The main risk Instagram faces is that as the world changes faster, the platform will fail to keep pace. Looking ahead to 2026, there is one big change: authenticity becomes infinitely reproducible.
Everything that made creators important – the ability to be real, to connect, to have a voice that couldn’t be faked – is now accessible to anyone with the right tools. Deepfakes are getting better and better. Al generates photos and videos that are indistinguishable from captured media.
Power has shifted from institutions to individuals because the Internet made it so that anyone with a compelling idea could find an audience. The cost of spreading information is zero.
Individuals, not publishers or brands, have identified that there is a significant market for people’s content. Trust in institutions is at an all-time low. We’ve moved to homegrown content from creators we trust and admire.
We like to complain about “AI slop,” but there is a lot of great AI content out there. However, even the high-quality AI content looks: too smooth, the skin too smooth. That will change: we will see more realistic AI content.
Authenticity is becoming a scarce commodity, increasing the demand for content from creators, not decreasing it. The bar shifts from ‘can you create?’ to “can you make something that only you can make?”
Unless you’re under 25, you probably think of Instagram as a feed of square photos: polished makeup, skin smoothing, and beautiful landscapes. That food is dead. People stopped sharing personal moments for nourishment years ago.
The main way people share now is through DMs: blurry photos and shaky videos of everyday experiences. Shoe shots. and unflattering candors.
This raw aesthetic has permeated public content and art forms.
The camera companies bet on the wrong aesthetic. They compete to make everyone look like a professional photographer from 2015. But in a world where AI can generate flawless images, the professional look becomes the deciding factor.
Flattering images are cheap to produce and boring to consume.
People want content that feels real. Smart makers choose unproduced, unflattering images. In a world where everything can be perfected, imperfection becomes a signal.
Rawness is no longer just an aesthetic preference, it is evidence. It’s defensive. A way of saying: this is real because it is imperfect.
Relatively quickly, AI will create any aesthetic you want, including an imperfect one that presents itself as authentic. At that point we will need to shift our focus to who is saying something rather than to what is being said.
For most of my life, I could assume that photos or videos were largely accurate representations of moments that happened. This is clearly no longer the case and it will take us years to adapt.
We no longer assume that what we see is real by default, but start with skepticism. Pay attention to who is sharing and why. This will be uncomfortable; we are genetically predisposed to believe our eyes.
Platforms like Instagram will do a good job of identifying AI content, but will get worse at it over time as AI gets better. It will be more practical to fingerprint real media than fake media.
Camera manufacturers will cryptographically sign the images when captured, creating a chain of control.
Labeling is only part of the solution. We need to bring out much more
context about the accounts sharing content so people can make informed decisions. Who is behind the bill?
In a world of infinite abundance and infinite doubt, those creators who can maintain trust and exude authenticity – by being real, transparent and consistent – will stand out.
We need to build the best creative tools. Label AI-generated content and verify authentic content. Provide credibility signals about who is posting. Continue to improve the ranking for originality.
Instagram will need to evolve in some ways, and quickly.
#longer #trust #eyes #real #Instagram