Set Me Free, Please
I went from checking my emails to opening up my dear friend Sandy’s newsletter about Scorpio Full Moon and down the rabbit hole of:
What is Kajabi? Should I use Kajabi instead of Squrespace? Let me check out one of their users Justin Welsh…and his most recent article (#175: The great social media exodus?) goes straight into what my friend and I discussed heatedly about literally a few days ago: our exhaustion and bottom line with social media. How we felt it has forced creatives to work by their rules and poisoned our minds with addictive useless void. We want to get out, desperately.
Instagram in my opinion has evolved into a tool that kills the joy of new information. It has unofficially, sneakily, controlled the content we consume. To me, it is the equivalent of the canned food era when back in the day, it was expected and cool to just dump a bunch of canned food into a pan, reheat and eat it every single day. That’s Instagram. It has become a puddle of disgusting goo. Yes, I have so much anger towards it. Yet, I can’t give it up. Call it addiction, habit, or social norm. I do see its values. It is a place where I can discover eateries, admire tastefully put together ootds and sometimes, get quick downloads from my close friends miles away within a few clicks. However, in this age of limitless, borderless connection, I feel more loneliness than I ever remembered.
This is why I have been mindfully managing my intake of Instagram and being more conscious of the content I am sharing on this platform. My methodology isn’t perfect but it is helping. Doom scrolling episodes have been minimized, I get more time back to do productive things in my life that motivates me and I still enjoy the values that Instagram brings to the table. Here’s how:
- Screen time is my trusted accountability buddy (I set 30 mins in total for all social apps + games per day)
- I found that celebrity posts usually lead to doom scroll and shitty feeling so I will intentionally quickly scroll past any suggested celebrity posts. Trust me, there are so many. Any hesitation and they will return with vengeance. Oh, I also unfollowed Kylie Jenner, Khardasians, or any of those models/celebrities that show only the fabulous side of their life that will never be possible for me because I am not born into this circle. I will never have the same opportunities nor should I strive for it.
- Instagram is the people pleaser that secretly wants to manipulate you, so gaming it requires the knowledge that it operates on an algorithm with a single mission: I will share with you anything and everything that keeps your eyes glued on me and thumbs swiping up. Therefore, I will try to lead it to lead me to more creators that brings on positive influences for me. Pausing a little longer on creatives’ posts that are doing work for themselves, following them and engaging with them.
- With the time I fought hard to get back, I write down a list of to-dos I want to tackle today on my handy dandy whiteboard. I find that having a physical white board and writing it down with a marker, crossing it out with my hand brought on a sense of achievement. This feeling of hard earned pride usually sticks around to promote more of this behavior I have created for myself.
- Speaking about hands, I want to return to my childhood days where I am physically in the real world touching and working on things. I strive for the days I am using my phone and laptop less and less during the day.
I just started this audible “Digital Minimalism” (a new book? shocker) by Cal Newport. I’m only a few hours of listen in and he is making a lot sense of the overarching topic of this blog. He has a few other books in my wishlist, one of which goes into more detail on “Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout”, which I cannot wait to read once I’ve set myself free from Instagram.
