I Deleted My Instagram

Originally posted to my blog.

For those who don’t know (You couldn’t because I deleted Instagram!), I used to be ALLL OVER IG. I would probably spend a total of about 3 hours on Instagram daily—no joke. Between scrolling mindlessly through my feed to tapping through IG Stories, I can’t believe how much time I wasted literally doing nothing productive.

I had a personal IG, a medieval illustration account, a lame attempt at a used IG bookstore account, and even a separate book blog account. I woke up grabbing my phone and trying to juggle several conversations at once, post stories, post at least one photo a day with 30 hashtags per photo with not too many followers and not too few followers (the algorithm ya know).

In addition to this, I was trying to maintain a persona that, if most people I know in real life were to witness, would tell me I wasn’t being me at all. I wanted to be noticed. I craved it. I thought having the right photos would get me noticed at least among my bookstagram crowd (you can not imagine how large of a community the IG book community is). In all actuality, even though I made tons of real life friends, most of these people were all playing the same game I was. The game of looking like you’re interested in other people’s crap when really, you just need their engagement. You want them to trust you. You want them to care about YOUR crap. So you interact with theirs. They were hiding behind the same mask I was.

Don’t get me wrong, I had many genuine connections on IG. But that’s not what it’s about anymore. It’s all about growing your followers and getting sponsored. And the algorithm is constantly changing. It’s all very mentally exhausting, so it’s no wonder that Instagram is becoming the WORST app for mental health.

The Turning Point

Now you may be asking—So what were you doing when you weren’t on Instagram?

THE ANSWER?

NOT ENOUGH.

This is how I knew I had to make a decision. I needed a change. I was working a job that I needed to be giving my all. But that competed with my need to find the perfect picture of the day. I was posting about books and not even reading them. My mental health was trending downward for sure.

Then one day it happened—I was scrolling through Stories and finally saw this ridiculous activity for what it was:

I was spending MY life watching other people live THEIR lives.

It was a jarring realization and I felt disgusted with the social media zombie I had become. So what did I do next? I exited out of the app, held down the little app square, and deleted it. Next, I went on my computer and went through the necessary steps to delete my Instagram.

Yeah that’s right, Instagram won’t let you delete your account from the phone app. They know that you’re too lazy to get on your desktop to go through the 2 mins it takes to delete your account. They know that all it takes is 2 minutes of hesitation for you to change your mind and keep your IG.

Sad right?

I feel so completely relaxed and calm without feeling like a slave to Instagram. The worst FOMO I’ve experienced so far is people asking me if I’ve seen the latest meme trend.

I’ve literally missed out on NOTHING.