I studied 10 years of Instagram posts. Here’s how social media has changed
- Written by T.J. Thomson, Associate Professor of Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University
Instagram is one of Australia’s most popular social media platforms. Almost two in three Aussies have an account.
Ushering in 2026 and what he calls “synthetic everything” on our feeds, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri has signalled the platform will likely adjust its algorithms to surface more original content instead of AI slop.
Finding ways to tackle widespread AI content is the latest in a long series of shifts Instagram has undergone over the past decade. Some are obvious and others are more subtle. But all affect user experience and behaviour, and, more broadly, how we see and understand the online social world.
To identify some of these patterns, I examined ten years’ worth of Instagram posts from a single account (@australianassociatedpress) for an upcoming study.
This involved looking at nearly 2,000 posts and more than 5,000 media assets. I selected the AAP account as an example of a noteworthy Australian account with public service value.
I found six key shifts over this timeframe. Although user practices vary, this analysis provides a glimpse into some larger ways the AAP account – and social media more broadly – has been changing in the past decade.
Reflecting on some of these changes also provides hints at how social media might change in the future, and what that means for society.
1. Media orientations have shifted
When it launched in 2010, Instagram quickly became known as the platform that re-popularised the square image format. Square photography has been around for more than 100 years but its popularity waned in the 1980s when newer cameras made the non-square rectangular format dominant.
Instagram forced users to post square images for the platform’s first five years. However, the balance between square and horizontal images has given way to vertical media over time.
On the AAP account that shift happened over the last two years, with 84.4% of all its posts now in vertical orientation.
2. Media types have changed
As with orientations, the media types being posted have also changed. This is due, in part, to platform affordances: what the platform allows or enables a user to do.
As an example, Instagram didn’t allow users to post videos until 2013, three years after the platform started. It added the option to post “stories” (short-lived image/video posts of up to 15 seconds) and live broadcasts in 2016. Reels (longer-lasting videos of up to 90 seconds) came later in 2020.
Some accounts are more video-heavy than others, to try to compete with other video-heavy platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. But we can see a larger trend in the shift from single-image posts to multi-asset posts. Instagram calls these “carousels”, a feature introduced in 2017.
The AAP went from publishing just single-image posts in the first years of the account to gradually using more carousels. In the most recent year, they accounted for 85.9% of all posts.
3. Media are becoming more multimodal
A typical Instagram account grid from the mid-2000s had a mix of carefully curated photographs that were clean, colourful and simple in composition.
Fast-forward a decade, and posts have become much more multimodal. Text is being overlaid on images and videos and the compositions are mixing media types more frequently.
A snapshot of an Instagram account’s grid from late 2015 and early 2016 showed colourful photos, engaging use of light, and strategic use of camera settings to capture motion.
@australianassociatedpress
There are subtitles on videos, labels on photos, quote cards, and “headline” posts that try to tell a mini story on the post itself without the user having to read the accompanying post description.
On the AAP account, the proportion of text on posts never rose above 10% between 2015 and 2024. Then, in 2025, it skyrocketed to being on 84.4% of its posts.
In 2025, posts on Instagram had become much more multimodal. Instead of just one single photo, the use of carousel posts is much more common, as is the overlaying of words onto images and videos.
@australianassociatedpress
4. User practices change
Over time, user practices have also changed in response to cultural trends and changes of the platform design itself.
An example of this is social media accounts starting to insert hashtags in a post comment rather than directly in the post description. This is supposed to help the post’s algorithmic ranking.
Many social media users have started putting hashtags in a comment rather than including them in the post description.
@australianassociatedpress
Another key change over this timeframe was Instagram’s decision in 2019 to hide “likes” on posts. The thinking behind this decision was to try to reduce the pressure on account owners to make content that was driven by the number of “like” interactions a post received. It was also hypothesised to help with users’ mental health.
In 2021, Instagram left it up to users to decide whether to show or hide “likes” on their account’s posts.
5. The platform became more commercialised
Instagram introduced a Shop tab in 2020 – users could now buy things without leaving the app.
The number of ads, sponsored posts, and suggested accounts has increased over time. Looking through your own feed, you might find that one-third to one-half of the content you now encounter was paid for.
6. The user experience shifts with algorithms and AI
Instagram introduced its “ranked feed” back in 2016. This meant that rather than seeing content in reverse chronological order, users would see content that an algorithm thought users would be interested in. These algorithms consider aspects such as account owner behaviour (view time, “likes”, comments) and what other users find engaging.
An option to opt back in to a reverse chronological feed was then introduced in 2022.
Example of a direct message transformed into AI images with the feature on Instagram.
T.J. Thomson
To compete with apps such as Snapchat, Instagram introduced augmented reality effects on the platform in 2017.
It also introduced AI-powered search in 2023, and has experimented with AI-powered profiles and other features. One of these is turning the content of a direct message into an AI image.
Looking ahead
Overall, we see more convergence and homogenisation.
Social media platforms are looking more similar as they seek to replicate the features of competitors. Media formats are looking more similar as the design of smartphones and software favour vertical media. Compositions are looking more multimodal as type, audio, still imagery, and video are increasingly mixed.
And, with the corresponding rise of AI-generated content, users’ hunger for authenticity might grow even more.
Authors: T.J. Thomson, Associate Professor of Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University
Hashtag.net.au
