At this time and age, the use of social media has increased massively, and the number of people making new Facebook or Instagram accounts each day is unbelievable. Instagram started as a simple app made by the owner and founder of Facebook, the basic purpose app was to enable people to share their pictures with other people.
However through the years, the app got updated, from just simple pictures it introduced direct messages more commonly known as (DM) then they added the feature of uploading stories on Instagram where you can share whatever you’re doing all day long, then the stories became interactive you can ask people question on your stories they can reply or react to them.
With time the app changed a lot, some of the changes might not have been liked by people but overall the app is a huge success the number of people using Instagram is unbelievable.
The app has a lot of users due to many reasons firstly because a lot of people are already using Instagram it gets you in touch with a greater audience if you have started your business and want to promote it Instagram is perfect for the job.
Thousands of people have started their business pages on Instagram where they post pictures of products, along with the prices and people can place orders by messaging them or commenting on their posts.
Several people have become famous because of Instagram, famous makeup artists have been recognized through the work they post on Instagram, singers have gotten people’s attention by posting their songs on their profiles or stories and the list goes on the number of people who owe their success to Instagram is exceptional.
The question that comes into most people’s minds is how is this possible? How can they also get famous and even start earning money by posting pictures on their feed? The answer is simple, all you have to do is create good content and have a lot of followers on Instagram.
If you are a newbie to Instagram you should probably get familiar with these two firms first “Followers” and “following”. The more followers you have the better and the number of people you are following doesn’t matter.
But recently there has been a trend that people are following, most the people even if they don’t wish to get thousands of followers, want that the number of people they are following is less than the followers they have, this won’t help you in any specific way other than the fact that you might have to skip fewer stories or like fewer posts.
The General Rule
Now, this is pretty clear that people want to follow fewer people and get followed by more and more people, but in most cases, to get more followers first you have to follow other people. A lot of people follow this technique that they first send a bunch of people follows requests when they accept their request and follow them back, after a while they un-follow which requests in more number of followers and less following. This seems pretty simple however that is not the case, there is an Instagram limit on how many people can you unfollow on Instagram.
The new Instagram rule is that you can follow and un-follow 200 people in one day, a person cannot exceed this limit. If we talk about an hourly basis there is a rule set on how many people you can unfollow on Instagram in an hour and the limit is 20.
In an hour you can only un-follow or follow 20 people, if you start un-following more than 10 people in an hour or more than 200 people in a day Instagram won’t allow it.
Another aspect also has an impact on how many people you can unfollow on Instagram, if your account is old the app will let you un-follow and follow more people at a time but if your account is new if you start following a bunch of people at the same time your account might be considered a spam account and they might end up shutting down your account. The limit set for old accounts is up to 50 followers in one hour and for a new account, it is up to 20 an hour.
“We limit how often you can do certain things on Instagram to protect the community”
One thing to be kept in mind is that the number of how many people can you unfollow on Instagram also leads to fewer followers. How this happens is that when you un-follow someone they don’t get a notification from Instagram but if they open their profile they can see they have fewer number followers, they can search their followers and find out who un-followed them although this is not sufficient because a person cannot remember all the people who have been following them in the past, but if they find out who is not following them anymore they might also end up un-following that person.
Other than this several other apps have also been created, these apps are not officially affiliated with Instagram but they help you track your followers, if someone un-follows you, you can simply open that app and you will the list of people who unfollowed you in the last few days.
What Is It Based On?
The number of people you can unfollow on Instagram is also based on how active you are, if you are an active user you post daily on Instagram which makes you a valuable user, and engagement on your posts is high which means others are interacting with you, reacting to your posts which also makes you an asset for Instagram in a way, for these people the rules are a little different they might be allowed to un-follow or follow more people in one hour or one day.
It seems that un-following people on Instagram is pretty easy but when you un-follow someone and their account is private you will not be able to see their posts or respond to their stories and if you want to see their posts you would have to send them a follow request again and if they follow your request only then will you be able to view their pictures and stories.
Mental Peace
It might seem very appealing to unfollow people on Instagram, but the best part is your mental piece, a lot of people have the habit of posting pictures on Instagram that might be very different than what they look like in real life, and it may make them happy by posting things on Instagram but the people viewing these pictures might feel a bit complex, they start comparing themselves with these people and might end up feeling that their life isn’t as exciting or eventful as others. When you are following fewer people on Instagram you get to view fewer people’s posts and you compare yourself with fewer people.
By following too many people you might not get the time to view stories or see posts of people you want to, your feed would be flooded with posts from so many people that you might not be able to scroll down and see posts of people you are interested in seeing.
Having fewer people in your following might give your profile a more sophisticated look; people may think that you are posting pictures that attract more people hence they might end up sending you a request. But having more people as your followers and less following on a social media account isn’t going to help you in any way, what matters more is the number of people you influence in real life.
Having good followers and following ratio can be a better option rather than having thousands of followers and having only a few hundred people you are following.
Some people who are on Instagram only to watch memes or videos or view other people’s posts have a different view; they have only a few followers and are following quite a lot of people.
They don’t post much or aren’t concerned about how many people are following them, what they are looking for is entertainment and they are getting it by scrolling through their feed, laughing and looking at memes, sharing things they like, ordering clothes they want and that helps them kill time as well.
It depends on why you are creating your account and what you want, if you’re someone who wants to earn money through Instagram, and influence people you would aim to increase the number of followers you get, and most of these people would want to follow as fewer people as possible as it gives their profile the competitive edge they need to attract people.
Several times when you view a blogger’s profile you judge their authenticity and the quality of their content based on the number of followers they have and the number of people they are following. More followers mean better content and vice versa.
Managing your follow-to-un-follow ratio can end up becoming a hectic task, however, one should not pay too much attention to this and focus on creating content they like, the rest of the things would play their part.
I’m a writer, artist, and designer working in the gaming and tech industries. I have held staff and freelance positions at large publications including Digital Trends, Lifehacker, Popular Science Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, IGN, The Xplore Tech, and others, primarily covering gaming criticism, A/V and mobile tech reviews, and data security advocacy.