I see ads on Instagram all the time. Just scrolling through two days of my feed (but it's hard to tell, because it's not chronological anymore), I see some ads from therealcost, xbox, lovepop cards, kelloggs frosted flakes, m&m's chocolate, some music festival, instagram itself, and six posts from accounts I don't follow, as part of its new 'Recommended for You' (aka garbage I don't care to see) sections. Perhaps I fit their demographics, so I get more of them.

That's strange, I get a sponsored content like every 5 to 6 pictures. It's annoying to the point that it's about to be the last straw for me.

While there are talented photographers on Instagram, the app is really poor as a way to appreciate photography (can't zoom, no iPad app to better view content) and it's also poor as a community, favouring instead over-consumption and poor engagement (low quality comments, if any).

Then there are the shenanigans that game user engagement, like delaying likes to force people to check the app more often or nagging me to enable notifications every single time I open the app.

It has become little more than an ad-delivery platform.

I'm a teacher in Asia. My students complain mightily about the sudden deluge of ads. They experience it as being much worse than Facebook.

I used to see them, but recently they have all vanished. No idea why. Maybe I was too low engagement.

The addition of stories does make it feel busier though. I'm enjoying my time on it much less than I used to. Even after muting stories from people whose stories I wasn't interested in watching.