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.
I started out on Instagram in 2016 and for me, it was an amazing experience. I learned there were communities that shared my passions and I was so excited. Now, I feel as disappointed and let down as you do and can't come to grips with the change. I simply don't have the energy to keep up with it and it doesn't energize me like it used to. However, my clients are still very active there and I'm not as clearheaded as you are about leaving. Your post had me nodding as I read. I appreciate you taking the time to remember what a beautiful place it used to be. I'd get so inspired. I hope to find that here too. ❤️ ✨
Instagram used to be such an amazing place to be, I miss the old days. I'm sure lots of my clients are there too. In fact A LOT of my ideal clients will be there, but do I have the energy and headspace to reach them there? I'm not sure I do. I just hope Substack doesn't change and I'll end up writing a similar post on a new platform about how great Substack used to be 🤣
Wow, you have so articulately summed up the evolution of Insta in a way that resonates so much. I'm more introvert than not and can really feel how it was an introvert's dream (in its conception) and nowwww it's such a place where extroverts are rewarded (which is fine you know, I love plenty of extroverts). But I often struggled with why it felt different and how I had grown to dislike it... I stopped posting in January and feel great being off it. But I'm curious to check out the Instaretreat as well. Thank heavens for Substack - I feel so at home here. Such an awesome post, thank you Sophie.
I'm so pleased you enjoyed and resonated with this post, Carly! I went back on Instagram a few weeks ago and it was like an assault on the senses, I hated it 🤣. I hate that I have Facebook for work, but I've put measures in place so I don't see posts on there. Just so glad I have Substack, too! 🩶
It’s the best (Substack)! Oh it’s so challenging when it’s used for work… and could only get off the gram because I was no longer sharing my own small business offerings. Sighhhh of spaciousness
My love affair with Instagram is well and truly over! I constantly feel like I'm talking to a brick wall on Instagram and making my content fit into an Instagram-shaped hole. I want real connections and to have conversations with real people! Substack feels like the place to do this.
Resonate with this so much! I want to create what I want to create, not to please algorithms and a specific aesthetic. Substack allows me to do just that!
I'm exhausted trying to keep up with Instagram. At first I liked the video challenge, and I started to learn and enjoyed sharing videos. But with every app update, everything was completely new. By the time I would learn to use it, it would be changed. Plus the endless scrolling, the perfect aesthetic, the algorithm... This made me look into Substack. I am an introvert too and I need a closer community. Thank you for the inspiration!
YES! That's exactly it, it's exhausting! There's so much newness constantly, I just can't keep up. And I don't want to! How are you finding Instagram now? Are you using it?
This has been a recent realisation and revelation for me. I deleted the app from my phone a couple of weeks ago and honestly could not believe the difference I felt. One of the most alarming things I noticed was that, when I was ‘filling’ moments of my day by scrolling and then my daughter needed my attention, I would find myself snapping at her. This was not ok. But now I can see that I was overstimulated AF from Instagram and then her tiny, adorable yet sometimes piercing voice would snap be back to reality and add to the overstimulation. I’m now not sure I’ll ever go back to it, which means letting go of a huge part of my identity and also a community. But it seems worth it for a slower, less frantic real life
Yes!! I'd get so overstimulated and then have very little patience when I came off the app. It's hypnotising isn't it? I'd lose hours at a time and be all a blur when I finally came back to the real world. It's scary really. I'd love to know how you got on with it, now a year has passed 🩶
Instagram is just so LOUD. It makes my head feel jumbled and I feel much more peace when it’s uninstalled. I just treat it mainly as a portfolio now. I tried all the features...Reels, Threads...but I’m an introvert too. I need to go into hermit mode to create.
This platform feels like a much better fit. It’s like: I was being forced to start serving fast food when really I wanted to create soul food, healing medicine. And I said enough. Now I’m here getting to make the medicine I always wanted to make! (And I use ig to try to bring people here, which I’m sure their algorithm HATES lol.)
Just discovered this post thanks to Notes, and I wholeheartedly agree! Plotting and planning a rebrand and new writing schedule and everything, and I’m sure it’ll include no longer being on Insta.
I LOVE stories! I want a place where I can post random things throughout my day, and I think I’ll still do it on IG here and there. We’ll see once I reorganize my mind and figure out how to improve and approach my Substack even better than before!
Anyway, yes! Agree. I know people can get swept up in Tiktok and such but I find it so easy NOT to.
It really is too much too fast too loud and it’s NOT appealing to me. (Threads was nice for like an hour, then it felt like TikTok with people saying whatever and SO MANY PEOPLE all at once (from Shaq to YouTuber and more!).
Been loving Substack and don’t mind just staying here.
I'm so pleased you enjoyed this post, Cierra! I enjoyed Stories too, but not enough to stick around on Instagram. I'm currently using Notes here on substack to share snippets of my day, which is working well for me.
I've really enjoyed being away from IG, the longer I'm away, the less I'm bothered by it. Substack is really where I'm enjoying spending my time. I hope they don't change it 🤞🏻
Oh my gosh ! This totally summed up how I have been feeling about Instagram !
I promoted my small business on Instagram for a while and loved it and felt really connected... then soon as reels came in it all changed and now I barely go on it ! So sad
Yes! I can really pinpoint when everything changed for me on Instagram, and that was when Reels was brought in. It's a shame because it used to be such an incredible platform, and I loved to share my photographs and connect with my followers. I haven't been on in a while, it's just so noisy and I can't cope with the distraction. Substack is where I'm spending most of my online time now and it's brilliant! 🤩
I feel similarly about Instagram. I used to love it, but it's trying so hard to be like other platforms now and now I also get tired of the constant pushes to upgrade to a paid Verified Account.
Wow...this is incredibly insightful. I stopped using Instagram circa 2015...and after a few years, I have had serious issue being consistent on the app. Sometimes I wish I would’ve had issues letting go and maybe that would’ve been a sign that my time and energies on the platform were giving me happiness. And now I feel I have lost too much time and the cost of getting in there is too much for what I’m looking for.
This is why Substack is so cool. As you said! It’s a place where introverts can share big ideas, learn new ideas, and be at peace without the craziness of “click baity” things.
I get it, I do not have the time or energy to get back into Instagram. So much has changed there and I don't want to get involved. In fact, I'm quite happy to leave it all behind.
Just came across your page and love it! This post is everything I have felt about the app since 2020 as well. As an INFJ that is not a space I can be in, and I could never try to be someone I wasn’t to try to gain an audience. It was exhausting just opening the app never mind trying to post. I am so grateful for finding Substack and other kindred spirits here, it’s nice to know you aren’t alone in these feelings, and by all of these comments, there are a lot of out there feeling this way!
I truly hope this platform never changes, it’s such a nice quiet space!
Yep, I don’t want to be untrue to myself just to gain attention and followers.
I’m loving Substack too! The community here is everything, they’re so incredibly supportive. Substack is exactly what I need from a platform - calm, quiet, undemanding, supportive, forgiving 🤍
What you've written - how it changed from introvert to extrovert - makes so much sense. I'm not normally one to label myself but I can see how this significant tweak by IG has led to me feeling overwhelmed and icky on there.
Instagram definitely isn't the place it was and Substack is filling a void, but I still kinda love it. My Instagram is small but my substack is smaller and I just don't have the same community here yet. It is however the only social media I use now. I love photography but don't want to read about it 😆 does substack lend itself to that? I'm not sure...
I do miss photography on Instagram. I remember the accounts that I could go to that would instantly bring a sense of calm to my day. I miss it! I haven’t been able to find a good alternative just yet. Substack isn’t really for photography, or at least I haven’t found the right photography Substacks to read. The search continues...
I'm beginning to hate instagram and how I feel when I use it. I've almost completely stopped engaging but I'm still hanging in there. Not quite sure why... Some introverted introspection needed, methinks! 😊
Ha! Debs, I know what you mean! I found myself hating being on there but still going to it. I think it’s a learnt action that as soon as I pick up my phone, I have to head straight to instagram. It took a while to unlearn that, but I’m so pleased I did.
Hmmm, it's so tricky this one I think. Whilst I completely agree with your writing (and love it, thank you), I still know that many of my dreamy clients are there, that the community I have there is wonderful, and that it's still (for now,), free...and a free way of connecting with people who might inspire me and work with me is still brilliant. I've made a pact with myself to show up there this month on my terms, and see where it takes me. At the end if it brings no joy to my life I'm going to leave it over the summer. Gosh, that's turned into a mission statement! x
Oh there certainly is plenty of people on the platform, and many of those will be my ideal customer too, I think for me it’s just too much effort with little reward.
I’m sure there’ll be lots and lots of people for which Instagram works and is rewarding for them. I’m just not at that stage now. I suppose I don’t help myself as I haven’t posted in so long.
How did you get on for the month? Have you made plans for the summer? 😊
Hi Sophie! I think about 2 days after I posted this I suddenly became COMPLETELY SICK OF INSTAGRAM and haven't posted on there in over a month, though I have been on there a couple of times to see the updates of those I like but don't have their numbers! How about you? x
I appreciate you naming this, it resonates with me. I refused to play the Reel game and Insta was feeling more and more stressful, so I left. I have my accounts on pause, but I'm thinking about just deleting them. I do miss the people there, though.
I hear you! There were so many wonderful connections made and relationships built on Instagram a few years ago, but they’ve just disappeared now. I’m sure they’re in the same boat as I am with Instagram. I can’t quite bring myself to fully delete the account just yet, but I’m too soon into this Instagram break to do that. Maybe by the end of the year if it feels right 😊
I started out on Instagram in 2016 and for me, it was an amazing experience. I learned there were communities that shared my passions and I was so excited. Now, I feel as disappointed and let down as you do and can't come to grips with the change. I simply don't have the energy to keep up with it and it doesn't energize me like it used to. However, my clients are still very active there and I'm not as clearheaded as you are about leaving. Your post had me nodding as I read. I appreciate you taking the time to remember what a beautiful place it used to be. I'd get so inspired. I hope to find that here too. ❤️ ✨
Instagram used to be such an amazing place to be, I miss the old days. I'm sure lots of my clients are there too. In fact A LOT of my ideal clients will be there, but do I have the energy and headspace to reach them there? I'm not sure I do. I just hope Substack doesn't change and I'll end up writing a similar post on a new platform about how great Substack used to be 🤣
Wow, you have so articulately summed up the evolution of Insta in a way that resonates so much. I'm more introvert than not and can really feel how it was an introvert's dream (in its conception) and nowwww it's such a place where extroverts are rewarded (which is fine you know, I love plenty of extroverts). But I often struggled with why it felt different and how I had grown to dislike it... I stopped posting in January and feel great being off it. But I'm curious to check out the Instaretreat as well. Thank heavens for Substack - I feel so at home here. Such an awesome post, thank you Sophie.
I'm so pleased you enjoyed and resonated with this post, Carly! I went back on Instagram a few weeks ago and it was like an assault on the senses, I hated it 🤣. I hate that I have Facebook for work, but I've put measures in place so I don't see posts on there. Just so glad I have Substack, too! 🩶
It’s the best (Substack)! Oh it’s so challenging when it’s used for work… and could only get off the gram because I was no longer sharing my own small business offerings. Sighhhh of spaciousness
My love affair with Instagram is well and truly over! I constantly feel like I'm talking to a brick wall on Instagram and making my content fit into an Instagram-shaped hole. I want real connections and to have conversations with real people! Substack feels like the place to do this.
Resonate with this so much! I want to create what I want to create, not to please algorithms and a specific aesthetic. Substack allows me to do just that!
I'm exhausted trying to keep up with Instagram. At first I liked the video challenge, and I started to learn and enjoyed sharing videos. But with every app update, everything was completely new. By the time I would learn to use it, it would be changed. Plus the endless scrolling, the perfect aesthetic, the algorithm... This made me look into Substack. I am an introvert too and I need a closer community. Thank you for the inspiration!
YES! That's exactly it, it's exhausting! There's so much newness constantly, I just can't keep up. And I don't want to! How are you finding Instagram now? Are you using it?
Still having a hard time. I barely posted once in a month 😅. And I used to be very prolific.
Yeah, me too. I haven’t posted in months and months!
This has been a recent realisation and revelation for me. I deleted the app from my phone a couple of weeks ago and honestly could not believe the difference I felt. One of the most alarming things I noticed was that, when I was ‘filling’ moments of my day by scrolling and then my daughter needed my attention, I would find myself snapping at her. This was not ok. But now I can see that I was overstimulated AF from Instagram and then her tiny, adorable yet sometimes piercing voice would snap be back to reality and add to the overstimulation. I’m now not sure I’ll ever go back to it, which means letting go of a huge part of my identity and also a community. But it seems worth it for a slower, less frantic real life
Yes!! I'd get so overstimulated and then have very little patience when I came off the app. It's hypnotising isn't it? I'd lose hours at a time and be all a blur when I finally came back to the real world. It's scary really. I'd love to know how you got on with it, now a year has passed 🩶
Instagram is just so LOUD. It makes my head feel jumbled and I feel much more peace when it’s uninstalled. I just treat it mainly as a portfolio now. I tried all the features...Reels, Threads...but I’m an introvert too. I need to go into hermit mode to create.
This platform feels like a much better fit. It’s like: I was being forced to start serving fast food when really I wanted to create soul food, healing medicine. And I said enough. Now I’m here getting to make the medicine I always wanted to make! (And I use ig to try to bring people here, which I’m sure their algorithm HATES lol.)
This is such a beautiful analogy! Here’s to sharing many soul meals with fellow introverts 🤍
Me too! I've just left it as is. I don't want to fully delete it as, like you say, it's very useful to use as a portfolio.
I LOVE this analogy! But it makes complete sense. Ha! Yeah, I'm sure it does, but do it regardless! Substack is a wonderful platform 🥰
Just discovered this post thanks to Notes, and I wholeheartedly agree! Plotting and planning a rebrand and new writing schedule and everything, and I’m sure it’ll include no longer being on Insta.
I LOVE stories! I want a place where I can post random things throughout my day, and I think I’ll still do it on IG here and there. We’ll see once I reorganize my mind and figure out how to improve and approach my Substack even better than before!
Anyway, yes! Agree. I know people can get swept up in Tiktok and such but I find it so easy NOT to.
It really is too much too fast too loud and it’s NOT appealing to me. (Threads was nice for like an hour, then it felt like TikTok with people saying whatever and SO MANY PEOPLE all at once (from Shaq to YouTuber and more!).
Been loving Substack and don’t mind just staying here.
I'm so pleased you enjoyed this post, Cierra! I enjoyed Stories too, but not enough to stick around on Instagram. I'm currently using Notes here on substack to share snippets of my day, which is working well for me.
I've really enjoyed being away from IG, the longer I'm away, the less I'm bothered by it. Substack is really where I'm enjoying spending my time. I hope they don't change it 🤞🏻
I really hope they don’t change it either! And of course! I really resonated with your post!
Oh my gosh ! This totally summed up how I have been feeling about Instagram !
I promoted my small business on Instagram for a while and loved it and felt really connected... then soon as reels came in it all changed and now I barely go on it ! So sad
Yes! I can really pinpoint when everything changed for me on Instagram, and that was when Reels was brought in. It's a shame because it used to be such an incredible platform, and I loved to share my photographs and connect with my followers. I haven't been on in a while, it's just so noisy and I can't cope with the distraction. Substack is where I'm spending most of my online time now and it's brilliant! 🤩
I feel similarly about Instagram. I used to love it, but it's trying so hard to be like other platforms now and now I also get tired of the constant pushes to upgrade to a paid Verified Account.
Substack is my happyplace.
Completely understand this. It's a very tiring platform to be on full stop 😅
Wow...this is incredibly insightful. I stopped using Instagram circa 2015...and after a few years, I have had serious issue being consistent on the app. Sometimes I wish I would’ve had issues letting go and maybe that would’ve been a sign that my time and energies on the platform were giving me happiness. And now I feel I have lost too much time and the cost of getting in there is too much for what I’m looking for.
This is why Substack is so cool. As you said! It’s a place where introverts can share big ideas, learn new ideas, and be at peace without the craziness of “click baity” things.
Thanks for sharing!
I get it, I do not have the time or energy to get back into Instagram. So much has changed there and I don't want to get involved. In fact, I'm quite happy to leave it all behind.
Just came across your page and love it! This post is everything I have felt about the app since 2020 as well. As an INFJ that is not a space I can be in, and I could never try to be someone I wasn’t to try to gain an audience. It was exhausting just opening the app never mind trying to post. I am so grateful for finding Substack and other kindred spirits here, it’s nice to know you aren’t alone in these feelings, and by all of these comments, there are a lot of out there feeling this way!
I truly hope this platform never changes, it’s such a nice quiet space!
Ah, welcome Jennifer! I’m so glad you’re here 😊.
Yep, I don’t want to be untrue to myself just to gain attention and followers.
I’m loving Substack too! The community here is everything, they’re so incredibly supportive. Substack is exactly what I need from a platform - calm, quiet, undemanding, supportive, forgiving 🤍
What you've written - how it changed from introvert to extrovert - makes so much sense. I'm not normally one to label myself but I can see how this significant tweak by IG has led to me feeling overwhelmed and icky on there.
It certainly is a very noisy and extremely demanding place to be 🤯
Instagram definitely isn't the place it was and Substack is filling a void, but I still kinda love it. My Instagram is small but my substack is smaller and I just don't have the same community here yet. It is however the only social media I use now. I love photography but don't want to read about it 😆 does substack lend itself to that? I'm not sure...
I do miss photography on Instagram. I remember the accounts that I could go to that would instantly bring a sense of calm to my day. I miss it! I haven’t been able to find a good alternative just yet. Substack isn’t really for photography, or at least I haven’t found the right photography Substacks to read. The search continues...
Yes. That's exactly it. It was the calmness of looking at beautiful images. Instagram is so loud now. The search does indeed continue.
I'm beginning to hate instagram and how I feel when I use it. I've almost completely stopped engaging but I'm still hanging in there. Not quite sure why... Some introverted introspection needed, methinks! 😊
Ha! Debs, I know what you mean! I found myself hating being on there but still going to it. I think it’s a learnt action that as soon as I pick up my phone, I have to head straight to instagram. It took a while to unlearn that, but I’m so pleased I did.
Hi Sophie - yes definitely a learnt response! I'm still unlearning it - slowly!
Hmmm, it's so tricky this one I think. Whilst I completely agree with your writing (and love it, thank you), I still know that many of my dreamy clients are there, that the community I have there is wonderful, and that it's still (for now,), free...and a free way of connecting with people who might inspire me and work with me is still brilliant. I've made a pact with myself to show up there this month on my terms, and see where it takes me. At the end if it brings no joy to my life I'm going to leave it over the summer. Gosh, that's turned into a mission statement! x
Oh there certainly is plenty of people on the platform, and many of those will be my ideal customer too, I think for me it’s just too much effort with little reward.
I’m sure there’ll be lots and lots of people for which Instagram works and is rewarding for them. I’m just not at that stage now. I suppose I don’t help myself as I haven’t posted in so long.
How did you get on for the month? Have you made plans for the summer? 😊
Hi Sophie! I think about 2 days after I posted this I suddenly became COMPLETELY SICK OF INSTAGRAM and haven't posted on there in over a month, though I have been on there a couple of times to see the updates of those I like but don't have their numbers! How about you? x
I appreciate you naming this, it resonates with me. I refused to play the Reel game and Insta was feeling more and more stressful, so I left. I have my accounts on pause, but I'm thinking about just deleting them. I do miss the people there, though.
I hear you! There were so many wonderful connections made and relationships built on Instagram a few years ago, but they’ve just disappeared now. I’m sure they’re in the same boat as I am with Instagram. I can’t quite bring myself to fully delete the account just yet, but I’m too soon into this Instagram break to do that. Maybe by the end of the year if it feels right 😊