Do you ever get the itch to reset the Instagram-provided slate of information about your interests and start fresh?

You soon will be able to, with IG testing a new feature that should effectively clear its memory on what it knows about you to re-shape what's recommended in stream.

Instagram will continue to store information about what you have done and what you are interested in, for ad targeting. However, in the content that it surfaces to you - which is a growing share of what you see inside the app - this will allow you to reset and start over.

As Instagram explains:

With just a few taps, you will be able to clear your recommended content across Explore, Reels, and Feed and start fresh. Your recommendations will begin to personalize again over time, showing new content based on the content and accounts you engage with. When resetting, you will also have the option to review the accounts you're following and unfollow any that share content you no longer want to see.

You can see last element in the third image above, with a prompt added into the process to help users disconnect from people and topics that they're no longer interested in, including "Ad Topics".

Which might be just the thing to renew and revitalize your experience on IG, particularly if you're no longer interested in a particular subject matter, or you feel the algorithm is a tad too sensitive to some types of content. For instance, sometimes you view a celebrity's profile to see their latest post, which has precipitated some sort of controversy. IG might then think you are interested in that person, and soon enough, your Explore feed is loaded with daily updates of everything they're doing.

But you don't really care, and in that instance, you might want to blow it up and start all over. Though that would also eliminate all your other preferences.

Also, it cannot be reversed. So better be sure.

The key focus for this update, according to Instagram, is on teen users, ensuring that they have safe, positive, age-appropriate experiences. That sounds interesting in the context of broader political and regulatory discussions around social media age limits, including Australia pushing ahead with its plan to ban people under the age of 16 using social apps.

Perhaps that's just another part of IG's play to demonstrate that it is making an effort to protect teens, lest it want be subject to further regulation on who can even use it.

On that front, Instagram also put out a new explainer page within its Transparency Center detailing how its recommendations work, as well as the internal protections built for teens.
That could also make you more aware of what will be affected by this new reset option, as well as again reassuring parents-and regulators-of the various protections that Instagram has for young users.

Though realistically, I envision that a pile of people-not just teens-will be enjoying this reset feature. I am sure many will also regret resetting their feed too, but using the app, and engaging with relevant posts, will quick rebuild your graph.

It will be interesting to see how this impacts the IG experience, and what early testers think. 

Instagram states that its "Reset Suggested Content" feature "will soon roll out globally.