Not very often do I agree with what the Kardashians/Jenners support, but when they shared a post about the Make Instagram Instagram Again movement I couldn’t help but side with them.
Since TikTok took over, social media as we know it completely changed, favoring video content over still imagery. Instagram has become more about reels and suggested posts than posting photos and interacting with the people you choose to follow, but why, when so many people want the old Insta back?!
It's no secret that recently I've been on a bit of an Instagram hate spree. The platform I once loved has changed so much that it's barely recognizable and some of its latest updates have done nothing to improve the site. But five days ago, photographer Tati Brueining who goes by the Instagram name @illumitati started a petition to “make Instagram Instagram again”.
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She asked Instagram to “stop trying to be TikTok, I just want want to see cute photos of my friends.” and ended the request with, “sincerely everyone”. Since then more than 2 million people have liked the post and over 200,000 people have commented on it – mostly agreeing with the sentiment.
The latest Instagram updates have sparked controversy with its users, from changing the post layout to making reels appear more on your news feed to showing you suggested posts you don’t care about, a lot of things about Instagram have changed since it first launched back in 2010.
In those days, it was a picture-sharing platform through and through. All the images were square and the filters were tacky but there was something beautiful in its simplicity.
For two of Instagram’s biggest stars to show their support for the movement really shows that Instagram is not moving in the right direction. In 2018, Kylie Jenner tweeted about changes to Snapchat and in the same week, the company lost a whopping $1.3 billion. Whether Instagram wants to or not, it would be wise to listen to two of the people with the biggest following – a combined total of 687 million.
sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me... ugh this is so sad.February 21, 2018
One of the main reasons people want Instagram to revert to its old ways is so that a chronological feed is the default and photos take priority over videos again. As things stand, we are seeing more and more video content and fewer posts from people we actually follow in favor of reels and suggested content the algorithm thinks you want to see.
So far, more than 187,000 people have signed the petition and if it reaches 200,000 it will be one of change.org's most signed petitions. While I’m not sure that really says much about humankind, it does show that people have had enough with the photo-sharing platform that penalizes people who use it just to share photos.
For those people who use Instagram as a platform for their business, seeing it revert to its old ways could help increase engagement. For many people, engagement has dropped considerably since the introduction of reels and suggested posts but support from the likes of Kylie Jenner could bring about real change to the platform.
It’s no secret that I’m not Instagram’s biggest advocate of late (although that doesn’t stop me aimlessly scrolling on it several times a day) but I’d love to see more content from the people who follow. I don’t want to be made invisible just because I don’t have time to make reels and I certainly don’t want to be seeing more videos on my feed than photos. I know everything has to change and adapt, but Instagram is and should still be a photo-sharing platform so I am very much siding with the Make Instagram Instagram again movement.
