Instagram’s New $3.99 ‘Plus’ Membership Seen as ‘New Low’ That Allows Users to ‘Torture’ Themselves

Harassment on Instagram is no longer private.

Instagram has launched a new premium feature, Instagram Plus, for $3.99 per month, marketing the subscription as a way to “help you express yourself, connect more deeply with your friends, and personalize your experience in new ways.”

The monthly subscription provides users with exclusive benefits and features on the app.

While the feature was designed to “expand digital reach,” backlash has mounted following claims that the new offerings exploit digital addiction and are the price of “driving people crazy.”

Features include extending Stories by 24 hours to stay visible longer and place them at the top of users’ feeds, as well as “expressive reactions” so friends can show “extra support” in direct messages.

The new Story Rewatch Count feature shows how many times your story has been rewatched, while the Search Viewsheet lets you quickly check if a specific person has seen your post.

Meanwhile, Story Preview allows users to take a peek at someone’s story without appearing on their viewer list.

There are also features that allow you to hide actions from other users, including posting to your profile or highlights without appearing in your friends’ feeds. Although secretly previewing Stories allows users to view content without having to react, it prevents the creator from seeing who actually watched it.

Social media users consider the subscription a “new low,” giving users the chance to drive themselves crazy for $3.99 a month.

“If what you like is the ability to more easily keep tabs on crushes or haters – by which I mean torture yourself – then Instagram has nailed it,” said one Reddit user, adding that the feature encourages obsessive tendencies.

TikToker @suhaadada conducted what she called a “social experiment” to test Instagram Plus, concluding that it made her “ready to never use Instagram again.”

She was particularly critical of Insight Story Rewatch, which displays a rewatch glyph next to the number of viewers when someone watches a story multiple times.

“It could be someone who skims quickly and sees something that interests them enough to return to it,” she explained.

“It tries to manipulate you into believing that a viewer’s replay means more than it actually does.”

The feature also provides timestamps for when someone first viewed a story, updated if they return to view it again.

Critics say these updates allow companies to make profits at the expense of users’ mental health.

“To the detriment of your own sanity, as you start to wonder why someone is so high up on your viewer list,” the TikToker said, noting that non-subscribers won’t know who has Instagram Plus or that their viewing habits are being tracked, meaning subscribers are paying to access user behavior that “should be kept private.”

“If you have Instagram and stay away from me,” one commenter joked.

Others caution that paid features are just the beginning, theorizing that Meta will eventually charge users for overall access across its platforms.

“Meta is slowly killing what was good,” one user lamented.