By My 16th birthday fell on a dreary day in the middle of the coronavirus quarantine. November of 2020. It was raining hard, but I got to leave the house for the first time in months to get my hair done and buy some socially distanced coffee and new reading material at Barnes & Noble.
After I got home that afternoon, I plopped down on the couch to read my new books, but I couldn’t focus for more than a few minutes before getting distracted. Why? Because my brain, almost automatically, was too busy planning what I was going to post on Instagram to commemorate the day. I ended up going with a picture of me wearing a new lavender sweater and holding my dog. The caption I was planning: “I’d almost forgotten the taste of caramel iced coffee #sweet16”
I downloaded the photo, edited it a bit– it needed to be post-worthy, of course– and scrutinized my own appearance onscreen. Was my facial expression a bit weird? Or was I just overthinking this? I wasn’t looking at the camera; my eyes were downturned looking at the puppy. My hair looked nice for once. Right? Yes. It looked good. Right? Or did it look awkward? Did I look awkward? I was awkward. I was always awkward. No. It was fine. It was a great picture. This was great. I posted it, and then, anxiously, awaited the likes and comments. Who was going to wish me a happy birthday? Who wasn’t? Did it matter? Of course it did.
Later that night, I felt a gnawing sense of shame for three main reasons: the first, that I’d used a hashtag in the caption (cringe); the second, that I’d spent such a ridiculous amount of energy thinking about an Instagram post; and the third, that I knew exactly what I was doing and I knew it was sad but I couldn’t shake the artificial importance I had placed onto Instagram.
I knew that by posting that picture, I would be showing everyone who followed me that a) I have a cute dog b) my hair can look good c) I got iced coffee d) I am happy, even though I’ve been locked in my house for several months and there is currently a global pandemic.
From simply looking at my feed, no one would be able to tell how miserable I had been for the past 9 months. They’d probably think I was living my best life, loving 2020, completely unfazed by quarantine. And ironically, they would probably feel exactly how I’d been feeling every time I’d opened Instagram since that March. Well, really, since I first downloaded the app in 2018.
Fast forward to now, almost two years after that birthday, and I have just deleted my Instagram account permanently. No going back.
Deleting Instagram was an idea I flirted with for years, and I’d gone on cleanses of deactivating my account multiple times before, but I always chickened out and relapsed before ever permanently deleting it.
However, I finally took the plunge about a week ago. And now that I don’t have it anymore, I’ve started to become more and more nauseated by the culture surrounding Instagram, especially among Gen Z. Here’s why I deleted my Instagram account forever.
Why I Deleted Instagram
1) The main reason I originally downloaded Instagram was peer pressure
I got Instagram towards the beginning of my freshman year of high school, and school wasn’t exactly going that wonderfully for me. I had entered high school like pretty much everyone does, intending to remake myself into a new identity, but it didn’t work out exactly the way I had planned. I was lonely, I didn’t feel like I fit in, and a lot of girls made fun of me.
I had wanted social media for a long time, partly out of curiosity, partly out of wanting a feeling of independence, but also partly because I thought it would make me more accepted. Of course, this was stupid.
First of all, I hate taking pictures of myself in general (that’s still true), and I was also very insecure about how I looked, so I did not even post anything for the first nine months I had the app. I just thought that merely having it made me “cooler.” It was extremely cringey, yes. But I was 14 and that was how my mind worked.
Even after a couple years went by and I grew out of this mindset, I still didn’t want to delete the app because everyone in my generation has it. It’s like the default social media. You just expect that someone has an Instagram when you meet them. Or I did, at least. I always looked for people on Instagram after meeting them. I talked to acquaintances through Instagram. I caught up with my current friends through Instagram. I stayed in touch with old friends through Instagram. I wondered, at times, whether it was even possible to have a social life without Instagram, when everyone else was on it. So I never deleted it, even when I noticed how addicted I was. And that brings me to my next point…
2) Instagram made me feel dependent on something I didn’t even enjoy
Instagram– as all social media is intrinsically designed to be– was very addicting. I liked the instant dopamine hit of seeing people’s posts. I liked talking to my friends about what people posted. I liked when my friends tagged me in their posts. I liked being in the loop.
And when I started posting things myself, I became addicted to seeing the likes notifications pop up. I liked the feeling, the quick jump of excitement, of seeing that little red icon appear at the top of my screen– hey, people are liking my picture. I liked scrolling through the list of people who had liked my post, analyzing who had liked it, who had commented, and what this meant about their opinion towards me. I liked when people I knew from school would comment something like “so pretty!” or “so cute!” even though at the same time those comments pissed me off because they were such a weird, generic, empty social courtesy that seemed somewhat dystopian to me. At least that person cared enough to say it, I told myself. It’s just what you do.
I ended up pretty hopelessly addicted to Instagram, and I found myself checking it every day… just to check it. During the coronavirus quarantine, I was constantly opening Instagram and would spend hours each day on the app. I also realized that I was getting no value out of using it, despite the amount of time I was spending on it. Instead of learning things, or doing something that would better myself, I was resorting to mindless scrolling, watching reels, lamenting my life, reveling in jealousy and bitterness.
3) Instagram made me obsess over my image, and the app had way too much of a hold on my life
When I had Instagram, I mainly used it like the majority of my generation does: I had a personal account on which I followed my peers and posted photos of myself and my life. The problem with this was that I found myself placing way too much importance on my Instagram feed.
This is extremely embarrassing to admit now, but when I was in early high school I felt like having an Instagram was a necessity to be “relevant.” I wasn’t “relevant” regardless, but still, having Instagram and posting on it seemed like, well, an important thing to have. I wanted people to think I was a cool person to be friends with, and to do that, I thought, I needed to have an Instagram feed that made me look cool. I needed to post things that made me look like I had an interesting life and lots of friends, and I needed to post only pictures in which my hair looked nice and I was wearing makeup (not a common occurrence in my everyday life) and I needed my Instagram to look as polished as that of other girls. I wanted to participate in the same trends. I wanted to get the same kinds of comments. I wanted to look like I was more popular than I really was. I tried to curate my feed in a way that made me look like how I wanted to be rather than how I was.
And posting on Instagram was an anxiety-inducing experience. I scrutinized every photo I posted, wanting to make sure I looked okay, wanting to make sure everything looked nice enough for the ‘gram. After all, so many people were going to see it, and they were surely going to judge me for it.
When I got a little older I stopped trying to seem “cool” on Instagram and posted more of the kind of things that more accurately represented my real personality, but I still placed a lot of value on curating my feed to show only the best parts of my life, or to present myself in the specific way that I wanted to look. When I went on vacation, I was always planning the Instagram post I would make to show my vacation online. I worried about how to choose the best pictures to present myself in the way I wanted to be seen.
I even started archiving my posts from when I was younger and trying to seem “cool” because now I wanted to seem as if I didn’t want to seem cool. I was trying to get my Instagram to look as if I didn’t care how my Instagram looked. And I was spending time thinking about how best to make it seem like I didn’t spend time thinking about that stuff. I wanted people to think I didn’t care what they thought. The irony was palpable and eventually I had to admit it to myself.
I realized that my relationship with Instagram constituted a warped view of reality, and it disturbed me. I didn’t like the preeminence of this social media app in my life and my perception of normal social behavior.
I, of course, cared about the way I presented myself to the world. And Instagram, I thought, was the way to present myself to the world– or, at least, my peers. Though it was irrational, for a long time I felt like deleting Instagram would be throwing out an integral means of establishing myself and connecting with others. And I realized that this was a scary way to be thinking.
4) Instagram was preventing me from living in the moment
I recently reviewed The Stranger by Albert Camus, and one of the quotes from that novel that has stuck in my mind is this: “If something is going to happen to me, I want to be there.”
Mindfulness and living in the moment is something I have been trying to work on recently. You only get one life, of course, and I want to be present for every minute of it, as much as possible. I want to experience my life as it happens. I want to absorb every moment for what it is. I want to travel the world for the sake of it. I want to witness the beauty of nature and the novelty of being in a new place without calculating how it’ll look on my feed. I want to take photographs for myself, not for my reputation. I want my experiences to be mine, not merely opportunities to exploit and commodify for social media.
I didn’t like the way I felt obligated to post on Instagram after any interesting life event I had. Prom? Better post the pictures. Graduation? Of course I need to post some pictures. Pics or it didn’t happen, as they say. Right?
No, I realized. That’s no way to live.
5) Facebook has been destroying Instagram
One of the less personal reasons I made the decision to delete Instagram was because Facebook has recently been making a lot of very… not so good changes to the platform. First, they have been attempting to copy TikTok with Instagram Reels, and as I consider TikTok content to be one of the worst things to come out of Western civilization, I do not want it popping up on my feed. And it has been popping up quite a lot recently, as Instagram seems to want to become a video sharing app. You know, because that can help you milk the most mindless-scrolling time.
Instagram hadn’t even been showing me posts from the people I follow anymore, just bad short-form video that nevertheless sucks you in to keep watching and losing copious amounts of braincells. And giving Zuckerberg a ton of revenue.
(I also just dislike Facebook in general. I no longer have my Facebook and WhatsApp accounts either)
6) I realized that Instagram was ultimately stupid
The preeminent point of social media is to connect with people, and I realized that I didn’t need Instagram to do that. There’s already Discord and regular text messaging, both of which I use more often to contact my friends.
Instagram just generally functioned as a way for people to show off their lives to others that they barely knew, hoping to impress. I found myself wondering why I was sitting here looking at selfies from people I honestly did not care for and whose appearance on my feed made me strictly annoyed. And why did they need to see my pictures? Why was it necessary for me to commemorate every notable event with a post on Instagram? Why did I care? Why did it seem so important to post things? Why was I offended when people unfollowed me? Why did it feel as if this thing that was meant to be a fun way to connect with friends was instead a sinister means of quantifying social approval?
And why did I feel compelled to check the app whenever I was bored? I barely knew or liked half the people I followed. Even people I was friends with or wanted to be friends with, well, how was looking at their curated pictures and leaving a superficial comment going to help me deepen any sort of real friendship?
In fact, getting off of Instagram would allow me to know who actually cared enough to reach out to me and have a conversation via messages. It was more fun, anyway.
In Conclusion
So, maybe my experience renders me an outlier. Maybe I was just abnormally neurotic about my appearance on Instagram, maybe I have a uniquely addictive personality, maybe I’m terminally online to an embarrassing degree and normal people don’t have this problem with social media and Instagram: it’s a distinct possibility. But I am forced to notice the hold that Instagram, as well as other social media apps that have arguably more of an influence, like TikTok, have on my generation at large.
You seldom see anyone in Gen Z, or really, anyone in any generation for that matter, without their phone. It’s normal to fill the lonely empty moments of life with a quick scroll, absentmindedly double-tapping photos or watching quick fifteen-second videos.
It’s normal for people to take pictures solely for Instagram, meticulously edit and then post them for some short-lived social validation in the form of likes and comments from peers and strangers alike. It’s normal for girls to care about how their Instagram feed appears to others. It’s normal for people to lament the toxicity of social media, but opt to remain on it all the same.
And the more I think about it, the more outrightly dystopian it seems to me. What are we doing to this generation? Why have we forgone experiences for appearances and connections for commenters?
I thought I would regret deleting my Instagram account. Surely I’d be back on it a couple days later, right? But so far, all I have felt is relief and liberation.
Because I don’t want to be a slave of social media companies anymore. It’s unsettling that they have so much control over us with these vapid apps that substitute shallow self-image enhancement over actual social connection. It’s unsettling to realize that people take Instagram seriously as a marker of social status and a necessity for life when it’s just an app designed to keep you as attached to it as possible so they can sell more of your information and show you more ads and continue to rake in the money.
I’m so happy now to think about how I will never again spend way too much time obsessing over the right sequence of pictures and captions to post on my Instagram feed so that people I don’t even like will judge me favorably. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders every time I think about how I’ve gotten rid of my account for good.
Because I’ll be able to enjoy my life without ever having that pesky thought, almost involuntary in its persistence, about how it’ll all look on Instagram.
Do you use Instagram? Why or why not? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section!
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Frappes and Fiction 
Honestly good for you! Social media can be really hard to handle! And I think it’s made us think that we’re not good enough for it or something along those lines
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definitely
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I’ve deleted insta in the past cause I didn’t like how lots of people use it to show off, but now I made an account just to check on my friends and learn more about people I meet. also tiktok is actual brain rot
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I’ve never downloaded tiktok, fortunately
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quite a flex lol. im really curious what effects that app will have on the attention span of people a couple years from now
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oh for sure. it won’t be good.
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I love posts hating on social media (especially from Gen Z or younger Millenials), because I so despise it. I never had a personal instagram, I didn’t even post pictures of myself on Facebook when I used to have it way back. I always thought this: if you know me, you know how I look, so what’s the point in taking pictures of myself and then posting it? And if someone doesn’t know me, then why on Earth would they want to watch photos of a stranger.
Yeah, so I only had a bookstagram for 4 years, but I deleted it this January as it was kind of toxic to my mental health. Never looked back, and I genuinely think my relationship to the people I know from there is much better, as there are no distractions, we just chat whenever we want to, they share whatever they want to, without having to see/share posts or stories. So much better. And it also showed who were your real friends from online, as not everyone wants to make an effort to reach out if there isn’t Instagram as a medium, but that’s okay.
So, good for you finally deciding that it was enough! More people should do it, honestly. Living without social media, going against the “mainstream”, that’s such a good way to show society that what we have today is not healthy. Don’t even get me started on tiktok, which I never downloaded because I value my brain cells.
Also, there are some books I think you’d enjoy, kind of on this topic, but they all have more themes: The Shallows by Nicholas G. Carr, Focus by Daniel Goleman and Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. I’d especially recommend the third one.
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Oh yeah, I had a bookstagram too which I barely used but also deleted. I found it to be a really vapid way of talking about books tbh. As far as social media goes, I’m still on twitter, reddit & discord, but as I use those to talk to people that I would never meet in real life about shared interests, I find them more useful than detrimental. Although I am a bit addicted to twitter and am trying to cut back. I think that’s how social media should be used, not the way I was using my Instagram before. And I never downloaded tiktok, partly because I hate the CCP, partly because of the braincell destroying content, and partly because I knew I’d become addicted if I were to download it. Tiktok scares me with the hold it has on my generation.
I’ll definitely read those books, thanks for the recommendations!
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This is so inspiring! I’m in the process of trying to move away from social media. Right now I only use Instagram to post once a week, just of what I’m reading, and chat with friends who live far away. I’ve been able to keep myself from getting lost in mindless scrolling but it’s definitely a struggle there and on Twitter. I’ve found that setting time limits works for me right now.
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oh yeah, twitter is a struggle for me too, although I do find it more entertaining than Instagram so I’ve kept it. Although I recognize that my usage can be toxic, so I’ve been trying to cut back and be a little less terminally online
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it is not the solution to leave a platform just limit your using time
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I disagree
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that is your point of view
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This is a really interesting discussion, I agree with virtually everything you’ve said. I deleted my personal Instagram almost a year ago, and I haven’t missed it at all. I tried to use the app, but taking pictures isn’t my thing and it felt like I was forcing myself to take pictures and post on it. I’m more of a private person so I wasn’t fond of sharing my life, even though I was a very minimalist poster compared to most people.
Honestly the biggest factor that caused me to delete was that I had no interest in seeing the highlights of the lives of people I barely know and never talk to in real life. Like you said, there are many, more direct, ways to talk to friends, so it feels pointless. It’s nice to see that someone else has the same thoughts on this, especially since it seems like everyone under 35 has Instagram!
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yeah. I definitely agree with all of that. I do like taking pictures sometimes, although not with me in them lol. I take a lot of sunset pictures and the like, especially when I am on vacation. I created a VSCO account after I deleted my instagram so that I’d have a place to put all of those artsy sort of pictures since VSCO is an app more focused on photography than on social media, and only about 5 people follow me on it. I like it much more since it’s more of a scrapbook
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I loved hearing your thoughts on Instagram! And congrats on deleting your account!
I have such mixed feelings about participating in social media, but for the past couple of years have had an account where I follow a bunch of people without posting. There have been times – especially at the beginning – where I was completely addicted to the app, but as time has gone on I have discovered a far better balance, mostly by regularly assessing my relationship with Instagram. I have found that for me personally, the educational value of the content I am following as well as the enjoyment I find in checking various actors/actresses/musicians’ accounts periodically outweighs the negatives.
That said, I started a personal account a few weeks ago when I realized I desperately needed some kind of challenge. I still have very mixed feelings about it and I am trying to figure out whether or not it is something I want to keep. 🙂
Anyway, thanks again for sharing!!
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thanks for reading! those kind of reasons is why I still have Twitter, since I follow some entertaining accounts that I enjoy following and interacting with. Social media is definitely a sort of thing where moderation is key
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Good for you, Emily! I definitely relate to a few of the things you said here – like, that it’s embarrassing how much weight we put on other people liking or responding to our posts (which, for me, doesn’t just apply to Instagram, but also partially to blogging 🙈) and how we might not enjoy a moment to the fullest because we’re more obsessed with taking a pretty picture of it.
For me, though, the benefits of Instagram still outweigh the drawbacks. Since I’ve moved around so much internationally, it’s a nice way to at least get an idea of what kinds of stuff my friends abroad are up to – particularly since no one in the US seems to use WhatsApp, the main European mode of communication. Instagram is a nice way for me to stay in touch, and the only people I follow on there are friends of mine, not influencers or anything. And I think it also helps that I have a private account and rarely post. Maybe twice a year, tops 🤣 Just so my friends abroad can see that I’m still alive. And I also don’t bother to put on make-up or edit the pictures or anything because a) I’m super lazy, b) my friends know what I look like, so why would they care? and c) I want my feed to be an authentic reminder of amazing things I experienced, kind of like a scrapbook. So yeah, while my account also doesn’t reflect my “normal” life, it gives me my highlights to look back on. But I like that! (I’m personally even more weirded out by people who put their entire life, even the most banal things, on Instagram. Like, no Anna, I do not need you to show me a picture of your breakfast cereal every single day in a row! 🙄)
So yeah, I think what it comes down to is having a healthy balance – and if you have ways of staying in touch with your friends that don’t require Instagram, I think that’s great! I don’t have TikTok, SnapChat, Twitter or any public social media accounts (apart from my blog) for the exact same reasons you decided to delete Instagram. I want to enjoy my life during the moments I actually live it and not waste a ton of time scrolling through feeds. So I think you’ve made a great choice!
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That makes sense! I use VSCO now as a sort of scrapbook, since it maximizes the artistic aspect over the social aspect
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I don’t have Instagram, but I am considering getting it to hopefully help with my blog, so it would be a bookstagram account really! I am still considering though and this post has definitely added an interesting argument into it all! I had an “updates” page on my blog which was sort of Instagram style, and I’m thinking of starting that back up and putting off getting the app for a while longer – I spend too much time on YouTube and WhatsApp as it is. Great post, thank you!
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That’s your decision of course; it really depends on how you use it and your interests; I didn’t like having instagram for my personal life or for my blog bc imo it’s a shallow platform and I am bad at visual platforms, but if you do like taking photos, it’ll be different for you. It does depend to a degree on how you use it. Thanks for reading!
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Good for you! Yes, there is a “pressure” to use social media, especially if we’re “influencers.” However, there is no reason for “influencers” to use ALL social media platforms. You can have a successful site and a “large” following on one platform and have no need to use another one.
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I agree! I was getting nowhere with my blog instagram either; visual platforms are not my thing. I’m a writer through and through lol
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Congratulations! I keep telling myself I get something out of Instagram or that I need it for work (I really don’t). I’m going to take this as my inspiration to delete my personal IG page.
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Ah, I’m glad my post had an impact on you lol. Good luck with deleting!
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I’ve lived without Instagram for an year but I was forced to download it again. Honestly, all kinds of progress happened when I was not on the app. But, being a student of mass communication it becomes inevitable that I have it. I spend half my life debating if I should be keeping it or deleting it. It’s such a struggle.
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I feel you. I deactivated my account for several months twice before I eventually deleted it forever. Before I clicked the “permanently delete” button it felt like I NEEDED instagram for my life and couldn’t delete it. But after I clicked the button, well…. it suddenly seemed ridiculous that I ever thought it was necessary to keep. I had to delete my entire account not just the app in order to get anywhere with quitting
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thank you so much for sharing this. I have seriously been considering deleting both Instagram and Facebook. Facebook is my kryptonite. I can spend way too much time scrolling through my newsfeed. I’ve been on Facebook almost as long as it’s been around. (I’m so old, LOL) and when it first launched it was such a great way to keep in touch with friends who have moved away. Now it’s become something to use to kill time.
again, thank you for sharing. It’s given me a lot to think about!
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Thank you for reading! I’m glad you liked it
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I have a bookstagram because I felt like I needed to start one to stay relevant in the community a few years ago, but I do see people moving away from it because it’s time-sucking and so hard to get any traction, especially now if you don’t want to do reels.
I never had a personal Instagram, and I’m glad it wasn’t really a thing when I was a teen. Facebook was popular, but I didn’t get one in high school either, and I feel there’s something to be said for not having posted my teenage years online! I have a Facebook now, but I feel like most people I’m friends with use it for major life updates like graduating or getting married or whatever. Maybe sharing some fun vacation pictures. But I’ve always found the idea of chronicling my life kind of awkward. I’ve never wanted to post things like, “Look at this fun ice cream I got!” because in my mind I’m convinced no one finds me interesting enough to care about my ice cream. :p
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Maybe I should add that at one point, it certainly seemed as if one would miss out on tons of real-world stuff if one didn’t have a Facebook. Like there would be party invitations or dinner invitations, and no one would invite you if you didn’t have an account. Or there would be groups for certain classes in college, and you’d miss out on the resources if you weren’t on Facebook. Or you wouldn’t get some kind of college news that was posted there. I’m not sure if that’s still true or if people have largely moved to other platforms or what. Certainly I don’t see people using Instagram to invite everyone to their birthday get-together, but maybe it’s whats app groups or something? Anyway, my point is it’s certainly annoying when you feel like you HAVE to be on social media, not just to be vaguely “informed” about all the gossip but to literally be invited places, and I hope that is changing with people younger than I am.
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I agree, it is very annoying– and I kind of wish that social media didn’t exist. I don’t like that everyone is always on their phones on social media, all the time. Like in high school, even if you were sitting next to your friends, everyone would be checking instagram at the same time. I did that. Everyone did, pretty much. Now that I’m realizing how messed up it is it makes me concerned for gen z. And the generation coming after gen z is going to be even worse, I mean they’re toddlers growing up on tiktok and youtube kids
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my younger cousins do nothing but watch baby shark and whatnot on their ipads, it’s like a digital pacifier.
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Yes! I definitely think there’s a tendency for people to just scroll and scroll and it’s like, what are you even getting out of it half the time?
I do think there’s a movement towards suggesting kids get limited screen time, but it’s hard to enforce, and I saw a lot of people say they pretty much gave up completely during the pandemic. I guess there’s a pull between trying to be the ideal parent following all the best practices recommendations and the realities of life. :p On the other hand, I remember watching kind of a lot of TV growing up, and I seem mostly fine. But then a lot of it was like Sesame Street, not kids unboxing toys on Youtube or whatever people are watching these days.
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yeah. my screen time was much worse during the pandemic, especially as I used it as self-medication for anxiety
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I think it’s amazing you were able to delete Instagram. I’ve heard so many stories from people over the years who admitted that they don’t like social media, that it makes them feel worse about themselves, and that they don’t like feeling that everyone else has a better life than they. Even though they are aware that these feeds are curated to showcase only the good parts, people STILL feel like they are inadequate because they aren’t going on vacation all the time or going out for a smoothie or whatever. The platforms are designed to make you keep going back for more, even when you know it’s not good for you. So I think you should proud that you were able to define for yourself what makes you happy and how you would like to make meaningful connections with people, and that you followed through!
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thanks! I am becoming more and more happy with my decision as time passes
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Hey Em! Deleted my personal insta last December and just kept my another a/c which had good info folks might need…but i am not active on there…
It feels good! I deleted FB in 2016 and insta in 2021 and it feels good…for sure…I am an older GenZ
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Yes! It definitely feels much better
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Okay wow, this post hit hard because this is like so true! Omg.
The first time i created an insta account was also because of not peer pressure exactly but because I felt like i was missing out on all the fun people had in life. Plus there was this guy in my tuition who i thought looked good so i created an account just so I could see his posts and…yes stalk him, basically. Embarrassing, ik. I was fifteen!
Anyway, i never meant to post anything. And when that guy followed me it was like my intention of creating Instagram was fulfilled 😂. I was over the moon for so long. but slowly I just started to realise that Instagram was doing the same thing to me as it was doing to you. I would mindlessly scroll it and search various people and do wasteful chats. I realised i had almost stopped blogging, playing the guitar and the stuff i used to enjoy and i would just waste time talking to people. And it was so bad. I hated it, i hated being so unproductive. The same thing about the likes and the comments, getting a new picture for your profile. I hate taking pictures too. And i agree i wasn’t living in the moments. So that quote you shared just hits hard.
I’m in elevnth now and preparing for a competitive exam, so I’ve temporarily disabled my Instagram. Any temptation of downloading it again has been quashed after reading this post.
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For sure. It can definitely be a really toxic influence for people
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Mine got hacked recently and I can already admit that I’m I’m happier without it, it was so artificial. Minus a handful of friends I made I know I’m better without it! Good for you!
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I agree!
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You did the right thing!
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