Which page is really for you?

Instagram Reels:

Cameron McNeil

Social media platforms everywhere seem to have adopted TikTok’s quick scrolling video format over the years ever since it exploded in popularity.

One platform that I found translated it exceptionally well was Instagram with its Reels feature.

Instagram was likely one of the first social media plat- forms much of Gen Z began using with it having an easy posting method and simple user interface. It was initially promoted as a lot more of an “in touch” version of Facebook and continued to be pretty popular with younger generations.

Adopting TikTok’s media form in their own way fits in perfectly with the platform, allowing people to share their media in the short form video while still having the original homepage to scroll through recent posts. Though this is meant to be about how TikTok videos directly compare to those of Reels, I believe it is important to note that rather than immediately throwing a video in your face when you open the app like TikTok, Reels are accessed only by clicking on the Reels tab on the navigation bar or clicking “Watch more Reels” if one appears on the homepage from a post.

It tones down the rush of the short form video and allows one to navigate to it first. It feels as though you’re more in control, in my opinion, and I believe it complements the elements that already existed within the app. TikTok, on the other hand, has a shop tab added alongside its video content which makes it almost feel as though a main goal of the TikToks is to just sell stuff to the user. Even if this is true for Reels, it feels better to have a “home/posts” tab as opposed to a “shop” one.

One thing I would like to touch on is the content filter that Reels is lacking in a bit. There was a period of time earlier this year February where after an update to the content filter, an excessive amount of violent shock content slipped through invading everyone’s Reels for a day. This, of course, is pretty bad. I don’t believe that content of this kind should ever see the light of day especially when there is real harm coming to people in a rather traumatic fashion.

At the same time, I believe guidelines should not be as constricting and allow for more liberties on what people are allowed to post. There is a lot of hot water with what can and can’t slide on social media nowadays with the wild anarchy of X, formerly Twitter, and the more restricting Meta, formerly Facebook. I believe that Reels strikes right in the middle of these two while TikTok feels as though it drifts more into restrictive territory with a way of steering viewers away from more “raunchy” content.

This leads me to my final point of the sheer amount of different accounts that one can easily get lost in. In my experience, Reels eventually loops around to some similar videos as it allows the user to take the reigns in what reels they want to see while with TikTok, I personally often find myself in rabbit hole that just goes deeper and deeper until some of the content I’m finding is completely different from what I had initially opened the app to. This loops back to one of my first points where it feels like the user is less in control, in my opinion. I feel like I am constantly fighting with my algorithm to not try and show me some random video with twelve views to its name. I understand that this may be a way of helping smaller creators but there has to be a better method than just throwing it before me.

Reels and TikTok are very similar in nature but simple things like the formatted algorithm and user interface of the app are important things that I feel make or break one over the other. But who knows? Each app may serve everyone in different ways.

Graphic courtesy of Mylena Bovo.

TikTok:

Mason Cole

TikTok has long been the topic of great controversy: Risks to the mental health of children, potentially harmful content, to the most obvious and dominating issue of potential threats to national security arising from the app’s algorithms. However, what is lost on many of those who heavily criticize the app for all of the previously listed problems is one big positive–the immense growth in businesses of those who use and post on the app.

Many small businesses, restaurants especially, have had their business explode in popularity following something as simple as food reviews from those who set out and try to promote food spots they enjoy, such as Keith Lee and @ how_kev_eats.

One of the things many pointed to when TikTok was in the process of being banned in the United States was the devastating effect this would have on many local businesses, likely closing many of them.

Few realize the immensely positive effect TikTok’s existence, and the existence of influential users, have on thousands of small businesses across America.

Reels, on the other hand, was only ever created as Instagram’s opposition to TikTok. While TikTok is moderated rigorously every day, a lot of, let’s just say, unsavory content gets past Instagram’s moderation, or lack thereof, for Reels, including a lot of things that aren’t suitable for many audiences and a lot of things that you would be embarrassed to have pop up on your phone in public.

I always see the comment “Really, I am in public” when I am scrolling through Reels and see an unsavory video, and I couldn’t agree more. I always feel comfortable opening TikTok on my phone whilst I am, say, on a train, which is something I have never been able to say about Reels, and I don’t think I can say it any better than that.

There are obvious drawbacks in terms of the security issues that come with even having TikTok downloaded onto your phone, and this is where we have to tiptoe on the line without leaning too far into politics. Yes, TikTok is proven to have been stealing information from millions of Americans since the platform was launched.

Whether or not China is using that information maliciously is a topic for another article and another day. What is true and that isn’t brought up enough is the fact that many other platforms, including Facebook, which owns and operates Instagram and its Reels section, do the exact same thing, which has also been proven in past legal proceedings involving company head Mark Zuckerberg. I am not saying it makes it okay for TikTok, because it obviously isn’t, but I am saying it is hypocritical to be accusing TikTok of being the sole platform doing this.

The last aspect I wanted to bring up was the response when TikTok was banned for that short period of time back in January. Millions of users opted to download RedNote, another Chinese owned and operated social media platform, in protest to TikTok’s ban in the U.S. instead of migrating to Reels, which was done by a much smaller subset of users.

It shows that, in my opinion, the reputation of Reels as an unmoderated plethora of crude jokes and unsavory videos has resonated with millions of Americans, and they would rather go to a platform completely foreign to them in Red- Note than an app they likely already have downloaded in the first place.

The fact that even YouTube Shorts was considered a bet- ter option than Reels, despite being a subset of a platform created in much of the same way and for the same reasons, pretty much says all that needs to be said.