Should You Turn On Instagram Notifications For Your Favorite Accounts? There Will Be Some Big Changes

Instagram recently announced that it was going to change the way posts show up in your feed. They'll no longer appear chronologically, but rather in order of traffic. While this has been hinted at for a few weeks now, there are rumors that the change is happening tomorrow, which has caused more than a few Instagrammers to panic. Many are asking followers to turn on their notifications to keep up with the latest posts. But, regardless of the billions of asks you're probably seeing today, should you turn on Instagram notifications for the accounts you want to keep following?

But first, let's hear Instagram's reason for the change: “To improve your experience, your feed will soon be ordered to show the moments we believe you will care about the most.” The company also said "the order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post. As we begin, we’re focusing on optimizing the order—all the posts will still be there, just in a different order.”

What Instagram users are afraid of is that their posts will get buried and lost in your feed. If Instagram is using an algorithm to predict what you'll be interested in, what about the things that you just stumble upon, unpredictably, and love? This is what is striking fear into the hearts of longtime Instagram users.

So, what happens if you turn on notifications for a certain account? As a follower, you will be pinged every time something new gets added. It's hard to know exactly how this change will affect every account, but if you don't want to miss a post of a certain account, it may be best to change your settings. To do so, go to your accounts page and click on the icon at the top right corner of the screen, then select “turn on post notifications.”

If you go on Instagram today, you'll see a number of creative ways people are asking others to turn on notifications, from arrows, to fingers pointing, to the hashtag #turnmeon, to straight-up pleas. Instagram users are doing what they can to stay on top and keep from losing their hard-earned followers.

What's interesting about this whole thing is that it has not been confirmed that the change is in fact happening Tuesday. According to The Independent, there have been no announcements from Instagram signaling the change:

It could be that someone on Instagram has been tipped off about the change. [...] An Instagram spokesperson said that the roll out would be gradual, and that the company would share more information before it was launched more broadly.

This is a time of uncertainty for social media diehards, but, even so, don't feel pressured to give in to the panic! Perhaps it's wise to turn off Instagram all together today to save yourself the headache of the notifications onslaught. Be strong.