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'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!
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
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.
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
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.
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!
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'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! 😊
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
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.
The stadium is a great analogy! I definitely understand that. Yes! That’s it isn’t it? It needs to serve our needs and right now it isn’t. And it seems like it isn’t for a lot of people judging by these comments. This is what I’m getting from Substack right now. I’m sure you’ll feel that here too. The community is wonderful, but the people behind Substack genuinely listen and care about what us as writers want and need. I’ve never known that in a platform and it is so wholesome! 🥰
I 100% agree with you. I'm in the process of stepping back from social media. Instagram is my main platform, and I hang out a bit on Facebook, but Insta was my main love. For every reason you mentioned I've come to feel overwhelmed by it all. It's like being in a crowded stadium and being shouted at by each and every person there. Although Insta has allowed me to connect with readers and authors and made some wonderful friendships that have transferred into real life, it no longer serves my needs. This introvert needs quieter, more meaningful and purposeful connections. I'm only new to Substack, but I already feel so much calmer being here.
What a helpful perspective--to see IG as having turned from introvert to extrovert and the conundrum it poses for us introverted creators, not to mention the obvious social intrusion of ads. Thank you.
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!
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
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.
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
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.
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!
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!
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'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! 😊
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
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.
The stadium is a great analogy! I definitely understand that. Yes! That’s it isn’t it? It needs to serve our needs and right now it isn’t. And it seems like it isn’t for a lot of people judging by these comments. This is what I’m getting from Substack right now. I’m sure you’ll feel that here too. The community is wonderful, but the people behind Substack genuinely listen and care about what us as writers want and need. I’ve never known that in a platform and it is so wholesome! 🥰
I 100% agree with you. I'm in the process of stepping back from social media. Instagram is my main platform, and I hang out a bit on Facebook, but Insta was my main love. For every reason you mentioned I've come to feel overwhelmed by it all. It's like being in a crowded stadium and being shouted at by each and every person there. Although Insta has allowed me to connect with readers and authors and made some wonderful friendships that have transferred into real life, it no longer serves my needs. This introvert needs quieter, more meaningful and purposeful connections. I'm only new to Substack, but I already feel so much calmer being here.
What a helpful perspective--to see IG as having turned from introvert to extrovert and the conundrum it poses for us introverted creators, not to mention the obvious social intrusion of ads. Thank you.