Why I No Longer Use Instagram

From Social Media Addiction to Social Media Detox.

What is it for?

I don’t need to explain to anyone what a revolution to the world the birth of Instagram (IG) has made.

I remember the day a friend introduced me to this platform shortly after it had launched in Poland. I could not comprehend the idea of why someone would want to post photos out there. What was the meaning?

The same happened with Snapchat. I totally didn’t understand the purpose of posting a photo “somewhere” where it will be gone after 24h - for what? All of that seemed ridiculous to me and I was against downloading the app.

As time went by, I noticed many of my friends getting excited about these mobile applications and turning to them during boring days at school—so I decided to give them a try.

Instagram is Great

I started to fall into the “trap” of social media (SM) and shortly after I became a number one fan of IG.

What did I enjoy there?

easily accessible inspiration of any kind
getting to know how other people live & their new-to-me perspectives on life
informative & aesthetically beautiful content
finding places worth visiting
staying in touch with my friends
following interesting accounts
keeping up with SM trends

From Love to Hate

For many years I’ve been a highly active user of social media - mainly IG, to the point where many of my actions came down to simply catching a good moment to post on an IG story. For what? You tell me.

Over time, my attitude towards this app has gone from love to hate. I began noticing that instead of bringing joy&inspiration - the platform started to annoy me + I realized I was addicted to opening the app whenever I had a chance.

My Social-Media-Addiction Symptoms:

opening an app without a conscious intention to do it

wasting much of my free time to mindlessly scroll the phone
feeling dizzy after
needing to constantly keep up with the people I follow
instantly opening a story of people with whom I had a closer connection to
FOMO (fear of missing out) and fear of being not informed about something important happening
wanting to keep up with “everything-that-is-happening”
no internet access was making me nervous
having regrets when I didn’t catch “something special happening” to post it after

How Instagram Was Ruining My Everyday Well-Being

I’ve compared myself to others I saw on IG - starting from their appearance, clothes, body image, and the house they live in; to the lifestyle they presented out there.
I rarely felt good enough - as all that I saw on SM took my attention out of being grateful for what I had to the lack of something I should have had in my life.
I felt fat all the time. I’ve been judging myself in the mirror roughly every day. I constantly tried to look better. Yet, I was rarely satisfied with the way I was - having the not-real body standards in my mind.
I was wearing fake lashes - because I felt not pretty the way I was.
I had my hair highlighted to the point it became extremely damaged - because my natural hair color was not “good enough”.
I had my eyebrows painted so much that instead of becoming more beautiful, I started to look funny.
I had my nails done - because long acrylic nails were “better” than my short natural ones.
I was buying fast fashion clothes to follow up with constantly changing trends.
I felt I needed to become better, better, better; and I believed that the external things that I put on me would make it happen.

— I am aware that the aspects mentioned above are not solely related to the use of IG, but from today’s perspective, I can admit that this platform contributed significantly to my poor mental health. —

Detox Time

My “social media detox” started as just a couple of days, followed by a year, and ultimately, after almost two years, ended with a conscious choice of whether I wanted to continue using SM or not.

The first days of the detox made me fully realize my addiction.

I kept opening my phone and getting disappointed that I had nothing to scroll in there.
I felt that I was missing out on something important happening, I felt “left out” & wanted to be “up-to-date”.
The times I was downloading the app again - I had a huge dopamine spike and an even bigger need to keep up with everything that had happened during the period I was gone.

That behavior showed me again that I didn’t want to function like this. Although I was still an active user of IG, I became more conscious of the ways this platform may affect me - and my approach to the app has changed. I started to look at it from a different perspective.

With time I started to be more & more disgusted with what I saw on IG and what kind of content was promoted there.
Of course, I fell into the trap of posting such content too.

My dislike towards IG has grown so much that one day I became simply tired of everything* out there and decided not to be on a “detox” anymore - but simply disappear from there until one day I would want to come back.

*including - everywhere-present persisting lies about reality, sexual content promotion, promotion of life with no values, the number of people presenting only their fairytale-kind-of-life & by any means showing off how amazing/cool/handsome/beautiful/sexy they are, the type&culture of direct messaging, advertisements, the type of “influencers” becoming famous, people pretending how much fun they’re having when in fact they’re just putting a fake smile+adding a little dance when an IG story is being recorded, instagram filters, photoshopped photos, unrealistic beauty standards promotion, and so on, and so on…

— Was I contributing to the aspects above? Surely. —

After 2 Years

After 1 year of choosing not to be a user of IG and not to feed this machine, I opened the app again to see what was happening out there.
I was happy to see posts of my happy friends & to see “some news” that I wasn’t aware of before.

But I also saw that what is happening out there is no longer affecting me and I am just “visiting” a place that I don’t want to belong anymore. Also, I was surprised that it is difficult to find a photo in the feed, as the majority of the content is videos, making the experience even more overwhelming.

Overwhelming - this is the word that gives out the vibes of visiting IG after a long time.

Now, almost 2 years have passed and I still choose not to participate in a “regular” activity on IG. I visit the platform to look up what interests me or to keep up with SM trends for professional reasons.

What’s Next?

Everything that I wrote in this post until now is fairly biased and subjective - I know.

- Do I like social media in general?
- Yes.

- Do I think they may serve a good purpose?
- Yes

- Am I still using social media platforms?
- Yes.

I’ve just shared my personal experience and feelings towards IG showing the reasons that made me stay away.

I work in social media marketing and I am truly excited about my job & professional development - so obviously, I want to know what is happening in all of the SM platforms. What is the best way to learn how they function? To use them.

The Sweet Spot

Luckily, I have found my sweet spot.

I decided to use IG in a way that is closer to my values & without contributing to the aspects of IG I dislike.

For my joy, inspiration, aesthetics & input to the aspects I enjoy in social media - I use Pinterest, where I dedicate my more personal space, as I enjoy the nature of this social media platform. (+LinkedIn has grown on me.)

Facebook & TikTok serve as a professional tool of work for now.

The End

If you have read it all through - thank you! I understand that you may not agree with many of the things I have written. The purpose of this post was not to attempt to get anyone to change their opinion about this matter - I simply wanted to share my perspective.

But hey! The opinions & perspectives change - as mine may too.