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Comment by deergomoo | Hacker News Reader

I used to have a really nice, tailored experience on Instagram. All I saw was genuinely good photography and art that I was interested in.

Since Reels launched, my feed and the search screen is basically just softcore porn. Not sure what I’ve done to get the algorithm all hot and heavy—perhaps just being an 18-35 male is enough—but it’s rather embarrassing to the point where I don’t always feel comfortable opening the app in public anymore.

The annoying thing is, there doesn’t seem to be any way to say “stop showing me stuff like this” for Reels without actually opening them. In fact I’d disable it entirely if I could, I’m not interested in a shitty TikTok clone.

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There’s a “sensitive content control” option in account settings. Set to “limit even more” and this type of content will actually stop showing. My search screen is just airplanes and Turkish construction videos now.

Thanks for the tip which I will try. I agree with the OP and parent, IG used to be an enjoyable experience if you were careful about who you follow, but it seems that it's now in the process of being destroyed by bad ideas borrowed from FB.

My explore page used to be hit-and-miss, but generally somewhat relevent. Over the last few days it has been filled with revolting photos of fake-tanned idiots. No amount of attempting to swat then with "Not Interested" seems to work.

Agreed, Google also added YouTube shorts and those are similarly overfit to whatever is the most “engaging” content for some broad demographic, so since I work out I just get nonstop videos of ripped 18-24 year old women doing squats to show off their butts - and I’m not into any of it but they’ve already decided that’s what I want to see, forever.

There was some stat I saw a while ago that Gen Z doesn't visit free porn sites, finding themselves sated by regular social media. I wondered why. Now I see!

> Since Reels launched, my feed and the search screen is basically just softcore porn.

I had this problem with Reels too - I think you're right that it's just kind of "what we show dudes by default." But under the three-dots menu there's a "Not interested" option. Tell the algo that a couple times and you won't see that stuff anymore.

This is my exact problem with it. I only follow comic book artists, friends, and local businesses. Yet my reels are full of semi nude women gyrating to music. I don't want that there.

It defaults to that, but there's a few things it'll still show you instead if you force it - rabbit accounts is one. Maybe because they all follow each other.

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