Goodbye Instagram

Have you ever gone through a breakup where things haven’t been working for a long time, and while you don’t want to say goodbye, it’s long overdue? This is the closest thing I can compare what has become of my relationship with Instagram in the last two years. I’ve sat down at my computer to write the official breakup post with an explanation I feel the need to give. More than anything, this blog post is meant to provide some closure for myself, for the people who have supported me on the platform through the best and worst of times, and a note on where to find me in the future. 

Before I go any further, this post is completely personal, and not intended to make anyone feel bad about their own personal journey with any social media network. I have plenty of friends who still love this app, and I encourage anyone to continue to use it as long as it makes you happy. For anyone questioning their own relationship with Instagram or other forms of social media, I hope by sharing my journey, I can maybe provide some help. 

Why I Left

To put this simply, I hate the way Instagram makes me feel. When I first joined Instagram, I loved the platform, but over the last two years of my life I feel this relationship has turned toxic to a point it is no longer healthy for me. This is why I took an unannounced break from the app in the middle of 2020. I thought a break would be enough to revitalize my love for this platform, but as time has gone on, it has only made me realize I have been enjoying my life much more without it. 

This next reason is true of more social media networks than just Instagram, but I feel like, for me, Instagram was the hardest platform to escape from toxicity and drama. Instead of feeling like people were there to lift each other up and build a supportive environment, too much of what I saw focused on negativity, witch hunting, and people being outright mean to each other. 

More than anything I can still feel how unhealthy my relationship with this app has become. Instead of looking to this platform for inspiration and networking, I found myself constantly comparing myself to others. People who led much different lives than me would post something, and it would leave me feeling like I wasn’t good enough. Ultimately, I know these are personal insecurities, but I am doing my best to acknowledge how unhealthy and wrong this mindset is and focus on being the better version of myself that I want people to know. 

My Fears

I have gained many friends through my time on Instagram, and the possibility of not staying connected with them after I delete the app from my phone truly hurts. The last thing I want is to make anyone feel like I am not supportive. To this point, I will do my best to keep up with you in other formats.  

Letting people down is one of my worst fears, and I hate the idea of disappointing anyone. I know deep down, the people in my life for me want what is best for me. As a society, we have allowed social media to hold such a power in our lives that it is easy to let our brains tell us if we aren’t posting everything on the internet then we aren’t relevant and society will forget us. Even typing it sounds silly, but I’ve had to remind myself that people who truly care about me will support my decision. 

What’s next?

Ultimately, I have decided instead of spending time trying to fix something that is broken, I am going to focus on other things. Instagram ultimately has become something that takes away from the things I really want to spend time on. I learned this in the six month hiatus I took before coming to this conclusion. 

I’m not going away completely. I really want to focus more on actually creating for me again rather than just focusing on having content or likes or followers. I truly think the content will create itself if I live by that standard. If you still want to follow my creative work and personal journey, the platforms you can find me on moving forward are listed below. 

• Right here on this blog or Bloglovin’ 
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Twitter 

To anyone who took the time to read this post to the end, thank you. I sincerely appreciate everyone who has supported me and my creative hobbies over the years, and this is not truly goodbye. This has been a weird year for every single person on this planet, and I hope this post finds you safe and looking towards a brighter future.