At the mercy of social media [Video]

The not-so-subtle superpower of a web page is that it can basically do whatever it wants when you request it. In other words, social media is irritating by design.

Credit: K_E_N / Shutterstock

I like Instagram as much as the next guy. I check in daily on my carefully curated feed of folks I follow and then work hard not to doomscroll the day away.

One of my favorite follows is an adorable Corgi (aren’t they all adorable?) named Parsnip. Every day Parsnip, whose owner is a friend of mine, has a mini-adventure that is described by a haiku. And every single day, to see that haiku, I have to click the dreaded “See more…” link.

Every. Single. Day. To see a mere 17 syllables.

Without fail, Instagram takes it upon itself to hide the last 10 syllables or so behind a link. The reasons for this are mysterious to me. I never don’t want to “see more”. I always want …