People are moving their personal lives back to “dark social” aka private channels, away from ads and algorithms Average IG users see feeds as being for entertainment not for personal life. IG/Snap stories are now the primary form of public posting because they’re more private, less affected by algorithms, less curated and less performative (which is for creators), more spontaneous, more authentic feeling. Plus you can see who watches which acts as a social interaction. Theres also an aspect that IG became competitive and when the wealthiest hottest people in the world curate the perfect feeds, the only way to win becomes to not play Social media for personal life is now back private chats with people you know or communities you like. IG group chats, text chats, Snapchat, discords This is a reasonable reaction to algorithmic internet, AI sloppification of content and dead internet theory, and will likely continue to accelerate as a trend. Social media will become increasingly gated and fragmented because feeds are controlled by algorithms and the creators who cater to them and are thereby shaped by them