“Archive posting” is a practice that is becoming more and more common on Instagram and it’s totally defeating the point of the app. 

For those of you who don’t know, Instagram has a feature that allows you to archive a grid post or story — no longer displaying it on your profile but saving it rather than deleting it. This way you can put the post or story back on your profile at any time or just keep it for yourself. I like this feature and I do use it on my some of my posts — cringe worthy things that I posted in middle school or other photos I liked at the time of posting but don’t want on my profile anymore but still want to save.

However, people have started abusing this feature and using it as a way of avoiding actually posting on Instagram and instead only having the photo appear on their profile page. You do this by posting a photo and then immediately archiving it before it shows up in anyone’s feed. Then, once you think enough time has passed, you un-archive it, restoring it to your profile without it showing up in people’s feeds again because it’s old and the Instagram algorithm tries to push recent content.

The reason that this practice of ‘archive posting’ became popular is because people don’t want the attention of posting but they still want their profile page to look nice. I’ve heard many of my friends complain that posting on Instagram feels embarrassing or even causes them anxiety. It’s not only them — in an article for Stylist magazine, social media editor Alyss Bowen says she and her friends also experience stress about posting (“Instagram anxiety” as she dubs it) and that it stems from a fear of whether your post will get enough likes. In a way, posting on Instagram is also like announcing something, which can be daunting.

I’m not saying choosing to archive a post is always rooted in anxiety, but it is a way to avoid your post being seen by the majority of your followers, for whatever motivation. For example, others might choose to do it because the photos are clearly outdated but they still want to show them off somewhere.

This tactic sometimes backfires though, as Instagram will still show archive posts, even ones that are weeks old, in your follower’s’ feeds. I often scroll past photos that are clearly outdated or have no likes or comments and it always momentarily confuses me until I realize it was an archive post. The post will be seen by considerably less people this way though.

Whatever the reason for archive posting, I am firmly against it. The point of Instagram is to stay connected with friends and family, and posting is how you show what you are up to. Some people complain that Instagram content has become too curated and there is pressure to post picture-perfect content rather than casual. Archive posting exacerbates this by sending the message that if your photo isn’t perfect, it doesn’t deserve a spot in the feed.