The downfall of Instagram

Stop the Instagram train, I want to get off!

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‘And then I met you’ print by The English Print Co

I initially joined Instagram in 2014 to share photos of my newborn daughter and our family adventures. It was a wonderful time back then, and I grew my following quite quickly.

There weren’t any Reels, Stories hadn’t been invented, and I wasn’t being bombarded with adverts every 30 seconds (might be a slight exaggeration, but it feels true!).

Instead, I had made friends, enjoyed true connections, and built a community. My follower count was growing rapidly, and overall everything was going great.

But, in 2016 everything changed.

Firstly, Instagram changed from a chronological feed, to an algorithm-driven feed which I hated. I wanted real time updates from those I followed, not what an algorithm thought I wanted to see.

Then came the introduction of Stories - a feature that I loved. Stories offered me more of an insight into other people’s lives. I could see what they were up to as it happened, throughout the day. I felt like I was right there with them enjoying their day too. And so I forgave Instagram for removing the chronological feed because I loved Stories so much.

Instagram became the place to experiment and be playful with my creativity. I shared beautiful still photographs of flowers, places, and the people I loved.

I used to love the feeling that Instagram gave me. I followed accounts that brought a sense of joy, calm and contentment to my life. Scrolling on Instagram brought me so much happiness, and I’d come away from the app feeling like I’d spent an hour at the spa.

Accounts such as @me_and_orla, @theslowtraveler, @blowyinthewind, and @monalogue gave me the escapism I needed from my (then) busy life.

It was an introverts dream. I’d spend time (online) hanging out with my friends (what seemed like it, they were in fact total strangers on the internet), and when I’d had enough of socialising, I just closed the app. It really felt like Instagram was built for introverts.

Instagram allowed me to show up behind my still photography, and talk to other creatives without too much effort. It wasn’t a noisy place to be, in fact it was really rather peaceful. My feed would be full of beautiful laundry blowing gently and drying in the sun, a steaming cup of coffee next to a dog-eared book with rain falling heavily outside of a window, and a pink Scottish castle set between a loch and an ancient forest. Those who I followed rarely showed their faces and there wouldn’t be a ‘talking’ story in sight.

This was my happy place.

But then in 2017, TikTok was released. This would go on to change Instagram as I knew it, dramatically, forever.

At first, TikTok was harmless and no one really knew about it. However, thanks to the Pandemic in 2020, TikTok grew practically overnight and became a roaring phenomena.

Instagram saw TikTok grow and grow in popularity and, being the greedy little social media app that it was, decided it wanted a piece of the action. This saw the introduction of Reels in August of 2020.

Now I didn’t understand Instagram anymore. My feed once full of cosy scenes, flowers, coffee cups and croissants was no more. In its place were videos of teenagers (in not very much clothing) doing some sort of dance to high energy pop music, supposedly for me to imitate.

My senses were being abused. My eyes were busy trying to make sense of what the video I was watching was about, and why it was being shown to me. My ears couldn’t bear the sound of those loud trending songs and heavy beats, and just constant noise! I felt my heart rate increase, I became stressed when using the app, and instead of closing the app feeling calm and content, I was now leaving with a headache and a feeling of deep anxiety.

What had happened to my wonderful app?

The thing about me, and possibly the thing about being an introvert, meant that I needed to understand why I wasn't enjoying Instagram anymore. I needed to know how it went wrong, and how I could make it work for me again. I wanted the old Instagram back, and so in September of 2020, I joined The Insta Retreat by

Sara Tasker - Me & Orla

.

If you’ve never heard of The Insta Retreat, I urge you to check it out. It was everything I knew it would be and more. The course gave me my happy little app back. I learnt how to curate my feed so that I was only seeing content that I enjoyed and related to. I’d ‘met’ so many new people who had the same passion for creativity as I did. Even better, they were flower loving, coffee drinking introverts, just like me!

I enjoyed 2020 on Instagram (not the other side of 2020 which we shan’t talk about!), and 2021 was good too. But, slowly Instagram was leaving me behind again and I couldn’t figure out why.

And then I realised! Instagram is an extroverts platform now. Long gone are my days of soaking up beautiful still photographs, and growing my following full of likeminded people, willing to buy my latest print collection.

Now, in order to be seen, to grow, to get the engagement needed to sustain a good reputation, you need to be an extrovert. You need to show up constantly whether that’s on stories, grid posts or Reels. This is absolutely exhausting for an introvert, and completely unsustainable. 

The reason I’ve fallen out of love with Instagram is because it no longer suits introverts. Introverts are equally, if not more creative than extroverts. I have all the ideas and good intentions, but actually seeing it though is another story. Especially if it means going on camera. 

I was seeing this all too often now in various Facebook groups and in the Insta Retreat. Introverted people who were growing their following (and their business) well on Instagram were now being left alone wondering what had happened. I was desperate to know how I could keep up without having to go on camera and film myself dancing to the latest trending sound.

And then I realised that I didn’t want to do that. Dancing on camera isn’t me. I wanted to go back to posting still photos. I needed to create those cosy photos to showcase my prints. I longed for my simple nature shots to reach my audience, because they showed my simplistic and calm lifestyle. They showed me. My personality, my authenticity and my vulnerability. If you stumbled across my Instagram profile back then, you’d know what type of person I was immediately.

But that’s not what the algorithm wanted and so I was being punished. Punished for not conforming to the pressure of posting Reels and using the latest trending music. Punished for not showing up every. Single. Minute of the day. Punished for rebelling and sticking with my still photography, instead of becoming a video editor.

At first I was incredibly sad about this. It genuinely felt like I had lost a huge part of my life. I was mourning the loss of something that once brought me immense happiness and pure joy.

But, eventually, I got there. I joined Substack (this is just THE best place ever for introverts), and I’ve ‘met’ some wonderful creatives and have even deleted Instagram from my phone. I’m happy again now. I found the contentment and happiness that Instagram once brought me, but in this new ALGORITHM FREE (!!) platform.

Substack, I hope you never change and leave me!

What are your thoughts about Instagram? Do you feel like it’s geared more towards extroverts now? I haven’t deleted my account over there, but I’m spending much less time on the app and I feel sooo much better for it. How is your relationship with Instagram?