Social media can be a beautiful thing. You can use it to express your thoughts and expand your creativity. Or you can just have fun with your friends and stay in touch with your extended family. But things can get a little tricky when you need to figure out who sees which post.
For example, when you post a review on your Instagram stories, you don’t always want everyone to see it. Often times, it’s best to limit access to certain friends or that loyal follower. But how do you limit who can see your Instagram stories and posts?
Public and Private Account
Social media can often be toxic and difficult to handle. There is so much negativity on the internet, and it’s perfectly reasonable to want to protect yourself from it. It is especially important when it comes to cyberbullying and protecting young people online. That’s why it’s good to be familiar with all the tools that can help you organize what you share online.
If your Instagram account is public, you can try going private. By just making this change, you are drastically reducing the number of people who can see your posts and stories. You can manage a private account more easily. With a public account, your posts are visible to anyone on Instagram. And a lot of people prefer it that way. Public accounts get more likes and shares. But not everyone is looking for it.
Use Close Friends Feature
Instagram Stories are extremely popular. There is more spontaneity about them, as opposed to posts with photos and captions underneath. Also, it’s convenient and easy. However, if you have a large number of followers or a public Instagram account, you may want to keep certain stories open to a limited number of people. That’s why the “Close Friends” feature for Instagram Stories is a great tool.
Choose as many people as you want for your Close Friends list before creating your next Instagram Story. All you have to do is:
- Open your Instagram app.
- Tap the person icon in the lower right corner of the screen.
- Tap the menu button (three parallel horizontal lines).
- Tap “Close Friends” and then you will see the list of suggestions.
- Add as many friends as you want. You can even use the search bar to find someone.
- Tap “Done” after you finish creating your Close Friends list.
Voila, you’re done. The lucky collective will enjoy and react to your Instagram Stories. When you’re ready to post a Story, just make the photo or video and when done tap on the “Close Friends” icon represented by a green circle with a white star in the middle.
If you are worried that this list is permanent. Don’t be – you can change it at any time. Also, there are no notifications for those who do or do not make it on the list. However, those on the list will know they are on the list because they see a green ring around your profile picture.
Hide Your Story
On the other hand, perhaps the issue is not just who can see your stories, but who should not. Generally if you want to share your Instagram Story with all your followers, save one or two, you can hide them from them. All it takes is a few simple steps.
- Open your Instagram app.
- Go to settings”.
- Tap “Privacy”. Then “Story”.
- Select the people you want to hide your stories from.
- Tap “Done” when you’re done making the list.
But remember, hiding your Instagram Story from someone is not the same as blocking them. They will still be able to see your profile page and posts.
What about the texts?
The situation is a little more complicated when it comes to the photos and videos you share on Instagram. Instagram doesn’t have a feature that lets you set who can and can’t see everything you post. It’s more of an “all or nothing” situation. If your account is public, changing it to private will help. But it doesn’t prevent certain people from seeing posts.
Instead of doing something hasty like deleting posts you don’t want someone to see, you can archive them. This way they stay on your Instagram profile, but no one sees them. This comes in handy for very old posts that you don’t want to delete, but you don’t want everyone browsing anymore. To do this you need to:
- Open the Instagram post you want to archive.
- Tap the menu button in the upper right corner.
- Select “Archive” from the list of options.
Whenever you want to get it back, go to your Profile and select the Archive button in the upper right corner of the screen. You will be able to see all archived posts there. If you’ve changed your mind and want to post again, all you have to do is tap “Show on Profile”. You don’t even need to rewrite the title or add all the hashtags you made before. All will come back with the article.
Make Instagram What It Should Be
Not only is it reasonable, but it is highly recommended that you do your best to make Instagram a happy place for yourself. You are the designer of your Instagram experience. No, you cannot control everything. But you can do quite a lot. You can create your own little Instagram community or even go much further. Whatever the case, it’s ultimately about what’s best for you.
What do you think about limiting who can see your stories and posts on Instagram? Let us know in the comments section below.
