Exactly. The main feed doesn't hold any meaning for me now. I find I miss around 50% of my friend's posts and reels if I don't check their profile manually. I only use it for seeing and posting stories now. I'm sure stories would get similarly ad-clogged in 1-2 years as well.

Just to clarify, I'm fine with seeing some ads in between chronological posts. But the feed is entirely ads after 5-6 posts. Hoping some brave instagram PM reads this comment.

Don't you love going to Instagram and having it refuse to show you pictures without logging in? I sure do

It's almost impressive how much of Instagram is just ads. I keep it around to follow a few people, but it seems like more than half of what scrolls by is either ads or totally off-base account recommendations (Which are themselves, essentially ads)

Instagram is arguably fast becoming the 21st century version of the glossy fashion magazines my parent's generation often read to kill time, where every second page would be a full page advert for a perfume or a watch.

I disagree with everyone about Instagram on HN. Instagram is amazing to me. But, I also love Pinterest which most people here hate (may be because of search results spamming). Where else can you curate a feed of vintage airline tickets? Or vaporwave aesthetics?

Also, ads that I see on IG are always promoting small businesses and never scammy. Actually it is a source of discovery for me.

All friends that I have love IG, been using it since 2013 daily. Visual culture is far more interesting than crap on FB or ephemeral social toxicity on TikTok/Snapchat. My IG contacts/feed never discuesses politics or activism.

> Im considering

In poker they call this a bluff

I dumped facebook, linkedin, snapchat. I can dump another.

Agreed. They have really bumped up the advertising the last couple of years. Now every second or third story or post in my feed is an ad.