Creatives on Instagram are angry about its move to video, specifically Reels, and complain Instagram's new changes hurt their engagement
The social media platform was once a favourite of artists and photographers, but a shift towards TikTok-type videos and shopping could leave them looking for a new home online Tweets: @martinsfp , @drpycaty , @antwtf , @juliangelart , @tyrannoraptoran , @lareinanegraa , @slightly_random , @assocphoto , @taaryn_b , @matiashannecke , @sygnin , @sambinding , @kemioliviax , @designby_gracie , @mattblackvinyl , and @carolyneaton Tweets: Martin Sfp Bryant / @martinsfp : Why Instagram's creatives are angry about its move to video. “A shift towards TikTok-type videos and shopping could leave them looking for a new home online.” https://www.theguardian.com/ ... @drpycaty : @juliangelart Instagram is the worst, especially with what they've done lately that killed half the comic artists. I mean yeah, we could say Twitter is worse with the drama, but at least it's not as bad as Instagram being full of thieves from all sorts of things like memes or art. @antwtf : instagram user interface is still so glitchy after over 10 years but they wanna worry about competing with TIKTOK. Juli_ana / @juliangelart : Ah yes being an artist on the internet is so cool so fun [image of her art being reposted on Instagram with 1.7M+ likes] Lancian Idolatry / @tyrannoraptoran : @LikesPterosaurs welcome to instagram, where repost accs have 50-250k followers and the actual makers of the art have 300 - 5k followers @lareinanegraa : No it's hilarious because Instagram is not great. 😬 Like the editing features are ass. Trying to post more than one object on Stories is annoying. Having to watch Reels in another tab is foolish and the algorithm is shit. Even my explore page gets meh after a few scrolls https://twitter.com/... Thom Binding / @slightly_random : My brother @sambinding in the @guardian talking out Instagram declining reach for photographers. Instagram seems to have forgotten its original community entirely. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... @assocphoto : No longer a place for ‘quiet, considered and consistent inspiration’. As Photographers and creatives, what are your views on Instagram's evolution and growing focus on video? #Photography https://ow.ly/... Taaryn / @taaryn_b : Had a lil rant at @ameliargh about instagram 😅 Tied in nicely with some writing I've been doing for my ebook. I always see artists get frustrated with the algorithm. But it doesn't serve us, it owes us nothing. The app is a business making money, it aims to keep ppl scrolling https://twitter.com/... Matias Hannecke / @matiashannecke : The image compression is so insanely bad. Everything is so pixelated. Video quality is the worst offender. Animation on IG is unwatchable. With all the influencer bullshit now- just no reason to be on there @sygnin : I just thought folks might like this article. And perhaps this pull quote - “There seems to be a mass exodus to Twitter now” https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Sam Binding / @sambinding : @CarolynEaton Yep I am definitely leaning more towards that. It's a great community on there, which is the main selling point for me, but it has become a lot more work than it used to be Kemi Alemoru / @kemioliviax : Instagram simply doesn't know who it is anymore https://twitter.com/... @designby_gracie : @katylcowan @ameliargh @taaryn_b Reading this after a drawing session. The whole time I had this guilty feeling of knowing I'd need to make a reel out of it. Sucks all the fun away ☹️ Matt / @mattblackvinyl : @katylcowan Such a depressing read. I could rant about it for hours. My work gets no traction on Insta or Twitter. I've noticed the emphasis on video/reels but also more selfies of (attractive) artists appearing more now too. It's utterly demoralising Carolyn Eaton / @carolyneaton : @sambinding Very interesting piece Sam. Insta is just too much work these days, I'm not willing to invest the time I used to.
Context & Ripple Effects
The backlash has been building for years. As early as December 2020, an Instagram media expert told a small business owner that the algorithm favors Reels and consistency across all post types, signaling the video-first tilt before it became official. The platform's commercial pull was already reshaping what creators post: North American influencer marketing spend hit $265M in a single quarter back in 2019, up 62% year over year, feeding the curation culture many artists now chafe against.
First-order effects
- Photographers and visual artists named in the piece report declining engagement as Reels and shopping displace still images, and some are openly evaluating moves to Twitter and other platforms.
- Instagram trades its founding identity as a home for photographers for a format war with TikTok, alienating the creator base that built its aesthetic.
Second-order effects
- Meta's plan to make Facebook more like TikTok — recommending posts from unconnected sources — shows the company doubling down rather than walking back, so the pressure on static-image creators intensifies rather than reverses.
- Rival platforms gain a recruiting pitch: displaced photographers become the audience any competitor can court by promising chronological feeds and image fidelity.
Third-order effects
- If creators keep fragmenting across platforms, the durable skill becomes portable personal branding — the dynamic Vox documents where writers and artists must act as influencers regardless of discomfort.
- Platform-by-platform loyalty gives way to a portfolio model where no single network owns an artist's audience, weakening Instagram's pricing power over the influencer marketing economy it created.
The trend: Social platforms are converging on TikTok's recommendation-driven video feed, trading their original creator communities for engagement metrics — and pushing artists toward multi-platform independence.