At the beginning of August 2023, I decided to take a few days off Instagram.
A few days turned into a week which then turned into a month and now almost 6 weeks later I still haven’t logged back in.
It started as break similar to the ones I’ve taken before when I start to notice myself constantly checking the app, constantly going over my daily allotted time and no longer actually getting anything from being on the app.
In the past, after about 2-5 days I’d log back in on my phone, scroll for a little while and feel like I was now in a place where I would no longer use Instagram as much. Then a few days or a week later, things would just go back to normal.
This time, I’ve been very conscious of what is going on in my personal life and reflected on the fact that being on Instagram won’t be helpful for me.
As much as it can be interesting and entertaining the bottom line is that for me it’s this addictive insight into the day to day lives of strangers and people I’ve met at events.
After the first week, I was pleased that I didn’t really miss it and just wanted to see how long I could go without it. Now, over a month later I feel pretty firm on not wanting to go back to what I was doing before.
I feel perfectly fine without it.
I don’t feel like I’m missing out by not seeing what people are up to.
I don’t miss interacting with strangers.
There were a couple of times where I was out doing things like attending events, having dinner or on holiday and I’d take photos and videos thinking I’d log in to post them at some point but it never happened.
I realised that as much as I’m not as interested in other people’s lives, I’m also okay with not sharing mine either.
The Daily Gemm 