Instagram Pet Peeves

Last month I wrote a post about my Twitter pet peeves (you can catch up here if you’ve not read it yet). It seemed to be a really popular post and loads of you were in agreement (luckily, else I could have been banished from Twitter forever!! #overexaggeration.)

A few people mentioned that there were loads of irritating things about Instagram as well, so I thought I’d do a post about that!So here are some of my Insta pet peeves!

The unrelated hashtags – You know the ones, they have absolutely nothing to do with the pic at all. I’ve seen loads recently where people have taken pics of food in restaurants or photos of their pets and then popped #zoella into the middle of their hashtag bundle. WHY? She’s probably never going to be your best friend, let it go! Equally, if I want to browse for something specific like a recipe, why are there suddenly girls in bikinis on the beach? I want food, not boobs; keep it bloody relevant people!

The emoji comments – I honestly don’t get why people leave them. Is it really that much more difficult to write three or four words than to click the same emoji four times in a row? (Usually the stars or the hands up emoji – I mean what does that even mean??) I can only guess some people do it because they want you to comment back on their pics or go and follow them. But why would I bother? I’m much more likely to engage with someone if they’ve left me a lovely comment.

You win some, you lose some – You’ve just checked your notifications and you’ve gained 2 followers (yay) in the last 4 hours so you go and check your total followers and it’s dropped by about 20!! How, what, why??

Like a comment – This new feature is really starting to piss me off. I’m suddenly getting loads of notifications popping up all over the place and I’m like “woooo, lots of engagement” but no, someone’s just liking the comment I left them πŸ™ I mean, it’s nice they’re taking the time to acknowledge I’ve commented, but no. Just no. *Update* I’ve now found out you can turn this off, YAY!!

Your thoughtful caption is being ignored – You’re pouring your heart out about something personal to you and it’s obvious that people haven’t bothered to read the caption under your pic because they’re all just commenting with things “fab pic” or “love this”. I wish people would take the time to read the captions a bit more.

When you helpfully tag brands – Or you’ve added helpful hashtags like #Primark or #HM onto your pic and people are still asking where you got something from! It’s right there in the bottom left corner of the pic – a little tag icon. If you click on it, it shows you all the brands. Stop being lazy!

The new multiple pics feature – Dear Instagram, please stop adding new features until you’ve fixed the algorithm. Yours sincerely, everyone who uses Instagram!

What are your Instagram pet peeves? Let me know in the comments below πŸ™‚ x

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52 Comments

    1. Thank you, it’s just sad when you put a sad caption and people just write fab pic, it’s so obvious they didn’t bother reading it!! xx

  1. “Your thoughtful caption is being ignored” Oh god this!!!!! I put up a photo of my blood pressure monitor the other day and did a big caption about how I’m fed up with my bp being an ass and dropping loads atm etc and I got a comment saying ‘Beautiful design’ Errr yeah, thanks it’s errr a really beautiful ummm blood pressure monitor Β¬_Β¬

  2. Agree with a most of this. I am very new to Instagram so am still learning the social etiquette. I do like acknowledging people’s comments though, show I appreciate the engagement. Have followed you on Bloglovin and heading over to read your Twitter Pet Peeves next. x

    1. I’m not sure there is much social etiquette apart from acknowledging someone’s comment they’ve left you. I now don’t mind this option as I found out how to turn off the notifications πŸ˜€ Thank you lovely x

  3. I wish IG would fix the bloody algorithms but I do like the new multiple pics feature. I think it will come in handy for certain things, although I don’t use it often! I also like the whole liking people’s comment thing – so I might be the one annoying you there, haha! But on the whole, totally agree with this list – especially the unrelated hashtags and emoji comments!

  4. The unrelated hashtags are the worst!! Especially when you’re trying to look for something & it’s flooded with absolute everything and anything. Awful! Multiple pics and liking a comment are definitely something no one asked Instagram for. I sometimes wonder if they ever listen to feedback lol. As for the caption being ignored, that can be quite hurtful. I actually posted this lovely flatlay I took earlier that day but wrote how I was in so much pain because of the period cramps. Well, didn’t I get comments like “That’s so great” & “How lovely”. Hoping they were referring to the flatlay, not my-then condition, but still. Read the flippin’ caption!
    Thanks for this post, hon! πŸ™‚
    xox Nadia
    http://www.mielandmint.com

    1. I know, especially when it’s so unrelated to the hashtag. I’m not sure why I want to see puppies when I’m looking for makeup!!
      Yeah, that really sucks πŸ™ I really try to read the captions so I don’t write things like that xx

  5. i hate the repetitive staged pics and the same selfie but different mascara or whatever. what happened to the idea that instagram was logging life??

  6. I’m constantly having to report all the spam comments I get at the moment on there – I feel like instagram must be sick of hearing from me, but it’s driving me nuts! A girl I follow on instagram had posted about her last chemotherapy treatment and a spammer was the first comment on there… that infuriated me given the content of her post!

    1. I’m lucky that I’ve not had any yet, but if I do, I’ll definitely report them too!
      Oh no, that’s awful, poor girl! X

  7. I absolutely hate the algorithm. I would like to see photos of my followers as at when they post it, not when Instagram thinks its ok. The most annoying thing for me is 20 new followers, 30 unfollowers.

    Tomikaydoesbeauty.com

  8. You sum it up perfectly for me. Stop adding silly new features like a bloody image carousel … And fix the fundamentals! Spam seems so rife at the moment.

  9. THE MOST annoying thing for me is all the automated comments like the “great pic” you mentioned. it’s obviously bots and for some reason IG isn’t blocking this! spammers are getting out of control too with all the “follow me for 1000 likes” and IG is doing nilli. instead the only ones getting punished are legit bloggers putting effort in because the algorithm is just ugh.
    Sorry i needed to vent πŸ˜‰

    1. You vent away!! I’m quite lucky as I’ve not had the spammy comments about buying followers or getting loads of likes yet, but I’m sure I will!!

  10. I agree with literally all of this! Especially the caption thing 😫. I use Instagram as a sort of micro-blogging thing so my captions are usually telling a story much like a blog post and then someone comments “so good” on you pouring your heart out about how you’ve not slept in five days and your pinky dislocated writing the caption haha. Ugh people! Xx

    1. Agreed! I hate this so much. Also the “head to my blog to find out what I thought about this” caption with the “what did you think about it?” can drives me crazy lol xx

  11. My biggest pet peeve is overall just spammy people who don’t genuinely want to interact, which a lot of your points factor into this. As a blogger I want people to follow my account, like my pictures, and comment when they are genuinely interested in what I am posting so I can gauge what I’m posting to what my audience wants. Great post πŸ™‚

    1. Ah yeah. I love proper engagement from people who are actually interested in my pics! Glad you liked the post 😘😘

  12. Ahh, yes! There are quite few things that annoy the heck out of me. That gain, lose thing is just ridiculous and don’t even get me started about unrelated tags. So frustrating. Also, I really can’t stand that follow/unfollow crap that is going on now and increased number of ads on my timeline. Just no.

    -Leta | The Nerdy Me

  13. I have no idea what this like a comment function is? I don’t think I’ve seen it. Sounds like a good thing πŸ˜€

    Corinne x

    1. When people comment on your pics, you can press the heart next to it and it likes the comment. Maybe you have to update the app? x

  14. Yes to pretty much all of these!
    The whole algorithm is just plain annoying. If I don’t want to see someone’s photos I’ll unfollow them so just show me my feed in order!

    1. I’m glad it’s not just me!! I wish they’d actually listen to the people who use their app though, rather than just doing what they fancy to it!! x

  15. I hate the follower thing on instagram too, you think you’re gaining loads but the count never changes? Yet I love instagram stories better than snapchat ones! x

    – Eternalleigh.blogspot.com

    1. I can’t use Snapchat as it crashes my phone too much. I always forget to use Insta stories or to watch other people’s!! x

  16. The multiple pictures are a pain the butt, I don’t get it. I mean I GET it but it doesn’t add enough value for it to be worth it. It’s too much work to make 5 amazing pictures and the chances that people can be bothered to scroll side ways is minimal. Just not bloody worth it. And when you look at your feed it gets that little stupid corner on the multiples which really annoys me aha x

    1. I’ve just seen people taking the same pic but from a slightly different angle, which seems pointless. I could understand for an outfit of the day where you could do close ups on different parts of the outift, but otherwise, I don’t get it x

  17. The multiple pics thing is my latest peeve too. What’s the point in it? I don’t think anyone is going to scroll through them all.

  18. I love Instagram but I agree with a few of the points you raised here. I’m not a fan of the new multiple feature, and I’m not the biggest fan of liking comments though I do agree with Space of Beauty about being able to acknowledge someone’s comment with leaving a reply. I am guilty of leaving emoji comments sometimes lol…

    1. I forget to scroll through the rest if people have multiple pics, oops!
      I’m probably guilty of doing some of these myself at various points lol!

  19. I’ve made it my personal mission to report all spam accounts I find on Instagram. :p
    I love the platform, but the algorithm really sucks. I much prefer scrolling through my feed in a chronological manner.
    And yeah, I love engaging with people online! I’ve been bad at leaving comments on Instagram – I usually just ‘like’ – but I’m tryna do better.

    1. Ahh, good idea! I bet there are so many though! Yes, scrolling in time order seems logical, but Insta doesn’t seem to agree lol!!

  20. I must admit, I like the ‘like comment’ feature. I feel like it’s acknowledging the comment and person, when you might not have anything else to necessarily add.

    1. I know what you mean, but I get so annoyed with all the notifications about it lol … Maybe I should look to see if I can turn them off πŸ˜€ x

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