A new setting allows you to view your Instagram feed in chronological order / Meta. On Wednesday, Meta Platforms Inc. released a tool th...
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| A new setting allows you to view your Instagram feed in chronological order / Meta. |
The setting will be available to all Instagram iOS and Android users. If you’ve recently updated your Instagram app, the option is available automatically. If you don’t see it, try downloading an app update. The change comes as Instagram, TikTok and other social-media companies face increased scrutiny around algorithms and their ability to keep people, specifically kids, glued to their feeds and show them harmful content.
At a Senate hearing in December, Instagram head Adam Mosseri was asked if he believed kids should be able to use the Instagram app without “being manipulated by algorithms that are designed to keep them hooked.” Mr. Mosseri replied, “We believe in more transparency and accountability,” adding that a chronological feed was in the works.
Well, the feature has come, and I’ve been testing it out. Is it progress in our fight to gain some control of our social-media feeds? Absolutely. Is it enough? Absolutely not.
How the Tool Works
In the upper left corner of the app, next to the Instagram logo, you’ll now see the tiny inverted caret. Tap that area and you can toggle between two new feeds—Following and Favorites.
When I asked how the company expected people to notice the little caret, an Instagram spokeswoman said there will be in-app banners and alerts to inform people.
Here’s what each feed shows you:
- Home: This is the usual algorithmic feed, where Instagram reorders your photos and videos based on what it thinks you’ll most want to see and interact with.
- Following: This is a chronological feed of all the accounts you follow, with latest posts at the top. When I switched to this, I felt like my Instagram life had slowed down. Instead of seeing the array of content Instagram inserted at the top of the feed with every visit, I only saw what was newly posted. Even checking multiple times a day, it only amounted to a few new posts. (It’s easy to understand how this setting might prevent us from getting so hooked.)
- Favorites: This shows you a feed of just the people you deem as your favorites. You can add up to 50 of your very closest friends to this list.
How the Tool Should Work
If you’re like me and have long wanted a way to just see things in chronological order, you’ll like the Following feed. Except there’s no way to set your feed permanently to this view. When you manually close the app then reopen it, it will dump you back into the Home feed.
Plus, those little Stories circles across the top of the app aren’t visible when you’re in the Following or Favorites feed. So if you’d like to watch those, you’ll have to go back to the algorithmic Home feed. Also note, the order that those little Stories circles appear in are still dictated by an algorithm.
So, yes, it’s now an option to view a version of your Instagram feed that isn’t messed with by Meta’s computers, but there’s no way to stick to it. Instagram will keep forcing you back to the algorithmic feed. This isn’t a surprise: Meta’s other social network, Facebook, has worked this way for a while.
“Our research shows that people prefer a ranked feed on Instagram, so that will remain the default experience,” the Instagram spokeswoman said. That “ranked” feed will, over time, suggest more content from people you don’t follow but are related to your interests, a company spokeswoman confirmed.
How the Tool Might Evolve
Twitter has long given people a choice of feeds. Recently, it tried to promote its algorithmic feed alongside its chronological feed, but it backed down after pushback. TikTok only serves content via algorithms.
Making social-media companies responsible for these powerful algorithms—and more transparent about how they work—is the purpose of proposed legislation. “I’m glad there is some acknowledgment that the algorithm is problematic, but this is not enough,” said Rep. Tom Malinowski (D., N.J.), who introduced the Protecting Americans From Dangerous Algorithms Act.
He added that the new Instagram setting will likely be ignored by people who are unaware of the concerns around an algorithmic feed. He also said the real solution is changing the algorithm itself “so that it is not primarily based on maximizing user engagement and time spent on the platform.”
Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.), who introduced the Filter Bubble Transparency Act, said that while Instagram’s change is a positive step, more needs to be done to protect consumers and create an industrywide standard.