Top 8 Things To Enjoy After Giving Up Instagram and Facebook
A quick note...The following is not meant to be judgy or self-congratulatory. For all of you who are still on Instagram and Facebook, I absolutely get it and in no way do I think that I am better than you or more evolved or anything ridiculous like that. I have just really enjoyed my post-Meta existence and thought I would share some of the benefits. Seriously. You do you. We are all doing our best right now and that is more than enough.
So about 2.5 months ago, I decided to get off Instagram and Facebook. This was a decision long coming after years of spending so much of my precious time taking and editing thousands of photos, worrying about hashtags, crazily checking my followers, paying for consultants, battling the Meta algorithm, crying over being Meta black-balled, drooling over other people's seemingly perfect command of the medium, and never seeing any difference in terms of my company's reach or sales. Never. And then I saw Mark Z at the inauguration with the other tech CEOs/tools and I just wanted to scream! I actually think I did. So I decided to get out.
Now of course, it hasn't been all great. I have essentially taken a huge step back from my business because I need to completely rethink how to advertise and sell. And I really miss the hilarious New Girl and dog reels. And the grandparents miss the almost daily post of their grandkids on our private family Insta feed. But by and large, it has been a huge win. I have reclaimed a lot of the time that I had essentially given to my phone. I have freed up large portions of my day that can be spent doing pretty awesome things. Here are my favorites...
- Enjoying travel even more now that I'm not spending 20% of it taking photos for the Gram.
- Of course, I'm still taking photos. I'm in a beautiful place with my favorite people. I want to remember these moments forever. But no trip needs to include a daily hour-long photo shoot in five outfits with a tri-pod.
- Making my voice heard in person, not just in the social media ether.
- All my posts and online rants do nothing to allay my panic over the state of things. Making a sign and hitting the streets, now that's powerful stuff!
- Baking a lot.
- Who am I kidding? This has not happened. But now I have a bit more free time should the mood hit me!
- Listening to MORE podcasts.
- Oh man, do I adore podcasts! I could (and do) listen to them all day long. Now that I have given up mindless scrolling, I have even more time for true crime and scams. Love it! (Stay tuned for a blog post with my Top 10 podcasts.)
- Playing more Scrabble with my husband.
- Hopefully I'll start winning more too. He's on a roll right now.
- Being more creative with my hands and not on any sort of device.
- For years, I have allowed photography (mostly product) to be my primary creative outlet. Not to say that photography isn't a wonderful art form. It certainly is. But it's drawing and painting that really brings me joy and is the core of my business. The more I stay off my phone, the more Beastlies will come to life.
- Rethinking how I run my business.
- It's so easy for a small, mostly online business to think that Instagram is required to sell. We have been convinced that our businesses will fail without a zillion followers on Insta. I'm determined to prove this theory wrong. I have ZERO idea how but I'm going to do it.
- Not supporting a platform that is actively and purposefully pulling our country apart.
Number 8 makes my decision a slam-dunk each and every day.
Onward...
xo
Torrey
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