Lifestyle | Why Instagram's Algorithm Hinders Human Connection

Hello Lovelies! Today I'm going back to basics. I've grabbed a pen, a Starbucks (obviously) and a seat by the window so I can perch and people watch. Since starting a second social media role (I now run the social media for two brands), social media has been constantly on my mind, especially and this will be no surprise, Instagram's notorious algorithm.

For me personally this month has been terrible for Instagram. It's the first month in a long long while that I have failed to grow my account by 100 followers, and my likes are plummeting. Obviously likes and follows aren't everything but let's be real it's a big part of the platform, and most people do care. There's that rush when you get more likes, and more followers, and that crushing feeling when a photo does badly, you're losing followers and you're kind of starting to believe everyone secretly hates you...

But that's not the only reason that I find Instagram's algorithm disheartening. A couple of days ago I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw a post from a blogger I must have followed for years now. It mentioned her mum who had passed away recently, and I was really shocked because I had no idea. I clicked on to her profile and saw a whole load of photos that I'd never seen, including a post about her mum passing away from about a month ago that had never appeared on my feed. 

For a lot of us this is a very familiar feeling, albeit often we've only missed trivial things like a lovely shot of coffee or a nice trip to a museum. Instagram claims that its algorithm shows you the posts that you want to see, but this just doesn't make sense if you don't see posts from everyone you've followed. Instagram in many ways is a barrier between building up more connections on Instagram. It encourages you to stick with the same familiar faces rather than branch out into new communities because if you don't make the effort to see someone's posts, you may never see them.

Adding to that, Instagram's algorithm only seems to encourage things to become more artificial. Nowadays most bloggers and creatives shy away from posting instantly, in favour of the prime times for Instagram. Growing has also become incredibly hard, and thus bots, buying followers and even buying likes have become much more prevalent. The standard is becoming much higher, with photos becoming more staged, perfect and pretty and the pressure to create those lovely photos is honestly a little bit overwhelming. The reality is that the whole platform is becoming a lot less human - but isn't it the human side of it that makes it so amazing? 

So what I will say Instagram, (not that they're listening) is that I dream of one day when I can open my feed again, scroll through and everything will be chronological. I'll drink my morning coffee and see Becky's on my feed, and I'll eat my lunch and see everybody else's too. That's not too much to ask is it? 

Thanks for reading lovelies! Have a great Sunday!

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