For years, Instagram has been my primary social media platform. The ability to share photos and videos with people around the world is an amazing thing. Sometimes I think humans forget how absolutely amazing technology can be, everything from vaccinating against diseases that used to claim tens of millions of lives to the ability to communicate with anyone, anywhere, instantly.

Unfortunately, I think I need to abandon the platform.

My experience with Instagram has been degrading for years, but it took a pretty severe turn about two weeks ago. For a while now, most users have had it drilled into them that Meta, which bought Instagram in 2012, does not care about what they want so much as driving more engagement and increasing ad revenue. When they removed the default timeline and replaced it with a curated feed–which is definitely not something I desired–it became clear they wanted to be in the driver’s seat instead of you, the user.

Then came more ads, suggested posts, suggested accounts, and the removal of the Explore feature as a primary tab, replaced by Reels. It seems like a solid third of what I am even shown are influencer accounts that feel less like real humans than curated attempts at driving yet more engagement. It's infuriating that the fundamental goal of Instagram is to make us socialize less with our friends.

Now, I know Meta has spent tens of billions on the metaverse, which has not produced much in the way of results. They are now spending hundreds of billions on data centers to try to cash in on the AI boom, which I think will inevitably end with a serious bubble popping. With such gigantic expenditures and no profit from any of them, Meta needs to squeeze every last drop of profit out of the products that actually generate revenue. This is why most people in America under the age of 50 have abandoned Facebook. The once-great platform is no longer for us, but for Meta’s balance sheet.

Back to two weeks ago. According to Reddit, it seems a small subset of users gets a version of Instagram that is even worse than normal. I logged into my account last night, and the very first post in my feed was an ad. Instead of seeing my friends’ stories at the top of the screen, I saw three suggested profiles. I had to scroll down past even more suggested profiles and another suggested post just to find the accounts I actually wanted to see. When I continued down the default feed even further, literally every other post was an ad. I wish I were using hyperbole, but I am absolutely not.

No matter how many times I tell it to hide suggested posts for 30 days, they continue to show up. I can hide ads and mark them as irrelevant or say I have seen too many, yet I continue to see them repeatedly. The feed refreshes on its own, so if I go to look at the comments on a friend’s post (if I can even find it), when I come back, the other posts from my friends have disappeared. It feels like a lesson in torture. Why am I swearing at an app while trying to catch up on my friends’ lives?

This does not even take into account how aggressively the platform pulls you in, how easily you slip into constant scrolling with almost no effort. Or the fact that it seems to suppress certain types of political content or criticism of the current administration.

Suffice it to say, when you have to fight a platform this damn hard just to do the most basic things, it is no longer serving you. It is time to leave. Which, after how stressful March has been, feels like just losing yet another thing you used to love.