What it’s Like Quitting Instagram Cold Turkey (for a while)

Time is so precious. Whether we always realize that or act like it, we know the truth of that statement at our deepest level when we think about it. So if that is true, how do we know we are treating time as the rare and irretrievable resource that it is?

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We have to ask where we spend our time. And for a lot of us, that is in front of our mobile screens. I definitely fit into that category, but I was not sure that I was making good use of the time on my devices. Within our screens, for a lot of us, we are on Instagram throughout the day. That was where I began to question my personal use of this time on the screen.

So I decided to do something about it. I have experimented with quitting or limiting areas of social media before, and have over time pared down many of the networks that I had grown tired of, or lost utility value in. This was different though. I like Instagram and all the people I have connected with there. I also like the content I was working on.

I knew I had to do something about it.

I chose to do an intermittent media fast (planned for 30 days) of Instagram and TV in November 2019. I completed the 30 Day Media Fast for both services and chose to resume a restricted TV diet. But, with Instagram, I continued to remain off the platform for close to 10 months. I decided to re-engage at the end of August 2020.

This Instagram fast became more of a spiritual fast than a strict performance-based fast the longer it went. Especially the more chaos began to unfold in the world in 2020. Being off Instagram did great things for my headspace and I’ll share those, but first I want to establish WHY I chose to do this.

The why behind our actions is never a question to overlook. So I want to make sure that it is clear that it was an intentional and deliberate move, and what my reasons were. We can all rattle off reasons to take breaks from social media off the top of our heads, but what about if we go deeper?

Why quit Instagram? (or at least take a long break…)

We all know we could benefit in some abstract way from a social media detox but how does it really benefit us?

Instagram, or any other platform, can take up a huge amount of our focus. We find it sapping up all the minutes between moments. And the moments between minutes even during activities that usually require full engagement.

These types of small, but consistent and random pieces of time lost make it hard to balance thinking clearly, or deeply. It becomes hard to live healthily, perform high-quality work if we are simultaneously receiving a large volume of information spread throughout dozens of micro-sessions a day.

I had no idea how much the information on my screen was starting to affect me.

But I did notice, at some point along the way I started to spend a lot of time on Instagram. I knew it, but kind of avoided it. It has a seductive way of being its own virtual world. We all have parts of ourselves that like this worldーespecially our egos. Spending time here we continually find ourselves in a self-reinforcing loop.

Notifications, mentions, comments, likes, messages, people you follow going LIVE!!!

So much going on!!! Our brains like this stimulation for sure and our personalities do as well. We like the place Instagram is for many reasons, and the place likes us. It even has intricate systems designed for us to like it and spend more time there. I remember several occasions of simply wanting to check Instagram quickly, consuming up to an hour of scrolling, clicking and swiping — usually without anything to show for it.

Our minds start to linger for longer and longer in this digital world, and the lines can start to blur. They did for me.

I kept finding a large amount of overlap between my real-world thoughts and emotions, and the thoughts and emotions related to the digital space represented by Instagram. Fortunately, this was the main platform that had grasped my attention this way. But, in our online world, each additional platform we participate in becomes another battlefront to manage our psychology — independent of our existing real offline relationships, responsibilities and internal temperaments.

Managing virtual ego centers like Instagram had me lacking a lot of focus and time to do other things. What happened?

It wasn’t always this way….but, I became over-connected. Often times the first thing I would do in the morning was open my phone, and shortly after Instagram — or right up until I would go to bed, still swiping. I knew I had to change how much of my bandwidth this one platform was being allocated.

Taking Instagram plus all the other online content platforms, and adding TV — the amount of media available right now is vast. And, the frequency of new media being created to distribute at scale is hard to fathom. These numbers are finite in true mathematical terms, but for our purposes, they might as well be infinite. We can never have enough time to watch, read or listen to all of it.

The platforms we choose are constant ON signals that are drip-fed indefinitely anytime we want them. We have infinite temptation and an infinite buffet of content. However, when it comes to managing our time, energy, and attention we can’t win against an infinite foe.

What to do?

How can we win? One strategy is to apply shorter media fasts and longer multi-week (or month) media fasts.

What that can look like is:

A.) A public declaration or message to your audience letting them know you’re taking some time to evaluate your use of the platform. (This can also help to inspire others)

B.) Pick a short, but meaningful amount of time. Minimum 48 hours. I chose a month because I knew it was going to make an impact. For most people, 5–10 days is probably the right threshold to challenge themselves and provide benefits.

C.) Know there is NOTHING you are missing out on, and stay strong and committed for however long you have chosen. Trust me, you are only gaining from this exercise. After 10 months I didn’t miss a thing, other than a lot of crazy emotions and drama during a national and international crisis.

For some people, this is sounding impossible, because they need Instagram for their business. Taking a break and doing a media fast for one or more platforms can be done even by entrepreneurs marketing on the platforms. If you run your business on IG or another platform, try having a business partner help you maintain the necessary activity during your fast.

Business owners can also delegate and train some of the primary duties to another team member, or hire an assistant. Business owners should still do what they can to get some time and space — and keep things going for their businesses.

The important thing is to take some of these options and make them work for you and your needs.

The goal is not to participate in these activities as a deprivation exercise, or punishment. The goal is to change our behaviors and evaluate them. This is so we can create good habits, time-awareness, and evaluate our relationships with these platforms. This applies not just to Instagram, but to all kinds of media — because the media we consume affects our mind, spirit and emotions.

So try something out. It was an interesting experience for me.

The payoff

Was it worth it?

Without a doubt. I felt great and did not miss out on anything — except for the chaos unfolding as 2020 started to ramp up. Quitting Instagram was a huge help to me in getting back a lot of space in my mind and a lot of time to do other things with. I also felt a lot less low-level emotional and energy-drains that I couldn’t put my finger on.

More mental and emotional energy combined with more time and space is a powerful formula. I definitely recommend exploring these great effects.

But, all that good comes with a cost.

The payoff is not free.

I had to answer one more question…

Now with the extra time, energy, and emotional capability — what do I do?

That’s the most important question. What to DO?

After 8 years with an Instagram account, I was ready to evaluate how this all related to me. How was I doing, as a doer?

It’s always easier to watch (and critique) than to do. Instagram has a lot of people DOING a lot of good and creating value in the world. But it also has a far larger number of PASSIVE people. Watching others, or craving to be watched. Many people exist on the platform only to satiate their psychological cravings, largely on the unconscious level.

We do not want to be voyeurs watching others create and live out the lives of their dreams at the cost of actually having time available for creating our own lives and dreams. If you can’t say that you’re benefiting from the time that you’re spending on Instagram or any platform — that says a lot. If that is the case for us, we should all take some of the small steps available to change that.

Take one day off. Then another, and another. Once it’s been a few days — try two weeks. Public commitments also help. Let your friends, family, and extended online community, know that you are working to better yourself and your habits. You will feel accountable to them and yourself.

If you slip, it’s ok. Just don’t lose the awareness of the value of your time, and where it is going. We all need to realize that the time spent on Instagram (or on Earth in general) can never be recovered. We owe it to ourselves to remain conscious of the magic that life is and never to fall back into forgetting where our minutes are going — because that is where our life is flowing.

After doing a 10-month media fast I learned some of the most valuable uses of these virtual worlds we inhabit online. We have to use Instagram or any online platform for what it is. These services are tools to amplify the best in us and to bring our good into the world. We all have to make sure that we are protecting our focus and attention at all times — so that we can create and not just consume.