Rec | DELETING INSTAGRAM

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😿

Lately I have been daydreaming about deleting Instagram, but everytime I get close to doing it, the same thing always pull me back.
I emigrated to London from Spain for university in 2017 and I haven't moved back since. The feeling of missing out on the goings on back home... It hasn't gone away.
Instagram has become my link to faraway friends. It's how I know when they change their hair, or get a new boyfriend, or get a dog, or break their ankle. Of course I talk to my closest friends now and then but converstaions can loose their informality when you don't see each other often.
The truth is that I don't want to have a deep conversation everytime I talk to friends from back home. The obligatory "How's work? How's your partner? When are you coming back? How's your mother?". It makes me feel that everytime I reach out to one of them they feel obligated to rattle through all these questions. I want to talk about stupid stuff, stuff that doesn't matter, what your Dad said, the fight you had with your sister, that weird thing you saw the other day.
On Instagram I can be a fly on the wall watching all that stupid shit they put on their story and feel like I'm still a part of their life and their a part of mine. But at the same time I know that these snippets I grab now and then are not connections of quality.
Does anyone else who moved away have the same feelings about social media?

@stellawella

Feb 14, 2025

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@taterhole

I haven’t actively used it ever because something about it just makes me uncomfortable. but I did recently leave a private social media app I had been on for like eight or so years and I find that my interactions with my friends are so much more meaningful and intentional and enriching to my life now!!!

Feb 15, 2025

@royallmonarch

I feel very similarly! I made this post about how I was able to test drive deleting it, and since then i’ve really been making efforts to stay in touch more with text and calling with the people who I want to keep in touch with. also realized how many people who i’ve neglected to stay in contact with because they aren’t super active on socials who I really should have been making more efforts to stay in touch with. now that im not spending so much time absorbed in social media, I have the bandwidth to do so!

Feb 14, 2025

@stellawella

royallmonarch I love the idea of a test drive deletion! I might try that, thanks! :)

Feb 15, 2025

@salad_valet

I deleted my IG last month after downloading my archive (dating back to 2011!). Before i deleted, I posted in my Story that I was quitting and asked if anyone would like to keep in touch. I wound up getting over 50 email addresses and am planning to start a little newsletter this year. It’s possible to find a way out.

Feb 14, 2025

@stellawella

salad_valet A newsletter is such a cute idea!

Feb 15, 2025

@theclack

Yess. I have been thinking about it a lot lately but have decided to get rid of it (after I download my data and rebuild connections on other platforms), even though I made a lot of connections on there over the years for creative work. There is a part of me that thinks about missing those little updates on peoples' lives, but I feel that in the absence of that, it'll lead to deeper relationships and reasons to reach out directly to people instead.

Feb 14, 2025

@stellawella

theclack Yeah, I think you're right. These small connections might stand in the way of deeper ones, rather than in stead.

Feb 15, 2025

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