I've been a major Insta user since the beginning, with a few different accounts (I do photography on a few different topics, so I keep them separate to appeal to each niche). I would be on for a few hours a day, every day, chatting to people, sharing photos, etc.

I recently deleted all my accounts completely, because it just became so horrible to use. Timeline all over the place, overwhelming number of ads, impossible to use search anymore, Explore that just ignores what you like and shows you stuff they want you to see, etc etc.

They're just reinforcing the demise of the platform. Over 80% of the last followers I picked up were bots. At least I'm assuming anyone who followers 4800 people can't be human.

You can follow 100k people, it won't matter. You'll still see updates from about 20-30 people or so.

And I'm sure there is still room. In magazines like wired there's a full page ad every other page (last time I checked a few years back). 50% ads is probably where these plarforms are going.

Just as a point of reference, as a very infrequent Instagram user (Maybe once a week, often much less) I have yet to see a single ad. So it seems like they scale the amount of ads they show depending on how heavily you use the service.

I've also stopped using it. I just went there for the first time in months and counted the sponsored posts. They appear every 4, 5 or 6 posts. Are you sure you don't mistake sponsored post for real ones?

I'm also a very infrequent user. I just checked my feed very carefully, making sure each photo was from someone I was following, and it was over 50 posts before I saw an ad.

Are you on the mobile app or the website?

I get an ad every 3-4 posts on the app, but none on the site.

This was on the app.

Interesting - I'm jealous!

I no longer use the app, open the website in a browser with an ad blocker, and its is almost usable again.

Similar behavior on Snapchat. After viewing all the photos/videos from 1 to 3 friends, I see an ad, followed by more friend content, an ad, repeat.