My Amusingly Disastrous Relationship with Instagram
By Pavithra Rajesh
Courtesy of News18
Every night when I go to bed, I like to plan the things that I’m going to do the next day. Those range from homework, to assignments, to meetings, and to personal errands. There’s always one thing that makes the list every time.
What is it, you may ask?
Delete Instagram.
And the reason why it makes the list every night?
Simple. I NEVER DO IT.
Now, I don’t use Instagram that much, in terms of posting my own content. I’ll post a picture or cover here and there from time to time, but for the most part, I use it to look at other people’s content and the Explore page. Over time, as I’ve followed more accounts, I’ve realized a terrible habit of mine that I can’t seem to stop.
I have to like every single post on my feed, and I have to view every single story.
Let me repeat that.
I have to like every single post on my feed, and I have to view every single story.
I feel like a crazy person.
Courtesy of The Verge
The worst part is that, most of the time, I’m barely looking at what I’m liking or viewing! Apparently, I just have an obsession with Instagram being “done”. By being “done”, I mean, there are no lit-up circles around anyone’s story icon, and there is a message on my feed that says I’ve viewed every post from the past two days.
That’s when I realized the kind of thought process that Instagram has started to enforce upon my life, and it isn’t something that is healthy in the long-term. I’ve started to think that it’s so important for me to view everyone’s posts and updates – even if I shouldn’t really care.
It’s become such a practice. Before I go to bed every night, I refresh my feed and I like every post and view every story. When I wake up in the morning, I refresh my feed and I like every post and view every story. I guarantee that if you scroll through my feed, you will not find a post that isn’t liked. Instagram has become the first and last thing I do every day, and just writing that sentence is a reminder of how unhealthy that is. Forget about the screen time – just the fact that I start and end my day by learning about other people’s lives is the problem.
What about my own life?
I acknowledge that a lot of this habit has to do with my OCD tendencies, and I have seen it take form in other mediums too. But I also realize that, at least subconsciously, I have this addiction to constantly knowing what other people are up to, and while I know that behavior is toxic, platforms such as Instagram propel their feature like we have to take advantage of it.
Spoiler Alert: We don’t.
I’ve often found myself plagued by loneliness, jealousy, and sadness upon observing the “fun, exciting, and friend-filled” lives of people I follow – only for those feelings to disappear when I remind myself that a) social media is fake, and b) I have much more important things to worry about.
But why do I put myself through it in the first place? Why do I purposely go through the same cycle daily when I know that it’s only going to make me feel worse? Why am I giving into my obsessive habit like it controls me?
Even though every day I tell myself to delete Instagram, I’m 99% sure I never will. The truth is that I maintain a lot of conversations through the app, and there are a few people’s posts who I genuinely care about. However, I have started to take steps to try and reduce the amount of time I spend.
Courtesy of Business Insider
I’ve unfollowed almost every single TV show and movie page. If something happens that is that important, I’ll hear about it somewhere – I don’t need to follow those pages. Those promotional pages are usually the ones that post the most and contribute to me spending even more time staring at my screen and aimlessly liking posts and viewing stories.
Additionally, every two weeks or so, I go through the list of people I follow, and I make sure to unfollow people who I don’t actually know, people whose posts I don’t need to see, and people who I simply don’t want to follow. I have a habit of randomly following people daily, even when I don’t need to. Regularly going through the list of people I follow helps me get rid of the excess content.
Seeing the number of accounts that I follow slowly dwindle down has genuinely produced a sigh of relief, and I know I have a long way to go. I recognize that it’ll be a lot harder to get rid of my manic need to constantly check every update on the app, so till then, I can at least attempt to reduce the workload.
This might not be something that anyone else shares, but social media impacts different people in different ways – and it’s not always in a good way. It’s important to remember that it’s an app. You control the app; the app does not control you. Social media doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon, which means those of us who risk addictive behavior need to continuously put ourselves in check. Like anything, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Remember to use the feature for the right reasons.
