How Deleting Instagram from My Phone Has Made My Life Lighter
It’s been a week. And what a good week it has been.
I have been toying with the idea of deleting Instagram for a while now, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
I kept coming up with a ton of excuses:
I might start taking pictures with my camera again, and I will want to share those.
If I invest on becoming a professional photographer, I will need an audience on the platform.
I have friends whose updates I really like to see.
I like to use it to express myself sometimes.
And so I kept the little pink icon on my phone, ready to distract me whenever I felt the need of an electronic pacifier.
Sure, the comparison effect often caused a bitter taste in my mouth. Seeing people whose lives seemed more on track than mine never failed to bring me down, seeing my ex-husband and his family made me angry, seeing rich influencers embarking on amazing company-sponsored vacations made me jealous.
So, I unfollowed a bunch of these people, and for a while, that was enough.
Then, something else started to bother me about Instagram: the feeling that I was working for it for free.
Let me explain the logic.
Much like a television network, Instagram makes money by selling advertisement space. For this space to have value, Instagram needs to be able to boast a good number of users, in other words, they need to have great ratings, and for that they need content.
Networks either produce or buy content to fill out their schedule, meaning that they pay professionals to create the stuff that keeps viewers coming back for more. What are Instagram users looking at on Instagram? The content that you and I upload. Every day. For free.
I don’t know about you, but I think that getting 1 billion people to work for you for free is the scam of the century.
One could argue that creating and uploading content to Instagram isn’t an activity entirely without its rewards. Connecting with people, that’s your reward. And maybe — maybe — getting famous, like an influencer, and becoming filthy rich as result. That’s fair, but is connection a good enough reward for all the stress involved into choosing the right moment, getting the right angle, then editing your image to death before finally posting it?
Posting on Instagram is hard work.
It’s hard work I didn’t feel like doing for free anymore.
And how much connecting do you actually get from it? Be honest. Think a minute (just don’t reach for your phone to check Instagram as you do).
I believe that Instagram began as a platform to promote the sharing of inspiring photography in a positive and constructive way, but those innocent roots have long been left behind, unfortunately.
If Instagram changed, it makes sense that its users change with it — even if that means stepping away.
Why delete the app altogether?
The number of times I kept mindlessly picking my phone up to check Instagram started to get on my nerves. That, and all the uncompensated hard work I had done for the company over the years.
Simply posting less often wasn’t doing the trick, as having it on my phone meant a never-ending temptation to get easily distracted. I would even check Instagram as I was “watching” a movie.
It was time to eliminate the temptation cold turkey. It’s been a week now, and it feels just great.
On the first two days, I would still pick up my phone at random times, seeking the pink icon.
I have to admit, it was mildly disorienting to not find it there, in the spot I had reserved for it on my screen for the past half a decade. After the second day, though, my brain finally learned that it was an useless pursuit, and just like that, the habit was gone.
Some days, I would had weird moments when I didn’t know what to do with myself. I would stop, look around, and feel just lost. And then it would hit me: that’s a time of day I would usually spend 5-10 mins on my phone, scrolling.
Trips to the bathroom became nothing more than trips to the bathroom. I also didn’t have a screen in front of my face as I had breakfast every morning. It felt good to be just… there.
Living like that began to feel lighter. Normal.
I don’t miss anything.
Not. A. Single. Thing.
I don’t miss seeing the updates from my friends, family members, or high school acquittances whose last names I barely remember. I have let a few close friends know that I was quitting the platform, and the connection we have always had via text keeps going strong, which more than makes up for anything I’m not mindlessly scrolling down an app to see.
Least of all, I don’t miss the ads, and I certainly don’t miss the influencers, trying to sell me products they’ll never even try for themselves.
I no longer shape my life around shareable moments.
Being so active on Instagram was beginning to warp my thought process.
I would be always looking out for the next photo-op. I would be always trying to find unusual places to go to, exciting things to do, cute outfits to wear. I kept trying to shape my life into shareable moments, funny, inspiring 15 second clips which created a portrayal of how I would like my life to be, not of how it actually was.
Being disconnected from this online identity has made me more aware of my present. I’m more grounded in the moment, more connected with my reality and more focused on my goals.
I no longer feel like I’m behind in life.
I have stopped comparing and have started living.
