In an age when every swipe, like, and pause is accountable to a machine, creators and brands have begun to ask: Are we building an audience, or are we simply feeding the algorithm?
For a number of years, Instagram has transformed into something akin to a guessing game. Even accounts with committed followings often struggled to get their content in front of the people who had opted to see it. When automation and algorithm changes became standard, organic discovery became a secondary priority.