Instagram – Are People Reeling in their Posts?

Not sure if this is a more common pattern, but it has been my observation at least with regard to a bunch of friends who are active on Instagram that they have considerably reduced posts, but their reels (guessing that’s the 24 hour ones?) might have gone up a bit.

I’m not sure if they don’t have anything to share, or like me, have gotten very selective about what they share.
Or if they decided to go light on Instagram’s cloud storage by restricting their content online. Or if sharing seems trivial in comparison to some of the great content one gets to see or listen to on IG.

As if reels is their way of staying connected and social while not putting anything long-term on it.

Not that I’m complaining. It is a relief from the ol’ Facebook days where there would be posts of every thought that popped up, to excessive pictures, often of half-eaten meals.

Have you noticed anything similar with your friends and family?
It’s all good as long as people have a decent work-life balance, a reasonable social life and/or are pursuing hobbies or interests outside of work.
But if not, I wonder if it is part of a growing (and concerning) pattern related to overexposure and desensitization, clubbed with a lot of good content by some great creators, which makes us wonder what the point is of us posting anything.