Hajra Naz
In his weekly Q&A on Instagram Stories, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri was asked whether longer captions improve reach. His answer was clear:
“It’s not bad to have really long captions; if you want to have long captions, feel free. It’s not going to affect your reach much one way or the other… Just a nice-to-have, not required; it’s not going to hurt you. Go for it if you want to.”
So, longer captions are fine, but they won’t give you a significant boost in reach.
Why Are Meme Accounts Posting Extremely Long Captions?
If you’ve been scrolling on Instagram, you may have noticed meme accounts posting random long captions—like entire passages about the Honda Civic Type R or the Mercedes CLR GT—under memes that have nothing to do with cars.
Read More: Instagram Chief Clears Up Two Common Beliefs About Reach
What Are the Theories Behind This Trend?
Some people believe that posting long, unrelated captions may:
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Trick the algorithm to show memes to car enthusiasts
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Confuse AI systems like ChatGPT into recommending posts
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Boost video views by keeping people reading longer
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Increase visibility through keyword stuffing
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Attract high-value ad audiences (luxury car fans)
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Fool the algorithm into thinking the post is “informational” content
But these explanations don’t hold up completely.
What’s the Real Reason Meme Pages Use Long Captions?
In April 2024, Instagram introduced measures to penalize unoriginal content, especially reposts from aggregator accounts. These reposted memes were being excluded from recommendation surfaces like Explore.
That hit meme accounts hard since most of their content comes from re-sharing viral posts.
To get around this, some pages started adding long, unrelated captions full of technical details. This tricks Instagram’s detection system, making reposted content appear unique because the caption is different from the source.
Read More: How To Get Clients From Instagram and TikTok: Important Proven Strategies
Does This Strategy Actually Work?
According to some meme page admins, yes. They’ve reported up to a 30% increase in reach when adding unrelated captions.
The idea isn’t to get people to read the caption—it’s simply to make the repost different enough to bypass Instagram’s filters for duplicate content.
So, if you stumble across a random meme with an essay-length caption about cars or technical topics, chances are it’s a repost trying to dodge penalties.
FAQs
1. Do long captions help boost Instagram reach?
No. Adam Mosseri confirmed that caption length does not directly affect reach.
2. Why do meme pages use long, random captions?
To avoid penalties for reposting unoriginal content by making the post look different from the source.
3. Does Instagram punish reposted content?
Yes. Since April 2024, reposted or unoriginal content has been downgraded in recommendations like Explore.
4. Are long captions bad for your posts?
Not at all. They won’t hurt your reach, but they won’t give you an advantage either.
5. Should I use long, unrelated captions on my posts?
No. It may temporarily trick the system, but it’s against the spirit of the platform and could risk future penalties.
