It’s public, out there for all to see, from Chinese bots to Russian propaganda AI software developers and everyone in between! So a friend of a friend looked at something that anyone with an Internet connection could look at—isn’t that WHY people post online? So others can see their content?

But you are kinda a stalker.

It's fine. We've all been there. I've been there. It's not the worst thing in the world if our crush knows.

It'll be fine.

Anonymous wrote:Relax so what if you looked?

It is not a big deal that they looked but I totally understand why OP wouldn't want their crush to know they looked, especially since they are not connected on Instagram.

I actually find the fact that Instagram allows people to see who views their stories the creepiest thing about Insta. When people post things to their account publicly, they are knowingly putting those things about themselves out there. But I know a lot of people don't realize that people can see if they viewed their stories, so it's like a weird disclosure I think people don't know they are making. It's like this weird reverse violation of privacy, especially because the only other app I can think that does that is LinkedIn (and you can set viewing to private if you want so that people don't know you were looking at their profiles, thankfully).

Relax so what if you looked?

OP here. Thank you! I just looked up stories and it definitely was not a story. Just some old videos on their profile (like from a few years ago) and old photos. Ugh! I’ll never do that again!

Anonymous wrote:If you watch their STORY that was posted within the past 24 hours you can see who watched it. If it's a video posted on their grid you can only see who liked it

In case you don't know, a STORY is accessed by clicking on the upper left little circle that usually has their photo or something in it.

Were you looking at stories or Reels? People can’t see that you viewed their Reels. (These are the short videos that you scroll through on the videos tab in Insta.) They CAN see when you view their story.

If you watch their STORY that was posted within the past 24 hours you can see who watched it. If it's a video posted on their grid you can only see who liked it

Ugh! I have a crush on a colleague and NEVER use instagram. I started using it because my gym posts announcements. I was scrolling through to a sports team page and saw a post from my crush!! I was excited to see what they posted and I clicked on their profile and started looking on their photos and videos. I later started to worry that they could see I looked at their photos and videos! Ugh! I googled and am so confused! Google says with a story a person can see all viewers. I’m not sure it was a story? Reel? Video? I can’t tell the difference! I feel so embarrassed! If you know instagram, can you see that I viewed their videos? It’s the middle icon on their profile in case that helps. I am not a follower and I did not comment on their page at all. I’m freaking out! I don’t want them to think I’m a stalker!