These days, it seems that a person's worth isn't simply judged by what job they have, what sort of company they keep, or even how nice they are. Instead, it's based on follower count.

Yup, you can be the kindest, sweetest person around - but if your number of Insta followers isn't at least in the quadruple figures, you might as well just write yourself off as having any kind of meaningful social media presence (trust me; my cats have more followers than I do).

This idea feeds into celebrity culture, too. Right now, the most followed person on the 'Gram is Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, closely followed by Selena Gomez, and then Ariana Grande. We already knew these people were famous, but knowing that they are the top three most followed individuals in the world somehow makes them even more notable.

Those rankings might be at risk right now, however, as some accounts have lost millions of followers thanks to a recent Instagram issue.

Over the past 24 hours or so, thousands of Insta users have been reporting problems with their follow count on the social media platform. Some have been claiming that they have lost followers, while others claimed that their number of followers appeared to change depending on which device they logged into.

The problem was affecting big accounts, too, with Ariana Grande appearing to lose literally millions of followers overnight.

And it didn't just seem to be a glitch with the numbers, either, as some fans began complaining that their accounts had somehow automatically unfollowed some of their favourite celebrities.

For a lot of people, this was no big deal. For others, though, it was MAYHEM.

And then began the rumours about Instagram culling fake and/or inactive users.

"Instagram apparently dropped inactive followers," one person tweeted.

"Insta is deleting ghost followers," said another.

Someone even went so far as to make a spreadsheet on some of the most popular accounts in order to track any changes in their follower count.

Finally, Instagram spoke up about what was going on, and described the huge follower losses as an "issue".

According to them, then, the changes in follower counts has nothing to do with a supposed purge of so-called "ghost accounts", and is merely a glitch in the platform.

Since then, some accounts have reported that their follower count jumped back up to normal after they updated or reinstalled their app, while others said the problem just sorted itself. If you are noticing problems on your account, then, make sure you have the most up-to-date version of the app on your phone. And, if that doesn't change anything, rest assured that Instagram are aware of the problem and are currently working on a fix.

These days, it seems that a person's worth isn't simply judged by what job they have, what sort of company they keep, or even how nice they are. Instead, it's based on follower count.

Yup, you can be the kindest, sweetest person around - but if your number of Insta followers isn't at least in the quadruple figures, you might as well just write yourself off as having any kind of meaningful social media presence (trust me; my cats have more followers than I do).

This idea feeds into celebrity culture, too. Right now, the most followed person on the 'Gram is Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, closely followed by Selena Gomez, and then Ariana Grande. We already knew these people were famous, but knowing that they are the top three most followed individuals in the world somehow makes them even more notable.

Those rankings might be at risk right now, however, as some accounts have lost millions of followers thanks to a recent Instagram issue.

Over the past 24 hours or so, thousands of Insta users have been reporting problems with their follow count on the social media platform. Some have been claiming that they have lost followers, while others claimed that their number of followers appeared to change depending on which device they logged into.

The problem was affecting big accounts, too, with Ariana Grande appearing to lose literally millions of followers overnight.

And it didn't just seem to be a glitch with the numbers, either, as some fans began complaining that their accounts had somehow automatically unfollowed some of their favourite celebrities.

For a lot of people, this was no big deal. For others, though, it was MAYHEM.

And then began the rumours about Instagram culling fake and/or inactive users.

"Instagram apparently dropped inactive followers," one person tweeted.

"Insta is deleting ghost followers," said another.

Someone even went so far as to make a spreadsheet on some of the most popular accounts in order to track any changes in their follower count.

Finally, Instagram spoke up about what was going on, and described the huge follower losses as an "issue".

According to them, then, the changes in follower counts has nothing to do with a supposed purge of so-called "ghost accounts", and is merely a glitch in the platform.

Since then, some accounts have reported that their follower count jumped back up to normal after they updated or reinstalled their app, while others said the problem just sorted itself. If you are noticing problems on your account, then, make sure you have the most up-to-date version of the app on your phone. And, if that doesn't change anything, rest assured that Instagram are aware of the problem and are currently working on a fix.