Long Gone are the Days of Catching Instagram Cheaters

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IG has removed the “following” function from the activity window in the app, so now all your shady likes and follows will remain secret.

Remember the insanity that was Snapchat’s 3 best friends function? You know, the thing that totally outed you to all of your friends, broadcasting exactly who you had been snapping filtered selfies to? The function was eventually removed over criticism that it made private information too public, and the privacy-driven social media baby was born. Instagram has recently taken a hint from the ongoing pressure to make user diagnostics more private from their respective followers and has removed the “following” function in the activity panel.

Image credit: Tech Crunch

Personally, I think this function was only ever there in the first place to stir up ~drama~. No one is ever just “genuinely curious” as to what photos their friends or partners are liking, who they’ve recently followed, or who has recently followed them. Nobody ever just scrolled through that window mindlessly the way you might on your own timeline… oh no, if you were on this page you were in full-on FBI level investigation mode, looking for dirty laundry, proof to lock in suspicions, or evidence for future arguments. It was truly the pot-stirrer of social media, or Gretchen Wiener’s big hair: full of secrets.

But who does this removal really serve? Does it help all of us in keeping our little secrets more private, or is it an obstruction of justice to allow cheaters and backstabbers to continue their diabolical ways with less chance of getting caught? Who knows. If anything, it just supports the “ignorance is bliss” mentality and serves as a memo that sometimes it’s ok to not know everything.

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