I totally hear you and understand all these points, they're partly why I've chosen to leave Instagram (I left Facebook years ago tbh). I stopped using Instagram at the start of December by uninstalling the app and would reinstall twice a week for around 5 minutes to post links to my blog/Substack and check in with a handful of accounts I cared about following. I kept this up until around mid Jan and then decided to just stop using it altogether. It took a few weeks to stop automatically reaching for it but I can honestly say I don't miss it now. The mental clarity and freedom I've got back, to just be bored in a supermarket queue or to stare off into space during a TV ad break, it feels so refreshing!
The times I struggle a bit without it are when I'm planning a new sewing or knitting project and I used to check the pattern hashtags on Instagram for inspiration. But, as you say, the pattern hashtags are pretty useless now so I've been looking more at blogs and Ravelry or just going in blind and relying on my own skill and experience to make it work. It feels like I've been time traveled back to the early 00s, before all this social media bullshit invaded my life 😂
Thanks for taking the time to share your point of view Amy, and well done! It sounds like you're gaining much more than you've lost. The way we've been encouraged to use technology is disturbingly detrimental to how society operates. I wish I could make the move to abandon social media altogether. The closest I got was using an app blocker on my phone between certain hours. That worked really well except people continued using their DMs to contact me, so I caved in and went back. At this moment I've had quite enough though...and your experience is inspiring me to try again.
Loved reading your post and your discussions around social media. It can be so tempting to opt out of social media all together. If not just to nourish our mental health.
I didn't know you could hide likes on insta. That sounds like a good plan otherwise you begin to feel a bit manipulated by algorithms.
Unfortunately/fortunately most of my business sales are through social media. Interestingly mainly from facebook, Instagram is pretty to look at but doesn't really do the job with sales.
It's such a dilemma isn't it Gail. I've also had a fair amount of sales and people getting to my website via both facebook and Instagram but I think I really need to think harder about finding new ways to market my wares.
I totally recommend hiding likes. For photos you're posting you need to do it individually, either from the three dots above the image, or by clicking advanced settings in the options when you're adding a post. The option to stop seeing other folks like counts is somewhere in the account settings. Sorry can't remember where exactly.
Thanks for reading, looking forward to seeing your exhibition next month!
Thanks for info Julia. I will try and set that up. It would be great to see you at the exhibition and have a catch up. Are you going to The Borders Art Fair this weekend ?
I am really liking your cat paintings, they are so free and expressive. Glad you have found a way to get back into drawing.
Thank you so much for sharing your social media experiences!! If it helps at all, know that you're not alone in your disappointment with Instagram in particular. I'm not on it, just Facebook, but I have had several folks encourage me to go onto Instagram. Yet, every time I'm just about to do it, I hear of some sordid experience from another maker/creative I know or whose work I have been following for quite a while.
And, I hear you about the algorithms. I have a Facebook account that I keep mostly because it allows me to follow the goings on of a couple of trade association groups I belong to, but the new format has actually made even that more difficult of late. For instance, it'll only show selected comments on any one post in a group's feed, or not show them chronologically, or cut off a longer post or its comments at a weird nonsensical place. Oftentimes, it just makes it near impossible sometimes to follow the discussion around any one post.
Honestly, I've seen people say they would pay so they didn't have to deal with all the stupid stuff and they could just conduct business in a sensible manner. Maybe we'll get lucky and that will finally happen on some newer platform.
I totally hear you and understand all these points, they're partly why I've chosen to leave Instagram (I left Facebook years ago tbh). I stopped using Instagram at the start of December by uninstalling the app and would reinstall twice a week for around 5 minutes to post links to my blog/Substack and check in with a handful of accounts I cared about following. I kept this up until around mid Jan and then decided to just stop using it altogether. It took a few weeks to stop automatically reaching for it but I can honestly say I don't miss it now. The mental clarity and freedom I've got back, to just be bored in a supermarket queue or to stare off into space during a TV ad break, it feels so refreshing!
The times I struggle a bit without it are when I'm planning a new sewing or knitting project and I used to check the pattern hashtags on Instagram for inspiration. But, as you say, the pattern hashtags are pretty useless now so I've been looking more at blogs and Ravelry or just going in blind and relying on my own skill and experience to make it work. It feels like I've been time traveled back to the early 00s, before all this social media bullshit invaded my life 😂
Thanks for taking the time to share your point of view Amy, and well done! It sounds like you're gaining much more than you've lost. The way we've been encouraged to use technology is disturbingly detrimental to how society operates. I wish I could make the move to abandon social media altogether. The closest I got was using an app blocker on my phone between certain hours. That worked really well except people continued using their DMs to contact me, so I caved in and went back. At this moment I've had quite enough though...and your experience is inspiring me to try again.
Loved reading your post and your discussions around social media. It can be so tempting to opt out of social media all together. If not just to nourish our mental health.
I didn't know you could hide likes on insta. That sounds like a good plan otherwise you begin to feel a bit manipulated by algorithms.
Unfortunately/fortunately most of my business sales are through social media. Interestingly mainly from facebook, Instagram is pretty to look at but doesn't really do the job with sales.
It's such a dilemma isn't it Gail. I've also had a fair amount of sales and people getting to my website via both facebook and Instagram but I think I really need to think harder about finding new ways to market my wares.
I totally recommend hiding likes. For photos you're posting you need to do it individually, either from the three dots above the image, or by clicking advanced settings in the options when you're adding a post. The option to stop seeing other folks like counts is somewhere in the account settings. Sorry can't remember where exactly.
Thanks for reading, looking forward to seeing your exhibition next month!
Thanks for info Julia. I will try and set that up. It would be great to see you at the exhibition and have a catch up. Are you going to The Borders Art Fair this weekend ?
I am really liking your cat paintings, they are so free and expressive. Glad you have found a way to get back into drawing.
I'd forgotten the Birders art fair was on. Might try and get down there if I can.
Thanks for the kind words about the paintings :)
Yeah, absolutely agree. Instagram used to be fun and useful. Now it's neither. 😕
Thank you so much for sharing your social media experiences!! If it helps at all, know that you're not alone in your disappointment with Instagram in particular. I'm not on it, just Facebook, but I have had several folks encourage me to go onto Instagram. Yet, every time I'm just about to do it, I hear of some sordid experience from another maker/creative I know or whose work I have been following for quite a while.
And, I hear you about the algorithms. I have a Facebook account that I keep mostly because it allows me to follow the goings on of a couple of trade association groups I belong to, but the new format has actually made even that more difficult of late. For instance, it'll only show selected comments on any one post in a group's feed, or not show them chronologically, or cut off a longer post or its comments at a weird nonsensical place. Oftentimes, it just makes it near impossible sometimes to follow the discussion around any one post.
Honestly, I've seen people say they would pay so they didn't have to deal with all the stupid stuff and they could just conduct business in a sensible manner. Maybe we'll get lucky and that will finally happen on some newer platform.