I’ve been on Instagram since 2010. My relationship with it has evolved so much over the last 11 years. Especially in the last year during lockdown. It’s gone from being my window to the world, to a place of comparison and despair, to inspiration and connection, and now onto more of a ‘meh’ kind of feeling to it. I just don’t feel like sharing much on it at the moment. I was reflecting on why this is the case and this is what came to mind:

 

• Over the last year, whilst we’ve not been able to meet in person, it’s been both a lifeline and a curse. It now feels to me quite a lonely place. Without actually seeing people and having shared experiences beyond Zoom screenshots, it feels like a one-trick pony just talking about fairly everyday stuff I’ve been doing. Nothing wrong with that, but I feel like it’s not the way I really want to spend my time- sharing my average stuff and scrolling through a range of other people’s chosen highlights (or not) and more and more adverts…

   

• Onto the adverts thing- obviously they are targeting me with certain kinds of ads, the recognise I’m a small business owner. The ads always seem to imply I’m missing something, that they have a solution I’ve never before thought of or tried. 95% of ads are written with the intention of making us feel like we need something ‘out there’ external to us to solve a problem we didn’t know we really had, or to play on an insecurity.

   

• Because we’ve all had to be quite insular the last year, the little voices in our head have had a chance to get louder. For me it’s been a deep soul-searching journey to pursue my true passion of supporting people to set up and grow the business of their dreams doing the work they feel they are here on earth to do. This may sound quite lofty-perhaps it is. But it is my truth, and Instagram doesn’t feel like it’s really helping me anymore.

   

• To me, my Instagram profile now feels like more of a social website. People can come and have a look and subscribe, but I’m feeling less connection & reliance on the number of likes / comments. I want my feed to authentically represent my approach, but with such a focus on the visual and lack of ability to share a link easily and have a group conversation, I am actually enjoying putting more energy into LinkedIn where it feels like the focus is less on a pretty grid ‘showing off’ and more on actual conversation.

 

Perhaps this is just a phase and I’ll feel differently in a few months time- we will see, but for now, I’ve just completed some excellent LinkedIn training with Jen Taylor and a brilliant 5 day challenge by Celia Rizothanasi so watch out, as I’ll be on LinkedIn more! I still plan to post onto Instagram, but with less intensity, and less focus on ‘keeping the algorithm happy’.

Life is too short to worry about if I should post on the weekend or not, or if people have unfollowed me or not.

Let me know what you think? Do you spend time on Instagram? Perhaps you love it? Do feel free to share!

Feel free to get in touch on LinkedIn – I’m under Lauren Jane Roberts