Life Without Instagram

M. imannulhakim
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read

Instagram was one of my favourite social media, and for good reason. It has simple and attractive user interface, simple but engaging features, and everybody else are using it. About a month ago, I was in Singapore and I met an Indonesian who is currently studying in Melbourne university. By the end of our chat, she asked “What is you instagram? I cannot find your account”. And I replied “I don’t have any”. And she said “What? You are an Indonesian. You should have Instagram!”. That is the kind of social pressure that you get if you don’t use Instagram, everybody think it is weird. And most people don’t want to be perceived as weird by other people. But weird or not, it does not matter, and I have good reasons why.

I used to be an avid user of Instagram, I even had 2 accounts: one for my day to day activities, and the other for my photography works. I deactivated my accounts since about 3 months ago. The reason? Time-consuming. Instagram is very addictive, and I wish I knew it a little bit earlier. I wouldn’t say that I didn’t achieve as much as I should last semester because of Instagram, but I know that my behaviour toward Instagram is not favourable for me because I only wasting time in it and nothing else. So the most logical decision I should make was to just quit Instagram. And I’m glad I did.

So how is life without Instagram?

I could answer it with only one word: Better.

It is a cliche, but it’s true. Living my life without having too much burden to care about what other people are doing and without comparing my life with other people’s lives, which by the way are only their highlights, makes me more focus on my self; my happiness and my stress.

It is also very peaceful. I travelled to Singapore, Batam, and Pekanbaru and I experienced every moment of it without the distraction of the urge to take pictures for the sake of narcissism and showing off. I even surprised by how beautiful life is to just be in the moment and experiencing every detail of it, every laugh, every tear, every sweat, every smell, and every smile.

The problem with Instagram, in my opinion, is not the narcissism. Narcissism is part of our human nature. 10.000 years ago our ancestor was a narcissist by placing their painted hands onto the wall of the caves. 6000 years ago the first human civilization Mesopotamia made tons of statues of their kings. 2000 years ago the Romans made coins with their emperors face printed on it. 100 years ago people are waiting in line for their pictures to be taken. All of this, to let us know, the people of their future, that they were alive. When they were alive, the most important thing for them is themselves, and they wanted us to keep perceiving it that way. We all want to be known and remembered, but it is not the problem with Instagram.

The problem with Instagram is not about fulfilling our needs to be known and remembered, but our perception of how we want to be known and remembered and how it affects others. We only post the best things about ourselves, we filter our flaws because it is simply just not attractive to other people. And when we posted it and received hundreds of likes, we suddenly feel like we are a successful person. And then the feeling fades away because it was just a shallow happiness. And when you look at other people’s profile and their stories that full of achievement and travels, you feel like you are not as good as them and it makes you sad and stressed, not realizing that they did exactly the same thing as you have always done to your Instagram: post only the best of you and filter the flaws.

Life should not be lived this way. We should work our ass off and nobody should know how hard we have been working because they just don’t care. Achieve as much as we could without bragging about it. Take good care of our body and our mind because we need it not because people think it’s a cool thing to do. Life is beautiful if you choose to live in the moment and experience every detail of it. You should look into the eyes of the girl that has been sitting in front of you for dinner. Look at her eyes, make her laugh, captivated by the beauty of her smile and enjoy the happiness that is being transmitted from her to you. Live the experience! Who gives a fuck about the picture of your food?

-Muhamad Imannulhakim, August 31st 2018.

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