5 Lessons I Learned From Deleting My Instagram

On November 8, 2017, I deleted Instagram off my phone.

I did this for many reasons, all of which can be found in the post 7 Reasons Why I Broke Up With Instagram. And let me tell you, going without Instagram was hard. Very hard. Well, at least it was at first.

As the months passed, I grew more and more accustomed to life without the time-sucking app. I found myself not even missing it… most of the time.

It felt weird when I graduated and I couldn’t post anything on Instagram about it. It felt weird when my family went on vacation, and I couldn’t share pictures on Instagram. But finally, after much time had passed, when my boyfriend and I celebrated our one-year anniversary and I couldn’t post about it, it didn’t feel weird anymore.

It felt normal. 

Over the months that I didn’t have Instagram, I learned that Social Media isn’t all that important. In fact, I honestly think my life is better without it.

Back in August, I discovered that I could unfollow people on Facebook and not unfriend them. So, I went through my friends’ list and unfollowed everyone except for my family, my boyfriend’s family, my best friends and their families, etc. Everyone else I hid from my feed.

I reasoned, “I can keep up with everyone else via Instagram.”

Once I deleted Instagram though, I discovered that I didn’t really miss keeping up with other people’s lives. I was perfectly fine not knowing what they were up to! I realized that about fifteen years ago, no one had social media and everyone was fine!

On December 31st, I discovered that you can “snooze” people on Facebook for 30 days. Meaning, I won’t see any of their posts in my feed for 30 days. I decided to snooze everyone I was still following.

My newsfeed was pleasantly empty.

When I told my boyfriend I did this, he asked, “Then what’s the point of even having Facebook?”

Great question.

I didn’t delete my Facebook app because I use it to connect with people on the Joy Because Grace Facebook page and I’m apart of many Facebook groups that I don’t want to lose. I would get on, check my notifications, check my memories, check the groups, and then get off.

When January 30th came around, people’s posts started popping up in my feed again. “This is so weird!” I thought.

I had discovered I LOVE being disconnected from the world in a sense… LOL!

Did you know that you can set the privacy of your Facebook posts to where only you can see what you post? I started doing this whenever I wanted to share pictures. I set the privacy “Only Me” and then posted the pictures. I do this so I have my photos saved somewhere and also so the memories will pop up in future years.

The end of my fast.

My best friend and I deleted our Instagram apps together. We promised that we wouldn’t redownload it onto our phones until we were both ready to do so.

Well, I redownloaded Instagram about once a month throughout my fast, just to check to make sure I didn’t have any DMs. I would quickly log on, check, and then immediately delete it without scrolling through my feed.

At the end of January, I saw that one girl had DMed me a question in regards to a blog post at the beginning of January! I felt terrible that I had been unintentionally ignoring her!
So I responded to her message and apologized for the delay, telling her that I had deleted my Instagram for a while.

That day, I decided I wanted to keep Instagram on my phone.

I Marco Polo-ed my best friend about it, torn. I wanted her to know my reasons for redownloading it. In fact, throughout January I was talking to her about Instagram and wondered if I should get it again for blog purposes.

I also texted another one of my friends who had also been fasting from her Social Media to get her thoughts.

So that day, I kept Instagram on my phone, determined to only use it for my blog, and not for personal reasons.

I changed my username from @kara_beth17 to @joybecausegrace.

I went through the people who I was following and unfollowed everyone who wasn’t a close friend of mine or a blogger friend.

But then I found myself stuck- How do I use Instagram for my blog without being super self-promotional??

I don’t know the answer yet. I’m still figuring it out. Lately, I’ve been posting stock photos or pictures I’ve taken of random things (like flowers) and had the caption be a Bible verse or something else that I considered encouraging.

Example:

View this post on Instagram

“Isn’t that what we all secretly fear? …We worry that one single rejection is going to be the sum total of all of our relationships going forward. We are secretly afraid, deep down, that once someone really gets to know us, they aren’t going to be all in for our mess, and then they’re going to leave us. We think this is inevitable, the leaving, that it’s only a matter of time before we’re left alone again.” -Kayla Aimee⁣ .⁣ Have you ever felt like this?⁣ *Raises hand* 😕⁣ .⁣ People may come and go, but God has promised to never leave us! (See Hebrews 13:5.) So even if we feel alone, He is still there with us.⁣ . ⁣ Feelings don’t equal fact.⁣ Just because you feel alone doesn’t mean you are. 💖

A post shared by Kara Beth | Singleness Blog (@joybecausegrace) on Jul 31, 2019 at 7:54am PDT

So now that you’re all caught up in my journey with Social Media since November, I wanted to share with you some lessons I learned while I was off of it.

1. Life doesn’t end without Social Media.

If you want to try fasting from Social Media, but think you couldn’t go without it because it would be too hard… just try it :) You might like it ;)

Life goes on.

Friendships don’t end.

2. Feelings of loneliness decreased and my life seemed less boring.

Have you ever scrolled through Instagram or Facebook and felt lonely and left out because it seemed like everyone was doing fun things except for you?

I have.

Without Social Media, my life seemed so much less boring LOL! I found that life was so much better when I wasn’t seeing what my friends and acquaintances were up to all the time. I’d much rather hear it from their mouths :)

3. My friendships deepened.

Additionally, my friendships with a few people deepened as a result of not being on Social Media. Especially with my friends who also had deleted their Instagrams. We actually had to get together and talk about our weeks, instead of watching Insta-stories. Or, we had to Marco Polo each other on a regular basis.

I’ve always preferred to have a few deep friendships as opposed to a lot of shallow ones.

The Bible talks about this too! I read this verse while I was on my fast, and I definitely think it could be applied to our age of Social Media:

“A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
-Proverbs 18:24

I would much rather have a few friends who stuck with me through all things like a brother than to have many superficial friendships on Social Media.

4. I don’t need to post pictures.

“If you don’t share it on Instagram, did it really happen?”

I’ve heard that line as a joke many times over the years, but unfortunately, I think I started to believe it. I was posting about everything! That’s why when I “quit cold turkey” it was so hard.

As I found myself wanting to share things on Instagram, I began to examine why for the first time. I came up with four questions to ask myself before posting to Social Media.

And as I did, It occurred to me, that maybe my motivations for posting were two-fold: to gain validation about whatever was pictured, or to brag about whatever was pictured. 

And that’s when I decided to stop sharing pictures on Facebook too.

I’ve found that not posting makes those moments even more special because now only those who were in the pictures and I know about the event. I can share stories with my friends when I see them, instead of them already knowing about it from Social Media.

5. It’s weird being back ;)

This is the most surprising lesson, I think.

Redownloading Instagram was harder than I expected.

For one, Instagram had updated A LOT in the three months I wasn’t on it. Story highlights? That’s new. There are new fonts in stories? Weird…

For two, it’s so weird seeing pictures of my friends! LOL! After being isolated from everything for three months, it’s weird seeing posts on Instagram.

So, I actually don’t scroll on Instagram that much. I feel weird when I do. I think it’s like when people fast from sugar for three months and then eat a big piece of rich, chocolate cake. It makes them sick to their stomach, and a similar effect happens to me.

When I get on Instagram, I watch Phylicia Masonheimer‘s stories, respond to any DMs, possibly post a picture, and then get off. That’s it.

Have you ever fasted from Social Media?

What did you learn afterward?

Let’s stay connected! Like Joy Because Grace on Facebook.

Posted by Kara Beth & filed under Friendship. This post has 13 comments.