The honest reason why I deactivated my Instagram, and why you should too if you’re considering it
This past summer, I found myself checking my phone a bit too much (in my opinion). So, my whole social media detox started with me turning off my notifications for all apps other than iMessage. This small step was pretty refreshing; I was not anxiously checking my phone all the time and I could put a little more focus on whatever I was doing that day.
Turning off my notifications did not completely alleviate the stress I faced regarding social media. I was never particularly anxious about Instagram in the first place; I didn’t worry about what my feed looked like or how many followers I had, but I felt as though there was a sort of high standard for Instagram content. I would always see Tik Toks about what aesthetic photo I should put on my Instagram story or what I should caption my photo dumps, and it made me feel, in a way, hyper-perceived. Do people really care this much about how I present myself on social media? Whether or not the average Instagram user spends all of their time on social media analyzing, it was still a bit off-putting to think that there are people out there who could look at my profile and think the way I organized my weekend photo dump was “wrong.”
When I was thinking about whether or not I pull the trigger on completely deactivating my account, I decided to weigh my options. Cons: I could not keep up with my friends (some of my friends’ close friends stories and finstas are really funny), but I could just make another account to only follow my friends. Pros: alleviate some social media stress, use my phone less, actually know who is viewing my profile and not have to deal with spam accounts. After considering this, I made another small account for my friends to follow and I deactivated my main Instagram account once and for all.
Honestly, in terms of seeing my friends’ content, I barely noticed a difference. The main difference that I see now is that I feel no need to go on Instagram as much because there is not as much content for me to interact with. If you are considering deactivating your Instagram account, DO IT. I barely even think about Instagram anymore, and it is the perfect temporary (or permanent) fix for minimizing your time on social media.