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UPDATED: Why Everyone Is Freaking The Eff Out About Instagram’s Changes

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Times are a-changin. Wearing denim on denim is in again, letting your roots show is cool, and the source of our social media validation might just alter the world as we know it. In case you haven’t been on Instagram in the last few days (lol, and miss the chance to make an eggcellent Easter pun? Nah.) then you might have missed the flurry of people asking you to turn on notifications.

At first, you didn’t think anything of it. Maybe you were drunk. Maybe you were too lazy to click those three little dots. Whatever it was, you figured it didn’t matter and went about editing the shit out of your brunch pictures. But as more and more people posted pictures begging you to turn on notifications, the more you realized that things are getting serious. Some were funny, some were awkward, but they all said the same thing: turn on notifications, OR ELSE.

So what, exactly, is happening, and why are people freaking out? According to Mirror, Instagram is making a big change to its algorithm, and starting on March 29, we all have reason to be pretty damn scared.

Rumor has it that starting tomorrow, Instagram will be a lot less like Instagram and a lot more like our moms’ preference of social media, Facebook. Instead of a timeline filled with pictures in chronological order, the app will decide “what you’re most interested in seeing.” So small business owners and basic bitches alike are sort of losing their shit. And for good reason. Because starting tomorrow? Your likes to follower ratio might change a hell of a lot.

So how do you get people to still see your pictures? You could resort to some sort of try-hard call out to turn on notifications (click the three little dots and turn that ish on), or you can start changing your IG game. Gone are the days of just smiling while holding a wine glass bringing in the double taps. Now you need to make sure you have “captivating” content instead of just selfies, have tons of great lighting and clear photos (goodbye, drunken photos), and *gasp* use hashtags.

As always, people took to Twitter to complain, because some things never change.

Ah well. We had a good run, Instagram, but it looks like you’re officially becoming the new Facebook. Guess we have to make room for moms posting generic, outdating videos and Uncles uploading *almost* racists memes. #RIP

UPDATE 3/28/16 2:00 p.m.


According to an inside source, these changes aren’t expected to be happening tomorrow.

“This is not being implemented tomorrow,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement provided to Re/code. “We still have weeks, or even months, of testing to go. Currently the test groups are very small. When we roll it out broadly, we will definitely let the community know.”

They went on to emphasize that they aren’t taking anything away from your feed, just reorganizing it. Still, considering that IG is owned by Facebook, I have a feeling that people will still be pissed, whenever these changes unfold.

So there you have it. Quickly go delete that “turn on notifications” post you shamelessly uploaded, and enjoy the double tap life while you still can. Who knows when Instagram will change our world, but for now? Post those pictures of pizza and rake in the likes. It looks like we’ll be free to post dumb shit for yet another day. Thank God.

[via Mirror]

Image via sShutterstock

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Rachel Varina

(yeahokaywhat) Aspiring to be the next Tina Fey, Rachel spends her free time doing nothing to reach that goal. While judging people based on how they use "they're" vs. "there" on social media, she likes eating buffalo chicken dip, watching other people's Netflix, and wearing sweatpants way more than is socially acceptable.

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