Why I’m Leaving Instagram
Today I posted the above image on Instagram. In the description I wrote that I’ll be deleting my profile on Earth Day and described a little about why I’m leaving the platform. I’ll get into it in a little more detail here.
It’s likely the next several paragraphs will be similar to other words you’ve read before on this topic. It’s no secret that social media has poisoned much of society as evidenced by hyper political polarization and an epidemic of teen mental health issues, amongst other problems. Large, morally compromised corporations have found that attention of any kind is an enormous money maker. And without regulations to keep them from preying on the public, they will do whatever they can to harness human attention to a staggering degree in the name of, uninterestingly, cash.
I’ve certainly fallen victim to the expertly crafted mechanisms of attention arresting algorithms and endless-scrolling frameworks. I can’t possibly count how many times I’ve gone onto Instagram to search for a person or business, only to be hooked by some interesting clip and dragged down a mind numbingly stupid rabbit hole, only to surface a half hour later, my initial purpose to get on the app still incomplete.
Phone based time limit features have not been strangers to me, but do little to actually subdue the amount of time I spend on the app. They are not useless, though. More times than I care to admit I’ve been doom scrolling and audibly exclaimed “oh, thank god” in relief once the timer came up, as if a hypnotist had snapped their fingers to wake me from a trance. Each time this occurred I felt shame because I knew I was addicted, yet did nothing to stop it.
Beyond the obvious attention and time sucking qualities of Instagram, less obvious aspects of spending time on the app have left markers on my mind. I expect that Instagram has affected my frame of reference for quite a few subjects, not least of them being the photo industry overall. There’s a part of me that thinks one can’t be a photographer without being on Instagram- that the two are one in the same, and that without a high enough follow count, you can’t expect to work with entities you want to work with. Or that if you’re not visible on Instagram, you’re completely invisible. I know this is false on an intellectual level, yet have difficulty shaking this and other less describable corrosive qualities Instagram has had on my outlook on the industry. I think it’s held me back in many ways- some in which I may not be aware of or even be able to articulate. Maybe that’s shifting blame, but I don’t think so.
I’m not one that volunteers my thoughts on things at a high rate. I prefer to sit back and listen to others, only to chime in occasionally when I feel it appropriate. This is not how social media works, or how it incentivizes its users. It promotes loudness, unruliness, and rewards controversy for controversy’s sake. “Engagement farming” is something I keep coming across and am finding it harder and harder to discern an actual thought by someone that they want to share, and a post intended only to illicit responses for the sole sake of bolstering their own status on the platform. Even though I may not post in this way, or much at all, I am still providing information to the progenitor of immense harm by scrolling, staying on a screen for slightly longer than another, and giving away my precious time on this earth to something that I do not agree with. At this stage I feel like I have broken at least partially from a spell enough to remove myself from being a part of Meta’s ecosystem and release myself from a little of the guilt that comes with feeding an ugly, amoral beast.
Of course, my time on Instagram has not been all bad. I’ve made meaningful contacts through the app and have acquired work via the platform, but nowhere near enough to outweigh the negative impacts or justify the amount of time spent there. The small community I’ve built there will be missed, though I hope to continue those relationships outside of the app.
I’ve been inspired by others who have walked away and recounted the benefits to their lives. I have no doubt that I’ll gain a boost of mental health from leaving Instagram. Time will tell, of course, but I expect that I’ll wonder why it took me so long to exit.
As much as I’d like to say that I’m swearing off all forms of social media, I do think some are betters than others, at least for how I operate. YouTube, for some reason, hasn’t had the negative impact on me that Instagram has. It has its own issues, certainly, but I find it far easier to post, engage with a community, and then walk away without having my attention fully hijacked and half my day wasted. I hope to keep it that way.
Behance is another platform that I’ve found real benefits from that doesn’t have any of the consciousness seizing qualities from other outlets. On top of finding several of my favorite artists there, I’ve also been featured several times by their curatorial team and subsequently discovered by online media outlet that have given me reach I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Substack is another I may experiment with in the future in an effort to remain visible to people unfamiliar with what I’m doing.
I can say that even now I’m sensing a fog beginning to clear. Almost like I’ve been gripping with uncomfortable strength onto something I wasn’t aware of, and am now letting that grip loosen. Instagram was taking up far more conscious and subconscious mental space than it should have.
I hope to do something good with the newfound bandwidth.
UPDATE- 5/12/26
It’s been a month since I’ve left Instagram and can say with confidence that it has been a net positive for me. So far the most obvious benefits have been spending less time on my phone and an increase in attention span. I had nearly stopped reading long form articles all together. So much so that I began to wonder if I really could anymore. Now I can much more easily allow my attention to linger on things I wish for it to linger on, rather than helplessly allowing it to be violently pulled hither and thither. Even more importantly, I’m finding I can exert more control over my attention and pull it away from something that isn’t serving me in that moment.
On that note, I’ve started a Substack account where I’ll be posting images, BTS, and exercising my writing. There will be lots of cross pollination between this blog and the substack, but it will have some material that doesn’t have a good home here, like quick BTS images and short form notes.
I’ll post more updates as they become obvious.
