Why I am not on Instagram ?

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Are you on Instagram? Share me your user id! Whenever you make new friends, you will encounter this question. After all, how can you be friends if you don't follow each other on Instagram? But my answer to this question is NO. My answer gives rise to many more questions and a sense of surprise in the other person. Those questions are quite obvious and deserve a detailed explanation. I have always been shy to answer such questions, but I think my viewpoint can actually help someone who must be going through the same dilemma through which I went!
Enjoy reading!

Life before quitting Instagram. 



Too late in the morning, rubbing my eyes, hands searching for the phone before I could even look outside the window. The morning started just like the last night ended, by scrolling kilometres down on my screen. Reading memes, liking posts( so that they will like mine; social media connection you know), watching stories and getting aware about useless gossips, with all this my morning dose was usually complete and was ready to start my day. But within no time there comes the time for the second dose, then third, then fourth and many more.
Wasting time and getting exposed to useless information was not the only thing which was the part of my life on Instagram, there were many other after-effects which were the actual causes of worry.

  • Jealousy and inferiority complex by seeing others good life on Instagram. Even the good quality of their image can leave you to feel inferior for not owning a DSLR or an iPhone or any other expensive phone with an ultra good camera.
  • Next feeling is of Frustration. You start comparing your life with the so-called social media influencer or your peers. Soon you realise that you have nothing worth showing off, not being able to post anything worthy of Instagram likes leaves you frustrated.
  • Your frustration lands you in a situation where you experience unnecessary pressure to post something. You are now desperate to show something, be it anything. It can be you looking absolutely stunning( not to mention with lots of filters), or any of your talent that you may or may not have, or anything which you may or may not possess or any food which should look great no matter how it tastes. If you didn't get anything worthy to post on Instagram who will accept your life to dull and boring, ultimately leaving you with your anxiety. And if you get something to post, not to mention that forthcoming likes and comments will worry you until your next post.
  • The pressure to show non-existent talent is another serious problem. Your Instagram feed need to look good with your hobbies and talent. Sometimes you may have that talent but your Instagram attendance may not offer you enough time to work on it as required. So you will just hurriedly create your piece of art, to post it. You will not work on it by heart because the only purpose is to show others about your super creative personality, that's it! That hobby has nothing to do with your personal satisfaction.
  • To be super active on Instagram( as that is what matter if you want to be a social media influencer), you show every little aspect of your life. Whether you eat anything, drink anything, read anything, watch anything, visit any place, everything needs to be on Instagram. Your privacy is destroyed by yourself before it could be encroached upon by the state :)
  • Being on Instagram is about having hundreds and thousands of friends which you could never have in real life. You chat to even those whom you will definitely ignore in real life. As Instagram offers you a brilliant feature of sharing memes personally to people, so that if you can't talk you can still engage yourself with totally unknow person by sharing such post and reacting with emojis and you are successfully busy with your overwhelming social life.

Sudden Realisation

People are living with it very normally without realising what is happening with them. But I was not a survivor on Instagram and all of this busted out and I started realising what I was going through. I felt like a wasted person who is doing nothing tangible in her life. Time was always a constraint, I do nothing still I had no time. I used to be always in a bad mood and experience continuous frustration which almost destroyed my mental thinking capacity.
I was just a slave of a machine that is created and operated by humans itself.


I realised that the root cause of all the problems was Instagram. I decided to quit it. But couldn't. So started it by deactivating the account for three days, then a week, then a fortnight, then a month. It was difficult to resist the temptation to get back initially, but I managed to follow what I decided. And soon I feel no urge to get back there. Everything was so peaceful, no lack of time, I read magazines, spent time with family, enjoyed nature and many more. 
I was inspired by the book - ''The Secret''.  That book had taught me a lot and I owe everything to it(this book deserves a blog, so will talk about in detail later on.)
Finally one day I permanently deleted my account and got free. Since then I had no turning back and never felt the need to get back there.
Life after quitting Instagram.




After 2 yrs of quitting Instagram, I have earned and learned a lot.
  • No lack of time for myself and my family.
  • Self-introspection and awareness.
  • Got exposed to the real world, what actually is going on, what true facts are and what I am supposed to do in life.
  • Socially aware and opinionated person.
  • Quest for knowledge and answer to deep questions.
  • Unending to-do list.
  • Development of new hobbies and enriching the latent ones.

Ill effects of Social Media

  1. Mental effects 
  • Anxiety.
  • The pressure to look good.
  • Mental Tiredness and no energy to do something productive.
  • End of thinking capacity.
  • The false sense of accomplishment.
  • Preoccupied mind.
     2. Physical effects
  • Lethargic body due to no activity.
  • Obesity.
     3. Social effects
  • Absence in real life.
  • Loneliness.
  • Difficult to accommodate into a group of people.
  • Unproductive
  • Unaware.

Need?

No matter how much I criticise social media, I will not end it on a negative note. As it has it's own advantages also. All you need is to use it wisely, for that you need to be mature enough to know the limits of its usage. Do not compare yourself with others, instead develop your own talent properly first then show to the world, the intention behind hobby development should not be Instagram likes but your own intellectual development. Only then you will make the best out of social media, after all, it is the undoubtedly the best platform to promote your talent and business, only condition being- Let you develop your social media, not your social media develop you. 

            'Always keep your happiness and peace before money and popularity.'

SAMIKSHA





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