Why it’s not worth paying for meta to avoid seeing ads

Although I originally thought that paying Meta to not show ads would improve my Instagram experience, after a few months I decided it wasn’t worth it. The differences were minimal and the extra “advantages” did not appeal to me. Here’s why I don’t recommend a subscription if it becomes available in your area.

1 You can avoid Instagram ads and customize them

Since re-incorporating social media after a long hiatus, I’ve been very strict about my content consumption. I’ve muted most people’s stories and would rather go directly to a specific user’s account than scroll my home feed. After that, I hardly ever saw ads on Instagram (I know you can see them on people’s profiles, but they’re easy to ignore).

Your mileage may vary if you use the home feed and stories more, but I didn’t see the point in hiding something I couldn’t see anyway. To be honest, I also don’t think ads are a bad thing in and of themselves; I just don’t like seeing irrelevant ones (I have YouTube Premium because I don’t really like most ads on YouTube).

You can also do a few other things to hide the ads you hate on Facebook and tweak your Instagram ad interests through your account settings. Changing the interests of Instagram ads was enough to significantly improve my experience in the app. Start with that, especially if you have no other option because you are not based in the EEA or Switzerland. Later, if Meta rolls out subscriptions to your region, you can sign up if you find it useful.

2 The other perks weren’t good enough for me

By subscribing to Meta, which does not include ads, you get several additional features, such as not having your information used for ads. You can also still see posts from your favorite creators, minus their ads. While I don’t think €9.99 to €12.99 (about $10.90 to $14.15) is a huge amount of money, I didn’t see enough value in the subscription to warrant a long-term commitment.

Another thing worth noting is that adding more accounts means you have to pay more for your subscription. I’ve only used the service on Instagram, but paying extra can be frustrating if you want to stop seeing ads on Facebook.

3 Buying a subscription didn’t solve the things I don’t like about Instagram and Facebook

I believe you are a product if something is “free” and I have always found those “why is it free?” memes funny and somewhat misleading. Since Instagram is my favorite social media site, I would love to subscribe if it fixed what I didn’t like about the platform.

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The main things I hate about Instagram are:

• Can’t set “Friends Only” or chronological timeline as default (you always have to change it after opening the app).
• No option to hide reels or Explore page.
• Too many accounts I neither follow nor care to show up in my home feed.

Aside from the in-app features, there are a few things fundamentally wrong with Instagram and Facebook these days (this is one of the many reasons I deleted Facebook).

Personally, I’m tired of engaging in bait-and-switch, and in my opinion, the emphasis on viral content has led to users creating low-quality sludge and AI slop. Until these issues are fixed, I see no point in subscribing to a plan when the goal is to improve my app experience.

4 Your data is still being used in some cases

While Meta won’t use your data for ads, if you sign up for an ad-free plan, getting a paid subscription doesn’t make you immune to AI data training. You will need to opt out of Facebook AI training separately. Additionally, your information is not permanently deleted; Meta will only stop using your information for ads while your subscription is active.

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I don’t know about you, but if I’m paying for a subscription of this kind, I’d rather not have my data used at all. Plus, I’d like to think that my existing information — which was previously used for ads — would be permanently deleted. While you should protect your privacy in the AI ​​era, you need to understand what Meta will and will not continue to use when you subscribe.

I can see the value that some users might find in paying to not see ads on Facebook and Instagram, but it wasn’t worth it to me personally. I barely scroll through the app anymore, and the ads I see are largely relevant to my interests. Since you can also customize your ad settings, it’s worth doing that first before you buy anything.