Today, as I opened Instagram, I woke up to this:
I was left wondering why. Except for one, none of my recent Instagram posts relate to my mental health. Aside from scheduled posts, I’ve been too busy to share anything in the past few weeks. Maybe that led to my report: my absence from social media. Or perhaps a jealous troll aimed to get me shadowbanned.
This made me reflect on how, even when life intervenes, we’re expected to maintain the pace, post consistently, and not have the luxury of a break. To perform like circus monkeys no matter what.
Because if you dare to take a break for your mental health, you have to start climbing uphill again to barely reach the numbers you had before.
Social media traps you in a constant cycle of creating, only to be visible for four or, if you’re lucky, ten seconds and forgotten when the next posts come along.
As with most high-control groups and cults, you end up working for them while the goalposts constantly change, making it impossible for you to ever reach them. And social media is no different in its cult-like behavior. While you barely get by, those at the top are stuffing their pockets with the money you gave them to boost a post. You have nothing to show for it by the end of the day. Not even a cute grid because they changed the design. Again.
And now you have to work twice as hard to try and get your place in the queue back.
But here’s the thing: We don’t owe anyone our time away from screens, neither to followers nor to Instagram. This expectation to keep churning out content ad nauseam only exacerbates the stress that social media can create.
As I continue with my slow-making year, I find myself spending less time on social media. As I wrote on Bluesky the other day, I’m no longer feeling it.
Instagram has become one large advertisement, Threads is chaos and bots sprinkled with a few friendly faces, and making connections on Bluesky is difficult.
I tried posting on Substack, but the engagement is worse than on any other platform, and I don’t want to spend energy on something that might be purchased by a billionaire and become entshittified once more.
To say I’m growing disillusioned with social media platforms is an understatement. I no longer enjoy consuming content on social media or being sucked into a vicious cycle of doomscrolling.
Since last year, I feel my days on these platforms are numbered. I’m only staying on Instagram until a separate Reels app is released. Maybe when this happens, Instagram might resemble something from the past, but I don’t have much hope.
I’ve realized that my time is better spent nurturing my small corner of the Internet, where I control my content and its longevity without dealing with the whims of the algorithm gods or supporting billionaires hell-bent on building up autocrats.
As I gradually transition from doll making to focusing on creating other items for my small business, I will prioritize posting to my blog and aim to grow it a bit more.
I plan to create more DIY content, and if you have a project in mind that you’d like to see, feel free to write it down in the comments.