier to move between posts with them staying fully in view, compared to scrolling where it can take some adjustment to make sure the top or bottom of a post isn’t cut off. But scrolling revealed the author of a post first, then the content, then the caption, which is a sensible and intuitive way to browse. Tap-to-advance could send users’ eyes flitting around the screen in an exhausting manner. But most importantly, people have spent eight years growing accustomed to scrolling the Instagram feed. Suddenly breaking that behavior pattern was sure to piss people off.
It’s possible that Instagram could still bring tap-to-advance to the main feed in the future. But given how angry the responses were, it might now think twice unless the data shows the change makes people spend a lot more time in the app.
Here’s a look at how tap-to-advance in the feed worked, and the alert users got about how it works.
