How I Use Instagram — Without Losing My Mind
My Ways to Deal with the Necessary Evil
I recently started posting pictures and stories on Instagram, and sometime around last month, I felt that using it is making me lose my mind.
One option was to stop using it. But then Medium does not have a feature to chat and there are some people I want to follow on Instagram as well as share some of my pictures with the world.
I made a few rules and ways to continue using it while trying to minimize the harm it does to my mental health and peace.
There was a time I used to go to facebook and lose track of time and see that hours have passed in seeing what others have shared.
The solution I used for Facebook was to just unfollow every single person and page. The almost empty feed with only a bunch of adds was not interesting. And now, I don’t think I spend more than 5 minutes every day on Facebook.
But it would not have worked on Instagram because of two reasons:
- I was never posting on Facebook, just seeing what others have shared. On the other hand, I post on Instagram.
- I want to see what a bunch of selected people (not every person I know in life) are posting.
So, while being inactive on Facebook gave me JOMO (Joy of missing out), quitting Instagram would cause FOMO (fear of missing out).
But how exactly did Instagram drove me crazy?
As you already know by now, but I’ll state it again, ‘Instagram was the first time I started posting on social media frequently’. And with it came the notification of who liked my post, commented on my post, who followed me.
Every time I saw those icons, I got dopamine kicks, resulting in increased frequency to check Instagram and decreased focus on work.
Also, I started getting worried if I don’t post something for a few days, as it reduced those red hearts.
This emotional roller coaster drained me out of energy and I felt distracted, annoyed, and tired.
I do enjoy sharing a nice click once in a while with the world, and I have planned (not started yet) to post early morning images as my story when I wake up by 7 am (to be motivated and responsible for waking up on time).
There are some awesome people I have had a chat with on Instagram.
But the purpose of Instagram is to be a supportive social media account for my writing account on Medium.
Now coming to the tips as promised:
- I have disabled notifications for following, likes, and comments. The only notification I get is when someone sends me a direct message. And I rarely get any message on Instagram.
- I have fixed a certain time in the day when I’ll catch up on my Instagram feed, and it is not whenever I am tired and bored. It is when I am aware and can stop after Instagram tells me that I’m all caught up.
- I have moved the app to a position where it is not easy to find. And I have enabled app lock for it. Just to make it harder to mindlessly opening it. You can find what you can do in your phone.
That’s it. Do let me know what you do to save yourself from Instagram??
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And finally, do follow me on Instagram :D
