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 😂
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.
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 😂
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.
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.