Today I would like to touch on social media and their impact on our day to day lives. Specifically, I will be talking about how deleting Instagram made me happier.
I believe I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I deleted my Instagram. I meant to write a post about the reasons why, but as you might already know I have been feeling a bit low the past few weeks.
Truth be told, I had been toying with the idea of deleting all my social media for a very long time. And I didn’t realise how much happier I was until after deleting my Instagram. I never used to have any social media to begin with. When they first came into the picture and became popular, I chose to pass (in the disapproval of my then friends).
I only joined Facebook in 2009, but really started using it in 2013. Same with Insta, I created an account in 2015, but really started using it in 2016-17. And only recently did I really create an online presence on Pinterest, TikTok, Youtube etc.
Post Overview: 1. Brief history of Instagram 2. Two Instagram accounts? 3. Considering deleting my Instagram 4. The final straw 5. How it affected my life
Brief history of Instagram
For those of you who don’t know, here’s a brief history of Instagram. Photographer Kevin Systrom created the app in 2010.
Initially, it was an iOS exclusive app and offered innovative photo filters. When the app went live, more than 25,000 people downloaded it in the first 24 hours, crashing Instagram’s servers.
I didn’t have an iPhone back then, and therefore was jealously trying to find in the 2010 world wide web what this “Instagram” was; and why all the rich and popular kids, including Paris Hilton, were using it.
Later on, Systrom sold his company to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and stepped down from being CEO.
Two Instagram accounts?
Let’s take it from the beginning; I actually had two Instagram accounts. The one I mentioned above, which I created in 2015, and was my personal account. It’s where I followed and was followed by friends, colleagues and men I met on dating apps. 🙈
The second account was my “professional” one. It was an account I created last summer for the sole purpose of promoting this blog.
Considering deleting my Instagram
So, what happened, was that I decided to temporarily disable my personal account and only use the professional one.
The people on my personal account were not people I was talking to every day, anyway, so I didn’t really feel I would miss out on anything.
Gradually, I noticed that I was spending a lot of time on Instagram without actually doing anything substantial.
Half the time, I was stalking other people, mostly celebrities, and comparing their lives to mine. This usually ended with me spiralling into episodes of depression and self-pity. 😒
The rest of the time, I was struggling to gain followers and likes. I would strive to take quality photos, edit them to a professional standard and choose Insta-algorithm-friendly captions and tags.
Did it help me gain a following? No. Did I enjoy it? Sometimes. Did I fall in the trap of wasting money in buying (bot) followers and likes and paying for Insta ads? Yes, unfortunately, I did.
This last part was when I started contemplating whether it was worth having and using an Instagram account.
Especially, after the last update, it was clear Instagram only cares for ads and aims to promote companies.
[Of course, being owned by Facebook has everything to do with Instagram stepping away from the original purpose of social networking and photo sharing.]
The final straw
In the spirit of full disclosure, I completely stopped using Instagram when I downloaded TikTok.
TikTok reminded me of what I used to like about social media. It has a sense of community, and they’ve created this amazing algorithm, which only shows you videos you will genuinely be interested in.
Slowly but steadily, I got tired of trying so hard to be part of Instagram and going no where. One day, I made the decision to temporarily disable my professional account.
I still cannot get myself to delete it, solely because of the effort and money I put into it. But, I did delete the app from my phone and tablet.
I kept my personal account, which I very occasionally sign in to. When I do, it’s via the old fashioned way of logging in through a browser.
How deleting Instagram affected my life and made me happier
Honestly, I didn’t realise how much time I was wasting until I deleted the Instagram app. Suddenly, I was left with all this free time that I didn’t have before.
It felt like a de ja vú to my life before social media. I had to remind myself what I was doing in the mornings, before I started checking Instagram as soon as I opened my eyes. Or, what I used to do when I wanted to kill time waiting in a queue.
Frankly, it was the best thing I could have ever done for my mental health! 🌸 A few of the benefits of deleting my Instagram are as seen below:
- I fell back in love with reading books (that’s what I used to do in all the scenarios above!).
- I noticed that I feel more relaxed overall.
- I don’t feel depressed anymore from comparing my life to other people’s lives.
- I have more time to devote to this blog! ✌🏽
- I started using my Flickr again, which is the OG site for photographers.
It’s worth noting that along with Instagram, I stopped using Facebook, too. But, that is a whole other post! 😅
Personally, I feel it’s a dying app. Which does make me a bit sad, considering the ground breaking filters it had when it first launched!
How do YOU feel about Instagram? Do you still use it? Let me know in the comments! ⬇
M. x
edit 26/9/2021: After a recent final (and failed) attempt to use Instagram to promote this blog, I have now deleted all my professional accounts and have temporarily disabled my personal one. And, indeed, as the blog title suggests, I am much happier after deleting Instagram.
Further Reading
- The Simple Reason I Deleted My Instagram Account
- 10 Things That Happened When I Deleted My Instagram
- The 4 Reasons Why I Deleted My Instagram
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*Featured image by Hans Vivek.
Hi there, I’m new to your blog, found you on Twitter. This was an interesting read! People quitting social media always interests me. I actually have three IG accounts! It’s because I really, REALLY dislike Facebook and although Instagram is owned by Facebook, it’s different. I moved from Sweden to Ireland almost 3 years ago, and Instagram has been the go-to platform to follow my former colleagues and other people in Sweden.
I’ve hated the last few updates and development of Instagram, and when you say that they only care about ads and to promote businesses, you’re totally spot on. I was close to quitting everything except the account my husband and I have together, but then IG finally came with the amazing news that you can create posts from your computer. When I started using it on my laptop, I also discovered it’s ad-free because I have content blockers in all my browsers. I can’t escape the algorithms, but that’s ok as long as it isn’t cluttered with ads. I still have the app on my phone because it seems you can’t edit posts on the computer, but I only use the app for responding to comments if I’m away from the computer.
I’ve never used IG in a way that has made me miserable and now when I can use it almost 100% from my laptop or iPad browser, I actually enjoy it again, so I created a new account for my personal blog and photography, and have my other account for my music content, and the oldest one (with my husband) for mainly music we make together these days. I only follow people I genuinely want to follow, and never look at trending stuff.
I’m actually closer to deleting my Facebook account. It’s a horrible platform! But I’m in some useful groups there so I’ll stay for a bit longer and see what happens.What used to be social media should be renamed to marketing media because that’s what it’s all about these days.
I am still with Instagram but, for one of the accounts I manage, I would not mind switching to tiktok. Tiktok is a great platform, I love that is new and still steadily growing into a niche and more specific place for certain types of video content, and it is always a fun place to be to see new trends and challenges.
Thanks for sharing how moving on has helped you become a happier person! 🙂
I absolutely love TikTok! I feel that I never really fit in on Instagram. Thanks for reading & commenting! 😊
Hello! This is a great post and I totally agree, deleting instagram for a while was amazing for me. Now sadly I have to use it for my work and I’m stuck lol, great post! Alicia
I do have an Insta for my blog, but I hardly use it – it’s woefully neglected, because I don’t really like Insta all that much! I prefer using my browser and typing on a keyboard rather than mashing the tiny keys on my phone’s virtual keyboard (I’m the world’s clumsiest texter, I swear!) And like you said, using Insta through your browser isn’t the usual way to use it so it’s not set up to do so easily.
Insta also feels way less friendly than Twitter or TikTok – it’s all about the numbers and people play the follow-unfollow game on there way more than any other social network I’ve come across. I’m glad you feel better for deleting yours!
Yes totally. Insta has become a marketing game which is so sad. When it first came out it was all about the cool photo filters which I quite enjoyed.
I love my Insta! And this post is so informative, I learned a lot of this App today! Great Post
To be honest I have tried insta for a while and I tend to just scroll aimlessly without even looking. I use Facebook more because I’m in so many groups that are really active and I like the community
Yes, I still go on Fb every now and then, it is not AS bad as Insta. However, I would say I don’t love it either, sometimes people’s comments can be so toxic. I also deleted the FB app from my phone, because I found out from a TikTok video how it tracks everything on your phone, incl. bank apps! 😳 And this dramatically changed how often I use FB now… Perhaps I’ll do a post of Fb too🤔
That would be a good idea. I found out fb was tracking everything but there is a way to turn that off but it means no other apps can use Facebook to sign in or anything.. I’m finding the blogs I’m following are so much more interesting than the SM stuff I’ve been attached to in the past.
I read a blog post by Pepper Valentine about how she is finding her online blogging friends better than her real friends
Yes definitely! I enjoy reading blogs much more that scrolling in social media! And yes, sometimes online friends can be more compatible as they are people you wouldn’t normally meet because they don’t live close to you (or because of lockdown nowadays!) 🙂
Hi Maria! Great post!
I use Instagram for a few reasons – to promote by blog and my books, to network with others, and to help me stay on top of social media in general because it’s a big part of my main career of being an online editor. I do find myself scrolling sometimes, but never for long because there are so many ads on it these days. Instead of social media, I try to keep printed materials on hand for those times when I have a few minutes (in my car, for example). I feel old-school because I still love a great paper magazine! 😀
Oh my days I know the feeling! I like having paper copies of books, magazines, newspapers too! Unfortunately, my flat is smallish, so I have resorted to mostly Kindle and iPad copies… 😭But yeah, I am very done with Insta. I find it destructive and very useless…!
IG has gotten so so sad. I used to love this APP to bits but now I’m also done with it. With all these “micro-influencers” taking over the app – it’s just not a fun experience anymore. I miss the days when people genuinely shared good photos on there.
I’m only on IG – and I end up taking a few weeks off from it every quarter so I don’t feel like I’m that into social media anymore. But the first time I did a detox I felt all the after effects that you did. It felt so good to be away from the negativity and the comparison that IG induces in our lives.
100% agree. I honestly did not realise how much it was affecting me until I stopped using it completely!