WHO VIEWED MY
INSTAGRAM STORY?
Social media can often be toxic and hard to handle. There’s a lot of negativity online and it’s perfectly reasonable to want to protect yourself from that. It’s especially important when it comes to cyberbullying and protecting young people online. That’s why it’s good to be familiar with all the tools that can help you curate the things you share online.
Make Sure Your Account is Private
If your Instagram account is public, you might want to try switching to private. Just by making this change, you’re considerably decreasing the number of people who can see your posts and stories. You can manage a private account more easily. With a public account, your posts are visible to everyone on Instagram. And a lot of people prefer it that way. Public accounts bring more likes and shares. But not everyone is looking for that.
Utilize the Close Friends Feature
Instagram Stories are immensely popular. Unlike posts with photos and captions underneath, they have more spontaneity about them. In addition, they’re convenient and easy. But if you have a lot of followers or a public Instagram account, you might want to keep certain stories public to a limited number of people. That’s why the “Close Friends” feature for Instagram Stories is an amazing tool.
Before you create your next Instagram Story, select as many people as you want for your Close Friends list. All you need to do is:
Open your Instagram app.
Tap on the person icon in the right bottom corner.
Tap the menu button (three parallel horizontal lines).
Tap “Close Friends” and then you’ll see the list of suggestions.
Add as many friends as you want. You can even use the search bar to find someone.
Tap “Done” after you are finished creating your Close Friends list.
Voila, you’re done. The lucky collective will get to enjoy and react to your Instagram Stories. When you’re ready to post a Story, just make the photo or video, and when it’s done, tap the “Close Friends” icon – represented by a green circle with a white star in the middle.
If you’re concerned that this list is permanent. Don’t be – you can alter it anytime. Also, there are no notifications to whoever makes it or doesn’t make it on the list. But the ones on the list will know they’re on it because they’ll see a green ring around your profile picture.
Hide Your Story
On the other hand, maybe it’s not just a matter of who gets to see your stories, but who isn’t supposed to. If you’re generally willing to share your Instagram Story with all of your followers, save one or two, you can just hide it from them. All it takes is a few simple steps.
Open your Instagram app.
Go to “Settings”.
Tap “Privacy”. Then “Story”.
Choose the people you want to hide your stories from.
Tap “Done” when you’re finished making the list.
But remember, hiding your Instagram Story from someone isn’t the same as blocking them. They’ll still be able to see your profile page and posts.
What About the Posts?
When it comes to photos and videos you post on Instagram, the situation is a bit more complicated. Instagram doesn’t have the feature that allows you to decide who gets to see and not see everything you post. It’s more of an “all or nothing” situation. If your account is public, changing it to private will help. But it won’t stop specific people from seeing the posts.
Instead of doing something rash, like deleting the posts you don’t want someone to see, you can just archive them. That way, they stay on your Instagram profile, but no one will see them. This comes in handy with very old posts that you don’t feel like deleting, but you’re not keen on everyone scrolling through anymore. To do so, you just have to:
Open the Instagram post you want to archive.
Tap on the menu button in the top right corner.
Select “Archive” from the list of options.
Whenever you want to retrieve it, just go to your Profile and select the Archive button in the upper right corner of the screen. You’ll be able to see all the archived posts there. And if you’ve changed your mind and want to post it again, all you need to do is tap “Show on Profile”. You don’t even have to write the caption again or add all the hashtags you did before. It will all come back with the post.
Make Instagram What You Need It to Be
Not only is it reasonable, but also highly advisable to do whatever you can to make Instagram a happy place for yourself. You’re the designer of your Instagram experience. No, you can’t control everything. But you can do quite a lot. You can create your own Instagram small community, or even venture far further afield. Whatever the case, it’s ultimately about what works best for you.
