Earlier this week, Instagram users growing increasingly frustrated with the app’s not-so-subtle attempts to mimic TikTok found a powerful ally in Kylie Jenner. The beauty influencer again shared a rallying cry to “Make Instagram Instagram Again”, an image that circulated on the platform along with an image. Change.org petition signed by nearly 200,000 people on Wednesday.
“Stop trying to be TikTok,” the image continues. “I just want to see cute pictures of my friends.”
The main complaint from many of these unfortunate users underscores a growing friction within old-fashioned social media sites about what their core purpose really is. Are they intimate places to connect with friends and family or discovery machines where users can scroll through endless entertaining videos of strangers?
Meta, the parent company of Instagram, which also owns Facebook, has specifically that it wants to be the latter, and in a way you can’t really blame it. Now that user growth has leveled off in mature markets like the United States and Europe, the company has taken a more aggressive TikTok-esque approach, pumping social feeds with more and more content from random people you don’t and probably don’t follow. t worry about. On Instagram, this content takes the form of the dreaded “Suggested Post,” slipping into your feed like an uninvited party guest as you innocently try to see what your old college friends are up to on their Barbados vacation.
Suggested posts have become so ubiquitous in recent months that some users have made it a habit document the mix from their Instagram feeds to Twitter – a way of showing how far the platform has strayed from its original mission.
Instagram is getting ridiculous
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Proposed post— Amal~ (@hammetallica) July 26, 2022
With TikTok now the dominant platform for younger users, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apparently has has made a decision About which direction he wants to go, it’s likely that even Kylie Jenner can’t stop Instagram’s ultimate transformation into a not-so-good version of TikTok. However, users are not completely powerless. The good news is that there are a few little things you can do right now to make Instagram a little more like the app you fell in love with.
1. Snooze suggested messages
If you’re annoyed by the increasing presence of suggested posts in your feed, here’s a ridiculously simple solution that you might not have known existed. (I admit I didn’t know about it until recently, but it has made life on Instagram so much more enjoyable.) X at the top of the message, then select “Snooze all suggested posts in the feed for 30 days.” Yes, it is that easy! So simple, in fact, that you have to wonder if this will become one of those features that quietly disappear without explanation. Maybe, but as long as it exists, enjoy it.
2. Select Favorites
Here’s another handy feature that makes Instagram feel more intimate. Earlier this year, Instagram announced a “Favorites” feature that allows you to select a handful of friends who will be prioritized in your feed. Just click the Instagram logo at the top left of the app, select Favorites and choose your list from your Instagram friends. You can choose up to 50 and change them whenever you want. Once you have your list, those users will get the highest billing when you scroll through Instagram. Now you can party with 50 besties like it’s 2013 again. And who among us doesn’t want that?
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