I only visit on mobile. I thought the middle film thing icon was to take your own photos/videos - because that’s what the center icon did on the YouTube app; the last time I had the app installed. Never occurred to me it’s a feed. O_o
Instagram as it exists today is a streamlined dopamine injection engine.
Variable rewards, instantaneous short-form tailored content, fear of missing out. It's carefully built for continuous user engagement.
They're bad Tiktok clones. Which in this case is a good thing - their inferior algorithms make the result less addicting.