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To Be Instagram Free

The causes and effects of my Insta-hiatus.

May 08, 2017

Allison Pericles

So, if you follow my Instagram (or, followed), you may have noticed that it doesn't exist anymore. Like many things, I deleted Instagram on a whim. Well, not exactly a whim. I decided to delete it on the Sunday morning before my EOC tests that week.

Instagram is a magical black hole filled with stuff to get you distracted and keep you distracted for hours. Whenever I went to study for something, I found myself on Instagram for 30 minutes to an hour before actually hunkering down and retreating to the less magical black hole of homework. Even still, I would find myself taking Insta-breaks that lasted longer than the time it would actually have taken to finish my homework.

Since middle school, Instagram was THE place to see what others were doing- your friends, favorite celebrities, and a fair share of dogs who had more followers than you. It's very easy to rank popularity based on an Instagram account. The most popular kids at school had 1,500+ followers and hundreds of likes on their photos. Of course, that planted the seed of worry in some people.

"What if my photos aren't good enough?"

"That didn't get enough likes. I have to delete it."

"Is my ratio of followers to likes uneven?"

I am certainly not suggesting that Instagram is a competitive social media platform and that we must be concerned about these things, but in my point of view, social media apps like Instagram are supposed to be fun. Don't get me wrong, I know there are people who still have fun connecting with the world on Instagram! However, people get so caught up in likes and comments and followers and timing their next post perfectly that they sometimes don't have fun.

I deleted my entire account almost two weeks ago. Will I ever make another one? Who knows. I will say that since it's been only two weeks, I haven't really noticed any change in my academic performance. But, as a result of not letting myself get sucked down the Insta-hole, I start my homework earlier and get to sleep earlier. Plus, I feel less pressure to lay my life out ever-so-perfectly in front of other people.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.

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