Instagram Head Declares Polished Aesthetic Dead

Instagram head Adam Mosseri has announced that the platform's iconic polished aesthetic is dead, attributing the shift to the proliferation of AI-generated content. In a message posted to Threads, Mosseri stated that the ease of creating AI imagery has rendered curated feeds obsolete.

The executive argues that the social media landscape is shifting toward a more raw aesthetic as users seek authenticity over professional polish. Mosseri outlined the challenges this presents for the platform and proposed potential solutions to distinguish human content from AI-generated media.

Instagram's carefully curated grid is officially a thing of the past, according to Adam Mosseri. The Meta executive explained that the visual style which originally popularized the app—characterized by high-contrast photography, skin smoothing, and beautiful landscapes—is no longer the dominant mode of sharing.

Mosseri noted that this shift is driven by changing user behavior. He observed that users largely stopped sharing personal moments in the main feed years ago. Instead, personal updates are now frequently shared through direct messages using unpolished images.

He described these candid shots as "shoe shots and unflattering candids." Mosseri wrote, "Unless you're under 25 and use Instagram, you probably think of the app as a feed of square photos. The aesthetic is polished: lots of make up, skin smoothing, high contrast photography, beautiful landscapes. That feed is dead."

The primary catalyst for this aesthetic death is the rise of artificial intelligence. Adam Mosseri stated that the growing ubiquity of AI images means creators must shy away from professional-style photography in favor of authenticity. He argued that "flattering imagery is cheap to produce and boring to consume," noting that social media feeds are beginning to fill up with "synthetic everything."

Tools like Midjourney and Sora have made it easy to produce high-quality images and videos of almost anything. This flood of AI-generated content creates a new reality where the vast majority of media seen online may not be an accurate capture of real life.

Mosseri emphasized that Meta is actively integrating AI tools into its own platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. The platform recently rolled out an AI studio allowing users to create custom chatbots and has experimented with AI influencers based on real celebrities.

As AI technology improves, Instagram faces a significant hurdle in identifying synthetic media. Mosseri admitted that social platforms will get worse at distinguishing AI-generated content from real photos over time. This difficulty necessitates a fundamental change in how the platform operates and how users consume content.

The executive highlighted a loss of trust in digital media. He wrote, "For most of my life I could safely assume that the vast majority of photographs or videos that I see are largely accurate captures of moments that happened in real life. This is clearly no longer the case."

To combat this, Mosseri suggested a multi-pronged approach to restore transparency:

• Clear labeling of AI-generated content
• Greater transparency regarding who is posting on the platform
• Better creative controls to help human users compete with AI

While the problem is complex, Adam Mosseri offered a potential technical solution to verify the authenticity of photos. He suggested that camera companies could cryptographically sign photos at the moment they are taken. This digital signature would serve as proof that the image is a real capture of a moment.

However, until such technology is widely adopted, the responsibility falls on the platform to evolve. Mosseri believes that Instagram must adapt to a landscape where human creators are competing with content made entirely by AI. The push toward a "raw aesthetic" is not just a stylistic choice, but a necessary evolution to maintain relevance and trust in the age of synthetic media.