It's been confirmed that Instagram will be featuring the ability to buy and mine an NFT soon, in Meta's further attempt to stifle innovation and force crypto-currency to unsuspecting users.
According to Engadget , the head of Meta, Mark Zuckerburg, confirmed during a talk at SXSW that the company was looking into features that would enable you to mine NFTs on Instagram, completely missing the point of what the social platform is for.
While I could fill this article with nothing but the word 'Why' repeated across four paragraphs, I wanted to express my distaste of NFTs (Non-Fungible Token) and how they have no place on social media platforms.
We've already seen bizarre decisions from Twitter in previous weeks, and it looks as though Meta is also drinking the same water if it thinks that NFTs are a good idea for Instagram. We're so early in this technology, here's why I think that it shouldn't be considered as a feature for at least five years, giving tokens the time to mature to a point that they can help, rather than hinder.
Non-fungible sense
If you've seen the term NFT be bandied around, they are non-fungible tokens that take an image that will have a unique code of numbers attached to it. This code will be exclusive to you, and this means that you'll be able to sell or trade that unique code as you wish.
This is what Meta is planning for Instagram, as a way of extending the shopping experience that you can already do on the app. But already it feels lazy.
At the event, Zuckerberg spoke of Instagram and NFTs but wasn't prepared to give a date of when the feature would land. "I'm not ready to kind of announce exactly what that's going to be today," Zuckerberg clarified. "But over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in, hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment.”
The environment is an ironic word to use here, due to the fact that mining NFTs have already proven to be a detriment to the electrical grid that we use every day.
According to Investopedia , minting one NFT is the equivalent of using the same amount of electricity as an average American household for around nine days. We've already seen the pushback from so many users to companies that have been advertising NFTs for their brands and products, only to quickly roll back their commitment. Team17 was an unfortunate example of this in the gaming industry, and already we're seeing a dip in NFT popularity amongst mainstream users.
But deciding to attach NFT to Instagram feels half-baked already. Just because it's a social platform that deals in photos, automatically means that NFTs are a natural fit for Instagram.
But these tokens are already expanding to other avenues. Seeing the term 'play to earn' with NFT has been making me uncomfortable. I've started to see it on ads in between YouTube videos I'd watch at the weekend, and instantly go to the 'report ad' button.
Looking beyond the behemoth 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 so many people, but not once have you played a level of Banjo Kazooie and thought, 'Maybe Gruntilda can pay for my phone bill this month through an NFT?'
The same applies to social media apps. During the early days of MSN Messenger, MySpace and Bebo, you would keep in touch with friends and family, perhaps even carrying on any conversations you've had with them from earlier that day.
Having NFTs in social media apps is a distraction and gets away from why you use these platforms in the first place. Let's also consider the users who only reach for Instagram and other apps occasionally, and who wouldn't be interested in NFTs at all. It feels pointless and unnecessary in the long term, not just for users, but for Meta as well.
But for me, NFTs are bad for everyone in 2022. There may be a time where the fourth or fifth generation of this technology will be a benefit. Perhaps these next- next-next-generation of NFTs toward the end of the decade will also help the environment instead of damage it.
But as it stands, they're a wasteful use of time and resources. In an era where Meta is trying to save face while enduring a multitude of controversies, from Cambridge Analytica to dealing with hate speech across its platforms of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, perhaps the company should focus on those issues first, rather than trying to chase an innovation that's already looking like a fool's errand.
This new cheap Samsung phone is the Galaxy S21 FE I was asking for all along
It’s no secret that I wasn’t keen on the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE - this ‘affordable take’ on the Galaxy S21 was a lesser phone than its big sibling in most ways, not least that it wasn’t even really cheaper - as my review explores.
However there is clearly some mileage in the idea of a cheaper alternative to Samsung’s flagship line, and the company has just launched a way more tempting handset that’s essentially the S21 FE we wanted all along. Or, given that the S22 line is already out, we could consider it an S22 FE.
This is the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G (priced at £399 / AU$699), which was announced at a medium-sized launch event alongside a lower-spec Galaxy A33 5G (£329 / AU$599). Those are the next entries in Samsung’s mid-range and low-cost Galaxy A family, and the A53 in particular is important, as the A52 is one of the company’s best-selling smartphones.
What is the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G?
Samsung’s newest Galaxy A phone seems to have two big selling points, considering that it’s a very affordable handset.
The first is the display - it’s a 120Hz 6.5-inch AMOLED panel broken up by a small ‘punch-hole’ for the front camera. In true Samsung style it’s bright and bold and should be great for people who like to stream video on the go.
The next is the camera app - while the 64MP main, 12MP ultrawide and dual 5MP depth and macro cameras won't exactly see the device going toe-to-toe with an S22 member, the price shouldn’t have given you that expectation anyway.
But Samsung’s camera app offers you modes like built-in social media filters, tools to easily capture great pictures of people, food or pets, and ways to easily upload them to social media.
So in a way, the Galaxy A53 presents a typical S22 experience, but stripped back to offer just the core features that’ll impress a select market of users.
But isn’t that the point of the S21 FE?
That’s exactly what the S21 FE was meant to do. It was meant to take the S21 experience, and strip it back to make it more accessible and affordable. It failed, as its price was too high and the features probably weren’t stripped back enough.
But the A53 5G hits all the important beats. Two of the draws of Samsung phones are their displays and camera apps, and the A53 does a good job of both of those things.
Sure, you’re missing out on some premium features - there’s no wireless charging, the camera sensors aren’t exactly cutting-edge, and the processor is pretty weak.
But at roughly half the price of the S22, the A53 is a super tempting alternative that has a lot more in common with our visions of the perfect Fan Edition phone, than the latest device actually touting that name.
Learning points for the S22 FE
We can see the arguments for the A53 being too far removed from the S-series experience to be a valuable replacement. But then we’d point out that the A5X line is just the middling entry in Samsung’s A family.
There are also A7X and A9X phones with better specs, and the third-gen entries in these lines haven’t been unveiled yet.
So perhaps instead of Samsung putting out a Galaxy A93, it could simply nix that top-end A-series range, and put out that device as the Galaxy S22 FE. It could sit well under the S22, but above the A73, bringing great camera and display hardware to a device with a mid-range processor and design.
We can dream, but the Galaxy S21 FE didn’t seem too popular compared to the Galaxy S20 FE , so Samsung hopefully is looking at what went wrong and ways to fix it for the S22 FE. So let’s see what happens in the next year or so.
How to watch Woke season 2 online: stream the Hulu comedy where you are
Lamorne Morris returns as comic book artist Keef, who’s encouraged – largely by animated marker pens and gregarious garbage cans – to use his public profile to hasten social change and racial justice. Read on as we explain how to watch Woke season 2 online with a subscription to Hulu.
The series premiere saw Keef – a fictional version of the comic book artist Keith Knight – on the brink of mainstream success up until a police assault left him traumatised, “awokening” him to the many injustices and microaggressions faced by Black people.
This season, Keef finds himself thrust into the limelight when he begins to produce more radical work, becoming the spokesperson for all his neighbor’s ills – from endangered tree frogs to daylight savings time – while cringing at corporate attempts to be woke, including the appropriation of a famous civil rights speech to advertise free Wi-Fi!
Addressing important topics with surreal comedy and socially relevant wit, you can catch all eight new episodes now, as detailed in our guide below on how to watch Woke season 2 online.
How to watch Woke on Hulu in the US
How to watch Woke season 2 online in Canada
