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.
https://twitter.com/mosseri/status/1078322176070021121
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.
https://twitter.com/triviastigma/status/1078317752194985984
https://twitter.com/basmahxmde/status/1078321607519686656
https://twitter.com/alexojovel/status/1078369877373661184
Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5.
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last.
*New Instagram updates*
everyone: https://t.co/OiinUERwEa
— Complex (@Complex) December 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/quintabrunson/status/1078325772572598274
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.
Everyone: we hate the new Instagram update
Instagram: pic.twitter.com/5crPlrNlOl
— Jeyson Paez (@jeysonpaez) December 27, 2018
You know how in apocalypse movies where a part of the population starts freaking out because they’re infected by something unfamiliar and start rampaging? I felt like I was in one when I woke up to people losing their minds over the Instagram update. I’ve already locked my doors.
— Eugene Lee Yang (@EugeneLeeYang) December 27, 2018
Unupdate might not be a word, but it is absolutely a state of mind.
https://twitter.com/SkyleighTweedy/status/1078319207895330816
https://twitter.com/localsatanicboy/status/1078327617143652352
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 Metropolitan Museum of Art (@metmuseum) December 27, 2018
When Instagram releases an update and within 15 minutes everybody hates it #InstagramUpdate pic.twitter.com/2l0wBZwU78
— Meg Warpus (@megwarpus) December 27, 2018
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.
— Instagram (@instagram) 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.
