You know that tab you always accidentally scroll left to when you’re on the notification page on Instagram? The one that lets you lurk on what the people you follow are doing throughout the app? Well, the platform revealed recently that it would be getting rid of that cursed page, and they did it fairly quickly. So, gone are the days when you would accidentally discover your coworker is into some really freaky stuff or that your cousin has an unhealthy relationship with The Sims and/or Disney. But for anyone that has ever caught their (hopefully now) ex cheating via the likes that show up on the follow tab, godspeed.
Instagram made the announcement just recently, but users are already reporting that the tab has been removed from their version of the app without even updating the platform. The follow tab—which lets be real, no one ever really used it with the idea that they were getting anything good out of it—let users connect with the people they follow by being able to see what content those people liked, followed, and interacted with throughout Instagram. Features like the follow tab are intended to connect people via their shared likes and interests, but since the explore page is also designed to do that, but better, the follow tab was just plain—uh, creepy.
instagram got rid of the tab where u can see what people you follow are liking and honestly i’m disappointed bc I never got to fight with my boyfriend for liking an ass pic at 3 am. mostly bc I do not have a boyfriend, but
— ellie schnitt (@holy_schnitt) October 7, 2019
While Instagram created the follow tab with good intentions, it ended up being a source of surprise for many users that were not even aware it existed. For many, who operate on Instagram under the assumption that their activity is private to most, finding out that the content they frequently liked, followed, and commented on was shocking, leaving many feeling exposed. For those that did know about it, the tab served little purpose beyond helping users check in on the day to day interactions that their peers made on the app.
Privacy Is Becoming More Important For Instagram And Facebook.
With a couple of nasty years of bad publicity underway, Instagram and Facebook are working on making the app feel more private and secure for their users. The complicated nature of the Following tab got in the way of that, so the logical decision was to get rid of it. The company brought the tab on in 2011, before the Explore page was implemented into the app to serve the same purpose, but better. Today the explore page helps users connect with new content that an algorithm thinks they may be into. For users that interact mainly with makeup tutorials, for example, the explore page will be rife with suggestions and posts from hungry makeup artists wanting to gain more interaction.
