Well, folks, it’s the end of an era. You know how you’d stalk people on Instagram? And I don’t just mean going years back through their posts. I’m talking about the good ol’ “following” tab, where you could see what people you follow were liking. Yeah, you’d better get your one last stalk of your boyfriend’s sketchy IG activity in, because Buzzfeed reports that the following activity tab is going away. But how will I know if my boyfriend is following thirst traps?!
Buzzfeed claims that now that the following tab is going away, ” it’s likely few people will notice it’s gone.” And let me just say, I have a feeling that statement could not be further from the truth! Vishal Shah, Instagram’s head of product, told BuzzFeed News that not a lot of people used the following tab or even knew it existed. Well then, clearly most Instagram users are way too trusting of people. The following tab is the best! How else would we see which celebrities were shadily liking their ex’s pictures?
Instagram cites simplicity as the reason behind the change, and while that’s certainly accurate, I for one am sad that Instagram is going to be a lot messier. On the upside, I’m sure this change will save a lot of relationships and spare couples from having the same “why are you liking that girl’s bikini pic” fight over and over again. So, is this better for society in the long run? Probably. But does that inherently make it a good thing…?
With Instagram removing the following tab, us stalkers are going to have to get way more creative with our methods. Personally, I’m a big fan of dissecting someone’s tagged photos—everybody always forgets about the tagged photos. Now all we have to stalk people are Venmo transactions! They better not take that away from us, too, or else I’ll have to… what? Trust people? Take them at their word? No. That’s crazy talk.
