It’s not just you —posting on Instagram feels different now

Lazarus Mkrtchyan
6 min readJan 21, 2024

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How Instagram got ruined, and why TikTok might be next

Image generated with Bing AI.

When did you last post on your Instagram feed? Unless you are an influencer, a brand social media manager, or a memes page admin, chances are it has been a while.

Have you recently posted a Story only to feel weird about it and delete it after an hour? You are not alone. Recently, more people have been speaking up about how weird the IG experience has become.

Every now and then Instagram’s Adam Mosseri tries to convince everyone that the app experience is not the problem, users just prefer to share differently these days. That’s partially true — data shows that users are moving to the DMs and group chats. But the underlying cause of this is the product direction IG chose, prioritizing revenue over User Experience.

Here is a quick analysis of how Instagram went from being everyone’s favourite fun app to an anxiety-inducing experience, and how TikTok might be headed in the same direction.

The social media business

First, let’s acknowledge that most social media platforms are for-profit businesses. They have a goal of driving revenue., and advertising has always been the main business model for that.

As smartphones with great cameras and high speed connection became more accessible over the past decade, photos and videos started dominating the Internet. Compared to text, these are harder to monetize through advertising as they occupy more real estate on your phone screen.

Let’s say a platform shows an ad after every fourth post in your feed. Here is how many ads different types of feeds would be able to show within the same scroll area.

It’s easy to see why this is a challenge for social media apps. They have had to find new ways to show users more ads to generate revenue.

Instagram’s early days

Instagram became a viral sensation in 2010, with over a million users signing up for the platform within the first two months of release.

The smartphone-only app was created for sharing “instant” shots showing the “right here, right now” of everyday life.

Within two years the app had 27 million users. At that point Facebook (now Meta) ended up acquiring Instagram for $1 billion.

In 2013 Facebook brought its advertising business to Instagram, boosting company’s YoY revenue growth metrics thanks to the additional new ad inventory.

But by mid-2014 those growth numbers started to drop. In the same year, Snapchat launched its Stories and Chats and gained instant popularity among teenagers in the US.

Meta Platforms Revenue 2010–2023 | META | MacroTrends

The turning point

Instagram’s product team had to come up with solutions to deal with the increased competition and to drive more ad revenue. As a result, there were two big platform changes in 2016:

  • Stories: The featured cloned from Snapchat would motivate users to post more frequently and see more posts from friends, and open up additional ad inventory on the platform.
  • Algorithmic feed: Instagram removed the chronological feed from the app. The algorithmic feed created FOMO, making users scroll longer to find their friends’ posts and, consequently, see more ads. IG faced massive user backlash due to this change but eventually brought back the chronological timeline in 2022 under pressure from lawmakers.

The negative user impact

These solutions were effective for growing company’s ad revenue and dealing with increased competition, but largely ignored app’s User Experience and the impact on their well-being.

Instagram has always been catching up with competition instead of focusing on innovation and positive user experience.

The algorithm designed around engagement metrics popularized the polished and curated content from influencers.

The authentic “right here, right now” posts from regular users started getting lost in the feed and generate less engagement. Users started feeling like they had to become or look like influencers to be relevant on the app. With this came body image issues, insecurities and pressure to look perfect on the app.

The moral damage didn’t stop there: Meta has been through countless scandals related to the spread of political conspiracy theories and child sexual abuse material on the platform. There is enough evidence to say that Meta has always been aware of these issues and has chosen to ignore them to protect the ad business.

Then there was TikTok

When TikTok blew up at the hight of the pandemic in 2020, users fled to the app for a breath of fresh air. Fed up with the vanity of Instagram, they found the TikTok experience to be more authentic, relatable and fun.

Unsurprisingly, Instagram tried to copy the short-form video format with Reels.

Reels flopped, TikTok continued growing, so Instagram tried to completely redesign the feed to become more like it. Perhaps IG’s product managers didn’t consider the fact that maybe the format wasn’t the issue, it was the authenticity factor that made TikTok superior to Instagram..

Users hated the new feed design, and it took petitions and backlash from the Kardashians for IG to roll back the update.

Since then, the feed has looked relatively the same, except now there appear to be ten times more suggested posts and ads, making it mostly overwhelming to use.

What’s next?

While users are moving to the DMs, Instagram doesn’t want them to — there are no ads in that section of the app, and adding them would make users switch to competitors like Snapchat (which has recently been experiencing incredible growth again).

So IG will definitely have to experiment and see what other monetization opportunities will stick around. Flipside, the new feature adding a finsta side to your profile, might be a good direction for motivating users to post more personal content on the app. But unless algorithm starts prioritizing Flipside posts, the feature won’t change much.

There is also the pivot towards long-form content, which I think will be another direction shift that will hurt the app more than it will help.

With the upcoming cookie depreciation hurting data tracking and ad performance, the company will likely try to grow alternative revenue sources, such as subscription models and in-app checkouts, from which it can receive commissions.

I think, the only way Instagram can be successful again if they make effort to put Social in Social Media again.

TikTok should learn from IG’s mistakes

TikTok is pivoting towards long-form content, which has the potential to ruin the authentic vibe of the app.

Long-form means more polished, well-edited content shot with professional cameras. That's exactly the opposite of what TikTok is currently loved for — short, authentic content anyone can make.

This shift has the potential to ruin the User Experience on the app, and unless it’s thought through and carefully executed, TikTok is risking becoming the next victim of corporate greed.

Final thoughts

Personally, I have deleted my Instagram account and have been enjoying its absence. In retrospect, the app was adding more frustration than value to my life, and its absence has only helped me use my time in better ways, like chatting and facetiming with friends and family to catch up.

This hasn’t been too hard as more of my friends are making the same change and no longer relying on the over-stimulating Instagram experience to see what others are up to.

Unless IG starts listening to user feedback and builds the app features around it, the app will continue losing relevancy, especially as decentralized social media gains more popularity.

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Lazarus Mkrtchyan
Lazarus Mkrtchyan

Written by Lazarus Mkrtchyan

Innovation-focused digital marketer passionate about tech, software and user experience

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