This Instagram tutorial was prompted by a friend of mine asking me if you can unfollow someone on their Instagram feed without unfollowing them. They were seeing a ton of updates from this person in their feed, but they didn’t want to unfollow them as there were inevitable consequences for doing something like this. So is there a solution?
Most of us are in the same or similar situation on one social network or the other. We become friends with someone and they become a productive poster that fills our timeline or feed. Otherwise, we love the person and don’t want to block or unfollow them as it will get noticed and then it turns into a drama that no one wants to deal with. So how can we manage such situations?
It looks like Instagram uses an algorithm that eventually mutes someone if you don’t interact with them for a while. No one knows exactly how or how effectively it works, so you can’t count on him to help you here. If you turn off notifications for the person and don’t interact with them in any way, you should see less of it over time, at least in theory.
If you’re creating a new Instagram account, the best thing to do is to make it private so you can manually control who follows you. If you have an existing account or the person you want to block is fine at first, you will need to try one of the following.
Stop seeing someone on your Instagram feed
You might stop seeing someone on your Instagram feed, but that takes some effort. If you don’t want to block them, you’ll have to manually mute their stories in your feed each time they come in. It’s not ideal but it’s the only way I know of to stop their stories.
- Choose one of the stories you want to get rid of your Instagram feed.
- Tap and hold the picture until a menu appears.
- Select ‘Mute USERNAME’s story’.
This will just remove that individual story and you will have to repeat this for each story that comes up. It’s far from ideal but other than using a third party app, it’s the only way I know of to control things.
Block someone from seeing your stories on Instagram feed
If you don’t want to encourage the person to include you in their Instagram life story, you can choose not to have your own stories appear in their Instagram feed.
- Go to the person’s profile and select the three-dot menu icon.
- Select Hide Your Story.
- Confirm if necessary.
This should stop your story from appearing in that person’s feed. Like muting the stories above, you need to do this for every story you post on the network.
Blocking or unfollowing case
Somehow, social media is so ingrained in our psyche that not being followed is considered as serious as telling a true friend you never want to see him again. This might actually be a best friend, but it can also be someone in the middle of the country you’ve never met and probably never will.
Social media is not real life. It’s an imaginary life where everyone is desperately trying to make themselves look cool and convince their followers that their life is much more interesting than it actually is.
While it has undoubtedly changed the way we live for the better, it has also distorted the way we view relationships and the world around us. Instead of valuing our true friends, we count followers or retweets. Instead of spending time with people who mean something to us, we sit quietly next to them in a coffee shop, staring at our phones in our own little world. How is this a good way to maintain a relationship?
I would say that collecting social media followers is a good thing. As long as you are as selective in your social network as you can be in real life, it will benefit you greatly. You’ll have more time for those who care, more energy to interact meaningfully with the people you choose, and be able to use social media with the same kind of freedom it was originally intended to provide.
Distribute yourself too thin and you don’t have enough value to give to what matters. Be selective about who you befriend on social media and in real life, and you’ll have more time and energy for the people most likely to enrich your life.
I closed all my social media accounts and I feel so much better for it. Have you tried this? would you try? Tell us about your experience below!
