It’s only been a month since I deactivated my account, but I don’t miss Instagram at all. Honestly, what’s the purpose? You share overly filtered and unrealistic pictures with strangers and get addicted to what they have to say about you. Sure, you can keep things private, but how many of us actually do that? Here’s why I quit Instagram and why I’ll never go back:
- I wanted a life beyond my phone. I think we can all relate to being tied to our phones. All I did was take endless photos, find the most perfect among them, spend ages sprucing them up with filters, and post them. Then I kept checking back to see how well everyone else liked them.
- Selfies are too damn time-consuming. Am I the only one that struggles to take a good selfie? Finding the right lighting, getting the perfect angle, and editing it to get it just right takes too much time. I have better things to do.
- Who cares what I’m doing or where I’m at? Unless you’re a celebrity or your real friends are following you, no one cares what you’re doing or where you’ve been. I had this realization and it kind of killed the Insta-high.
- I’d prefer to see my friends in real life. I was the comment queen every time a friend posted a new pic. Then I realized I could be hanging out with them and spending those moments with them.
- What others think doesn’t matter. Yes, it hurts when some troll doesn’t like a photo or leaves a horrible comment. These were online strangers. Who cares what they think? I didn’t, and I wasn’t going to be their online target anymore.
- People are weird. I don’t mean in a good way. I got more than a little creeped out by the perverts and weirdos on the site.
- I just wanted to be me. I didn’t want to live my life in photos. I wanted to be me. I didn’t want to have to worry about my online persona. I didn’t want to have to try to impress a bunch of people online.
- I’m sick of filters. Can’t I just take a photo, post, and be done? No. You have to use filters. It was always this constant struggle. Which one should I use? Which one makes me look cuter? Now I use a mirror to see myself completely unfiltered.
- Who has time to edit every photo? I’ll admit to spending nearly half an hour editing a single photo to impress my measly 203 followers. On the other hand, all that effort gained me two more followers. Yeah, not worth the time.
- I was addicted to online fakes. Is anyone actually real on social media? I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re not. Even I kept trying to be more impressive than I was. Yet there I was, sucked in by all the perfect people and their perfect lives. It was total BS.
- There’s so much more going on. There’s an actual world out there beyond the photos. I know, amazing, right? I could be traveling, reading a book, looking at the hot guy on the other side of my phone or maybe calling my friends versus just stalking their photos.
- I didn’t ever feel “social.” I never once felt social on this supposedly social site. It felt more like being on trial (not that I’ve ever been on trial). OK, so here’s my latest photo. What’s the verdict? Guilty of using the wrong filter. My sentence? Post more until I get it right.
- I got sick of requests. Once you build a following, you’ll get requests. I kept getting requests for more photos or photos of me doing this or that. The pervs out there loved sending in their own special requests. On the plus side, I lost weight because I kept losing my appetite.
- My real friends sent me photos. I didn’t need Instagram to see my friends’ photos. They actually sent them to me via text or email. Now that I’ve quit, I’m not missing anything important.
- I hate thinking in hashtags. Is that all I am? A photo with some hashtags. Surely my life is more meaningful than this. #ihatehashtags #lifebeyondhashtags
- I was missing what was actually happening. Sure, I got a great shot of me standing on the beach, but I completely missed the cute guy waving to me or my friend spike the ball and win the game. Ironically, my photos took me out of the scene completely.
Go ahead, leave Instagram for a week and see what happens. I doubt you’ll miss it at all.