Read on to find out how to make your experience on Instagram more relevant to you.
1. Clean Up Your “Following” List
If you’re on Instagram, chaces are that you are already following some of your favorite accounts. You might also be saving content you want to view later, or view again. But how often do you go through the list of who you follow and delete profiles that you no longer find interesting?
If a profile was interesting to you a year ago, it doesn’t mean that it will stay interesting. Its content could have changed, or the topics someone is posting may no longer be relevant. If you are seeing content that is boring or annoying you, you have a few options: unfollow, report, or hide it from your feed.
Similarly, in the same way you can unfollow, you can also “Add to favorites” the types of content you want to save.
2. View Posts Chronologically
You may have thought that what Instagram shows you is already in chronological order, however, this is not always so. There is an easy way to make sure that what you see is up-to-date and in chronological order. All you have to do is tap the Instagram logo on the left-hand side and select Following.
Instagram will then only show you posts from accounts you are following, and they will be chronological. If you want to optimize your feed further, instead of selecting Following, select Favorites and you will only see posts from the accounts that you have made favorite.
3. Use the “Hide” Option
Everything you see on Instagram will give you an option to “Hide” it. Whether that be advertisements or posts from the people you follow, you can hide what you see if it is no longer interesting to you. Hiding just means that you’re muting someone and not necessarily unfollowing them. If you hide someone’s story, however, you will still see their posts.
If you are concerned that you are wasting your time on Instagram, you might want to consider hiding content that makes you procrastinate as well. Instagram wants you to take a break from social media, by sending you a reminder to stop using the app every few minutes.
If you are a parent or guardian and you are worried about how much time your teen is spending on social media, you can also activate the parental supervision setting on Instagram.
4. Block People and Content
If your Instagram feed is filled with things that don’t make you feel good, you can block the content. If you’re seeing content that distresses or offends you, you can report the content. You can also block people who are sending you unwanted messages. If you block someone, they will not be able to interact with you, and they also won’t be able to mention your name or tag you in posts.
If you want to go an extra step, you can make your Instagram account private instead of public. If you do this, you will get notified when someone has requested to follow you and be able to decide if you want to allow it or not.
5. Take Control of the Ads You See
If you keep seeing the same repetitive ads that don’t apply to you, you can also block, mute, or report them. When you react to something on Instagram, the algorithm will stop showing you that content, as well as content it considers irrelevant to you.
However, it is only an algorithm, so if you really want to control the advertisements you see on Instagram, you’ll need to go to your Settings and select Ad Topics. Here, you will be able to choose the sorts of ads you want to see.
Your Profile Is Your Experience
At the end of the day, you shouldn’t feel like every time you get on Instagram you’re being bombarded with posts you don’t want to see or advertisements that you don’t find interesting. With a few simple optimizations, you can improve your Instagram experience by personalizing your feed for relevant-only posts.
