Instagram discovery people's discover pages

I’ve often talked about how people don’t post on Instagram anymore. It’s a sad departure from the days of candid photos with horrible filters, but it’s the world we live in nonetheless.

For many Instagram has been relegated to a tool for creators or a place to post and consume stories. This isn’t bad, but it’s a departure from the original product intent.

As I was thumbing through my own Discover page I remembered a conversation I had with a friend who used to work at Instagram. They’d constantly be using the product, which meant they were sharing their screens all the time. Sharing your Discover page is a vulnerable act, as there could be some weird or even incriminating stuff on there.

This got me thinking… what if we leaned into this and made it possible to explore Discover pages as a way to find new profiles? The interesting thing to note here is that it does nothing to signal if the account is worth following. However, it would make for a good way to discover new content.

I think a lot of people would feel like this is an invasion of privacy, but if it was opt-in ,this could be a cool feature.

Have a friend who’s discover page you’d pay to see? Send them this newsletter.

https://sorens.beehiiv.com/