Instagram has turned into something of a battleground as of late. If you remember, earlier this month Instagram revealed plans to change how the feeds of users show posts, changing from chronological posts to an algorithm-based posts, like Facebook.
Naturally, the impending change caused quite an initial fallout among its users. Not only have they grown accustomed to having their posts be chronologically ordered, but in their minds it's just an easier set-up to follow.
Well now, the fallout continues. Convinced that these changes will take hold this week, Instagram influencers such as bloggers, brands, and minor celebrities have started to flood the social media network with posts telling users to "turn on notifications" out of fear that they would disappear once the algorithmic set-up becomes implemented.
In all fairness, they have a right to be afraid. Owners of various Instagram accounts have spent hours upon hours to build up their audience and a single change threatens to undo all of their work. Whereas chronological feeds allow users to see posts from those they follow based on the time they were posted, visibility on an algorithm-based feed depends on how well they form.
Not only does this mean near-certain death for smaller, more-niche brands and Instagrammers, but when coupled with the fact that brands and professionals are also unable to see how many people view their posts, they're unable to ascertain what needs fixing in their posts to increase visibility in the future.
Instagram argues that these changes came out of necessity as its more than 400 million monthly active users miss an average of 70 percent of the videos and pictures in their feeds. As such, the company wants users to "see the moments [they] care about first," instead of them getting lost in the length of a feed, forcing users to scroll through hours of posts that they might have missed while they were away.
More importantly however, Instagram argues that these changes won't be implemented within the week, as so many had expected. In fact, a tweet from a spokesperson indicates that no changes will be made in user's feeds for the time being and a notification will be sent out to all users when they do.
We're listening and we assure you nothing is changing with your feed right now. We promise to let you know when changes roll out broadly.
— Instagram (@instagram) March 28, 2016
This latest development does beg the question of whether it would be worth turning on notifications for Instagrammers that you follow. In some cases it does. For example, followers of niche accounts that normally don't have much outreach will benefit from utilizing notifications. On the other hand, using the feature with too many accounts will flood the user's feed, which can get really annoying, really quickly.
