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by kelnos 108 days ago
> I'm trying to make Instagram be what my parents said Facebook was.

Hell, you're trying to make Instagram be what Instagram used to be. Back in the early (pre-Meta) days, it was just a reverse-chronological feed of the posts from people you followed.

A decent part of why I bailed on Instagram back in 2019 or so was because it had stopped being this for a while (posts reordered, some not even shown, so many ads).
2 comments
hbn 108 days ago
You can still get a chronological feed if you tap the Instagram logo at the top and click "Following"

But you can't turn that mode on as a default, and it essentially kicks you from the normal app hierarchy into a separate barebones screen. I find it's all for naught anyway because my friends have long since stopped making regular posts on Instagram, it's more common to use stories.

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CincinnatiMan 108 days ago
Do Stories show up differently than posts? Asking as someone that has not used Instagram beyond looking at a few specific profiles.
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hbn 107 days ago
Stories are the purpley-yellow rings at the top of the main page with people's profile pictures. Or if you go to their profile you'll see the ring around their profile picture. Stuff you post there stays viewable for 24 hours.

Posts are the stuff that appears in the main feed and your profile permanently (unless you remove it manually)

You can also get into the difference between posts are reels but... they've kinda fuzzied that over the years.

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zadikian 108 days ago
Didn't know about this and wow, I had missed stuff from real friends because the regular feed hid it.
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kelnos 108 days ago
Right, you used to be able to do that with Facebook, too (haven't been on there in forever, don't know the current state), but, right, it would reset to the usual slop after a little while.

This sort of garbage is just yet another reason why I don't want to be on these platforms. "Oh, you prefer it this way? No, fuck you, we know better as to what you want."

> my friends have long since stopped making regular posts on Instagram, it's more common to use stories.

Ugh. I don't know what my friends have been doing these days on Instagram, but the last thing I want to spend my day doing is watching short-form video clips posted by my friends. The photo stream (yes, with occasional short videos), was wonderful.

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eSandwich8 108 days ago
Facebook still supports a chronological feed as well: https://www.facebook.com/help/218728138156311?locale=en_US

Heading to the home page, opening the menu, and tapping "See More" reveals a "Feeds" option. Tapping the "Feeds" option then reveals the chronological feed.

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coldtrait 108 days ago
In my case, Instagram eventually got to a point where most of my friends and family stopped posting. And I started following more creators because their content was interesting. These days there are some a few people I follow who are friends and I mostly just send them dumb reels. I see it more as a platform to consume content than keeping up with updates.

That said, I go through cycles of removing the app and reinstalling it later because it gets addictive.

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