Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Inspiration?
Why Pinterest and Instagram do more harm than good to me
I’m no stranger to going down the rabbit hole on social media. YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest — they’re filled with content that is interesting to me. I can spend hours looking for inspiration, only to be left feeling exhausted from all the mindless scrolling.
When I have time to do all those hobbies, recipes, and ideas that I see online, I spend it adding even more pins to my boards, videos to watch later, or saving posts.
By the end of the day, I do not feel accomplished or fulfilled.
Throughout all these years, I have not found a healthy balance between looking for inspiration on the Internet and doing things in real life.
I had not realized how unhappy it was making me until I took a step back because I was moving out of my parent’s place. I was overwhelmed when I saw all the unfinished projects and materials for crafts I had accumulated over the years.
Whenever I scroll through social media, I am bombarded with ideas and things I want to do or try, but it soon becomes too much.
It’s easier for me to pick up the phone than a pair of knitting needles, even though I enjoy the latter more. I end up frustrated with my decision, but I always come up with the excuse that I’m looking at social media for inspiration.
What am I going to do about this?
When I came to that realization, my first thought was to delete social media entirely, but that’s not what I truly want. What I want is to use the inspiration that I gain from it and actually do something.
Instead, I’m challenging myself to look at those saved posts, pins, and videos. Is it still something that I want to do? Am I even interested in watching the video anymore?
I’m thinking of it as cleaning up, while also re-inspiring myself with what I have collected in the past.
I’m starting out with something easy for me — I’m going to look at the recipes I have saved up and make at least 1 every week from now on instead of scrambling to prepare something out of the blue.
To push myself even more, I’ll be documenting this experiment on Medium. Will I feel good afterward, or is it only going to lead me to more social media consumption? We will see.
Slowly, I hope to start using social media as a tool that benefits me and not the other way around.
Key Message: Stop scrolling and saving posts on social media and start doing all the things that you desperately want to. It’s hard, but it is rewarding.
Do you also feel like you consume “too much inspiration” on social media? I would love to know what others think about this!
