Every few weeks, it feels like there’s some new feature on social media that no one asked for. This past year, especially, every app seems to be fighting for more of our time, more of our attention and more of our mental space. It’s all starting to feel more and more repetitive.
Take Instagram Threads, for example. When it came out two years ago, it was supposed to be this new, relaxed way to have conversations, but it just feels like Twitter’s twin with a different outfit on. Nobody needed it. Nobody asked for it. It’s not adding anything new to how we connect; it’s just another place to scroll, post and forget what you were doing before you opened it. I thought everybody felt this way, but over the past few weeks, I’ve seen more and more of my friends and mutuals begin to use the app.
Then there’s Instagram’s newest update, where you can see what photos and reels the people you follow are liking. I’ll admit, at first I thought it was fun. It felt like a little insight into what my friends were watching or finding funny. But if you take a step back, it’s kind of overbearing and borderline creepy. It’s another way to get sucked in, to waste time looking at things that don’t really matter and to compare yourself to people without even realizing it. It feeds a constant need to check what everyone else is doing instead of living your own life.
Even the repost feature on Instagram feels off. I like being able to repost on TikTok because it’s easy and fun, but Instagram has always been different. Seeing random reposts on my feed just makes it feel cluttered, like the app is turning into something else. One minute, the app is trying to be TikTok, then it wants to be Twitter, then Pinterest. It’s exhausting. Snapchat did the same thing. The “My AI” feature no one wanted is still sitting at the top of the chat list, a strange AI chatbot just lurking like an uninvited guest you can’t kick out. TikTok keeps adding new shopping features and tabs that take over the “For You” page, making it harder to even see the content you actually followed people for.
It’s all so clearly about pulling you deeper into the app and making it harder to leave. Social media used to be about staying connected. It was a low-effort way to keep up with people’s lives, see what your friends were doing and share a moment here or there. Now it feels like the apps are trying to turn every scroll into a transaction. Your time for their engagement and for their money. Every new update feels less about connection and more about control and profit. It’s weird to think about how natural this all feels now. We accept every new feature without even realizing how much it changes our habits. I’ve caught myself opening Instagram just to scroll through reels, or clicking through the app when I’m bored and then realizing I don’t even know what I was looking for. The apps are trying to train us to be constantly distracted.
If you’ve been feeling burned out by it all, you’re not alone. Taking a step back helps. I started setting screen time limits and actually sticking to them. I turn off notifications for most apps, especially Instagram. Sometimes I delete it for a week or two when it starts to feel too loud. I’ve also started leaving my phone face-down while studying or hanging out with people so I’m not tempted to check it every few minutes.
It’s not about quitting completely, but about remembering that social media is supposed to fit into your life, not take over it. The best feature any of these apps could add at this point is one that reminds us to log off.
