Complex Little Human with Your Instagramming
I logged onto Instagram to post my daily mug, and after I published it, I was immediately captured by all the random stuff on Instagram. I stopped when I hit a John Wayne quote that wasn’t really a John Wayne quote.
Total time in said rabbit scroll - 2 minutes.
Here’s the thing - I post on Instagram to reach people who may want or need some of things I make. Sometimes that’s books, writing courses, Notion templates, whatever.
BUT, I had to remove Instagram from my phone, because it was distracting me. I was getting sucked down the rabbit hole of miniatures, gardening, watercolor, and fitness.
Since removing Instagram from my phone, I’ve used my phone four hours less on average per day! FOUR DANG HOURS!
Removing Instagram from my phone, however, means that I have to access it online or download it whenever I need to update Stories.
This is a minor inconvenience, but manageable.
Why am I sharing this? Because, people and social media are complicated.
There are posts on Instagram telling you to put your phone down, to use social media less. Very meta.
Real talk - I want to use social to capitalize on the audience, but I also don’t want to get lost in a sea of posts even though I am contributing to that rising tide.
I love Instagram for how it allows us to represent our life in pictures. I love that it connects us through these images.
I hate that it can create feelings of missing out or loneliness. I hate that it can make you spend $20 on a scrunchy that is supposed to curl your hair while you sleep (I bought it, it works, I’m not that mad about it). Most of all, I hate the time it seems to steal from us.
But, it isn’t really Instagram stealing our time. It’s us. We are choosing to spend our time there. If it is a conscious decision, then that’s great!
If it is accidental, that’s a problem. It’s involuntary hypnosis.
We need to be more aware of when those things happen to us - more aware of when we are signing up to flush our time away by scrolling.
I love Instagram, but it’s a tool for connecting people with ideas and products. It’s a tool for making money.
Will I continue to use it for this purpose? Yeah. Will I still log on from time to time to look at pictures of people doing cool stuff like making knives or knitting cool things? Yes.
What can I say? People are complicated.