Last year I muted all my social media connections. That was a giant step to less screen time and more peace of mind. But I kept checking Instagram too many times. So I decided to stop using it.
I don’t exaggerate when I say it were 100+ times on a daily basis. How many times a day do you check in?
Especially when I was a bit bored in Bali I tried to get the social media dopamine shot time after time to fight loneliness. It was there that I started to get an aversion to Instagram.
Show off
I realised that most people are on holidays to show off instead of to discover and enjoy. Every time you see other people’s apparent great lives on Instagram you are subconsciously comparing it with yours. This causes FOMO, stress, anxiety and eventually depression.
That’s not my opinion, research reveals how social media platforms can greatly affect your mental health.
Furthermore, Instagram’s content is so incredibly stupid and doesn’t add any value. Unlike Twitter, where I learn a lot from the accounts I follow.
Purpose
Shutting down notifications and muting all my connections didn’t work out properly for Instagram. They will always have smart tricks to keep you addicted and logging in again.
When you have muted someone, their stories keep being visible. So you keep coming back for it and to check for new likes or followers. I didn’t want this anymore so I ended up deleting the app completely from my phone.
This works fine for me. I didn’t watch for months now. The only thing I probably missed are 60 similar photos of someone’s child and 200 festival selfies with duck faces from vague friends, among other utterly useless crap.
I’m OK with that.
The only purpose I still see for Instagram is to upload photos to embed in my blog articles. So that’s what I’ll keep doing.
https://twitter.com/LifeMathMoney/status/1206854048789348352