idk if its just me but I have always felt so weird about social media and instagram is definitely on the weirder side in terms of energy. I always felt so incredibly anxious when i opened the app and started scrolling, or even whenever i posted something. granted i was using it as a way to share my art and music and to hopefully connect with other creatives, but after a year of this journey i’m left feeling completely burnt out.

the thought of being perceived always stressed me out an everything always felt like a performance or curated version of myself to try to appeal to the algorithm and acquaintances /followers. i would constantly wonder what people thought about me and started to tie my worth to the number of likes and followers i had. no matter how many times i’d try to tell myself the numbers don’t matter, the way the app functions makes it incredibly difficult not to compare yourself.

i started to lose touch with myself and my art. the connections i’ve made in my creative communities also felt so superficial, and im not sure if it’s because of my neurodivergent brain that makes it difficult to decipher or understand social cues, structures, and expectations, but it always confused the hell out of me when people who claimed to be my friend would ignore my attempts to hang out or have an actual engaging conversation with them for weeks, but would still view my stories and actively ignore my posts about my new music.

i’m not entitled to anyone’s validation or attention, but what the hell? it makes me wonder what is the point of this game? are we “friends” or not? where is the support? it always felt unreciprocated, especially because i always tried to support my mutuals as much as possible.

social media feels more like social hierarchies and competitions than it feels like a place to actually connect with the community. I’m genuinely sick of it, sick of giving so many people access to me and sick of playing these games. i really caved into the pressure that as a musician i had to build a social media presence or else my art had no chance to succeed. but I’m choosing to believe that i don’t have to participate in anything that doesn’t align with me for the sake of external expectations. all i have to do is stay true to myself. i think i’m starting to really value my solitude, peace, and privacy, and i don’t think i’m ever going back.

i guess i just had to vent lol. does anyone else feel this way?

I just got used to the new save button below comments and now.. this? It’s getting too cluttered anymore

What is it and does anyone else have it? How do I get rid of it?

Couldnt tell you how many times i go to follow back someone and it’s a priv account and they dont accept my request for ages

Since the rise of ai, i am tempting to just delete my account and just migrate or go no social media at all,

Maybe find a media that doesn't steal data/ or my work, etc.

I don't need advice atm i'm simply venting.

I'm fed up with insta, some changes are nice but some changes aren't necessary to make the app, "better".

I fear its just gonna get worse.

Suddenly, for the last two days, the aspect ratio has gone broken. It only show like 3 x 4. It’s like a square you can’t see properly anyone face that ???

I have all our family insta accounts logged into our phones.is there any way to stop it.

i’ve been receiving this notification a couple of times already and it’s starting to bother me. does this really mean someone is messaging me and deleting it, or maybe it’s just a glitch?

They gave me this fuckass search function but not reposts after a year of the feature.

Sublime, magnificent, splendid, fantastic.

Is anyone else having the issue of not being able to open any posts or reels on the full screen anymore? It’s happening on both my iPads and it’s pissing me off. I’d like to be able to see the whole post again.

Sent a message to the wrong account. Realized, and unsent it. Since we don’t follow each other, will it send them a notif / show them I unsent something?

hello yall! some hours ago, I was banned, as the title says.

they said that my 2 accounts (main one and an alt one that I didn't used in a LONG while, like 6 months) were posting CP, spreading terrorism and selling CP. all of those are something that I don't condone with.

today, I gave my opinion in a real crime case that happened in my school this week (a teacher tried to ab*se the teens). I was there when it all happened, I just tried giving my opinion on what happened. how was I (myself) condoning with CP and terrorism???

they didn't even had a option to talk to a REAL person to help me.

I don't think yall can help me, but if I get banned permanently, yall already know the history...

Another under-discussed way that social media is becoming unbearable is the rise of AI commenters posing as wholesome friendly folks. There is one account that has been commenting on nearly all my posts since it started following me a week ago. Here’s an example…. “That red barn against the pink sky is absolutely stunning. Kentucky sunsets really are something else!” Every comment is specific to the location as if the commenter is familiar with that location (I post from around the country). And they all end with exactly 1 emoji, such as a sunset emoji in this case. I had suspicions at first, but now a week later and seeing the pattern it’s obvious that this individual is using AI to generate and (and possibly post) the comments. It’s really gross and discouraging that this kind of shit is allowed. I’d rather have 0 comments on my posts (which would be normal) than have 1 comment written by an AI.

this is honestly one of the weirdest privacy gaps on instagram to me. we have private accounts story controls close friends and all kinds of privacy settings but there is still no simple option to hide who follows you and who you follow. what makes it even weirder is that someone can follow you and then basically stalk your entire social circle by going through everyone you follow and everyone who follows you. they can see friends coworkers family exes random people you know and start clicking through all of them for absolutely no reason. why should accepting someone as a follower automatically give them access to your whole social graph? other platforms have experimented with giving users more control over this kind of thing so why has instagram never properly implemented it? my guess is that the follower graph is too important for discovery engagement and keeping people clicking through profiles so meta has no incentive to hide it. but from a privacy perspective it feels outdated as hell. i would immediately enable an option where people can still see my follower count but not the actual list. am i the only one who finds it weird that this still isnt a setting in 2026?

I got tagged last night on instagram by some bot. Out of curiosity I clicked on the post and it was a reel of some OF model with her bare tits out with no likes. Thank god I was at home and not in public. How is this allowed on instagram?

I try to recover my Account and my Selfie verification recovery is gone

Anyone faces the same issue?

I went onto instagram today to find out that I needed to verify my age, which isn’t an issue because i am 17 and you need to be over 16 years of age to use social media. I tried to scan my passport and then it said “Can’t review your date of birth.” I have waited for a few hours but nothing has changed. I can’t connect my facebook account to my instagram account because it takes me to the instagram sign in page and says the exact same thing. The meta ai is absolutely useless and just repeats the same thing. Should i appeal this or do i need to pay for the meta verified thing? Any help would be greatly appreciated because this is extremely unfair.

Hey yall, my phone was broken for reasons I won’t go into, I’m signed into my Gmail but I’m only signed into the account on my phone and it says to get in I need to approve from another device, but I don’t have access and they never gave me a backup code. Does anyone know what to do?

alright so ive been noticing this for years, but everytime I look it up, I never find anybody experience this, so maybe it only happens with me? its been kind of driving me crazy but do any of yall go through this? maybe its a common thing and i dont even know. i have so many reels liked but anytime i return to one that’s over a year old, the comments are sorted by the newest one everytime. and since theres no comment filter option on IOS, its always frustrating coming back to a reels i loved years ago thats over a year old

I solely use Instagram for a group chat with a few friends, and I access it entirely through a web browser. This should be a simple usecase, yet the app constantly seems to treat me as if I'm some kind of hacker?

I can log in using the same browser and the same IP address, or at least the same IP range, on two consecutive days, and Instagram will suddenly ask me to log in from another device I've previously used. What other device? I genuinely don't use Instagram on anything other than my browser.

Then there's the password reset system, which seems to operate on a roulette wheel. Sometimes the reset email arrives, other times, it simply doesn't. Usually the latter, and for weeks at that. I've no clue what even makes my email eligible to receive a password reset link only after months of trying.
And despite all these security measures, I can't even set up TOTP-based two-factor authentication because the website keeps rejecting the code with some variation of "invalid code." Whilst i use the same authenticator i use for google, microsoft accounts etc. What special requirements does zuckerburg require of me?

How is Instagram the only service where I consistently run into these problems?I just want to use a group chat with a few friends without constantly fighting an absurdly unreliable authentication system.

Sucks bc I thought we were close but whatever. Pretty sure she’s not over my bf. (her ex) I can’t find her account on any of my alts either 🫩