Thanks, Instagram. No, really!

I didn't used to watch Reels a lot. For a long time, I used Instagram old-school-style just scrolling through my feed. But eventually, it got me. I got sucked in to watching all sorts of random crap. Some of it was funny, some of it wasn't but I just carried on swiping and sharing them with my wife and a select few other people. Until...

A few days ago, I must have been dropped into a split test or something because the Reels icon on the main menu bar has been removed! I now just have home, search, add, notifications and profile icons on the menu.

Screenshot from my Instagram app

I think you can find your way into a Reels cycle through the search icon, but that's too much effort. Instagram has inadvertently broken the habit on my behalf.

I can't claim to have spent my spare time any wiser over the last few days but one thing's for certain, I've not been mindlessly scrolling through short-form video content.

So, thanks Instagram. You've done me a favour!