The algorithmic timeline is going to ruin Insta

Kiss goodbye to seeing your old high school ‘friends’ all the time

Nothing quite defines being young in 2016 like our ability to login to Instagram around 1am, find, at the top of our feed, a post from someone we haven’t interacted with since High School, and continue to waste the next half an hour stalking their feed. But due to recent updates, it seems this type of late-night Instagram binge will be coming to an end.

Much like Twitter and Facebook, Instagram has most recently taken the pledge to change its style to an algorithmic timeline rather than chronological. On March 15th, Instagram released a statement saying that its new feed “will now be ordered to show the moments [Instagram] believe[s] you will care about the most.” On average, Instagram claims, users miss approximately “70 per cent” of their feeds. Revamping usage with an algorithmic timeline, Instagram claims, will help you see the posts you don’t want to miss from friends, family, favorite bands, etc. 

Yet, dedicated Instagram users have already taken to Twitter and the app’s review pages to express their discontent. Users have expressed concerns that this update will simply turn Instagram into a “popularity contest,” putting in danger smaller accounts from ever getting views. Others worry that what Instagram deems as view-worthy may not be what they are on the app looking for. 

Recently, images like the one below, have been circulating users’ Instagram pages, asking fans to turn on “Post Notifications.” By doing so, fans of specific Instagram pages will be sure never to miss the latest post.


Whatever the changes may be, Instagram promises to “listen to your feedback along the way,” and not release the change until the “coming months.” It’s safe to say that for now, we can still enjoy finding pictures of our long lost high school friends at the top of our feed and scrolling down further until we find Kylie Jenner’s latest selfie (unless of course, you’ve turned on her post notifications).

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