Instagrammers Really Want You To Turn On Notifications To Avoid Death By Algorithm

Instagram today is an endless sea of meaningless posts asking you to turn on post notifications for each account you follow. Brands and professional Instagrammers are worried that they are going to disappear from your Instagram feed once the company turns on its algorithmic feed.

We’ve been here before. When Vine or YouTube switched to an algorithmic feed, brands, YouTubers and Viners all wanted you to switch on notifications. The same happened when Facebook became more selective with Pages posts.

And yet, let’s be honest, this is getting ridiculous. People are posting things like this:

Are you exhausted? I sure am. But let’s try to sympathize with these users and understand what’s actually happening.

Like most feed-based networks, Instagram is starting to feel like a crowded place. People now follow hundreds of accounts and receive dozens of new photos per hour. Good posts are getting lost in the middle of not-so-good posts.

As user experience suffers, people are less inclined to use Instagram. And that’s why Instagram has a solution. Soon (but not tomorrow), Instagram’s magical robots will put the best photos at the top of your feed. If posts don’t perform well, Instagram won’t show those posts to all followers.

Instagram might even show posts out of order. In other words, Instagram is going to become more like Facebook, and less like Twitter.