Into the Wild or Instagram?
My thirty day detox is coming to an end.
If you’ve read my blog post on quitting Instagram, you might know that my contract (which states I shall not even be within 12 feet of an Instagram) will be ending on the 16th of February. I’m experiencing a meltdown. It’s Valentine’s Day and I’m experiencing a meltdown completely separate from anything to do with relationships. I fear returning to Instagram. I like the person I’ve become!
Instagram fears
You see after thirty days of no Instagram it’s easy to know where I stand in life. I don’t need social validation. My confidence in who I am and what my core values are have increased. My need to compare myself to people has decreased. But most importantly I’ve been able to apply that unused time to be more creative and more engaged with my family and friends.
I don’t want to return to the old me. And if I think about Instagram in the sense where it was an identity attached to my past self then hell no I don’t want to return to that.
But Instagram isn’t an identity, it’s a tool. (Says my much wiser, less brattier voice.)
It’s an app which provides things like enjoyment. Like Solitaire on your cell phone. You can use Instagram for entertainment, to become better at something, or simply to waste time. But what Instagram also offers is the benefit of exposure and community.
Benefits of Instagram
Search the internet and you’ll find that almost every benefit of using Instagram is business based. It’s not going to benefit your mom, your sister, your brother, your cat, your student loans, your diet, or your hobbies. Except that it can. I’m not trying to confuse you and I’m not promoting the use of Instagram to the general public but if you think about yourself and other individuals as businesses, like Grant Cardone does, then yes each of us could benefit from using Instagram.
Instagram for you, for me, for your mom.
Your mom, who let’s say is approaching retirement, could benefit from Instagram’s older model. Photo sharing. Photo engagement. Video engagement, which is fairly new by comparison. Now, your mom not only sees photos of their relatives across the globe but enjoys and engages with their reels and stories.
Your brother or sister, depending on their age, might not seemingly benefit from Instagram in the same way but they too could benefit from Instagram. If they are younger their benefit comes from establishing themselves as influencers, young professionals, or cultivating their brand early on. If they’re older then they are probably already aligned with a company, hold a position within that company, and could benefit from networking or increasing their sales by becoming better known for what they are experts in, within their circles.
Yes it’s easy to forget that each individual is a business because that pretty much plays more into capitalism which isn’t everyone’s taste but we are all money making machines. We are all essentially businesses.
Instagram for intellectual growth.
Your hobbies, interests, diets, etc. can also benefit from Instagram because of the amount of businesses already on Instagram but also because of the individuals who engage with it as well.
Maybe you never knew that your coworker trained herself on electronic device repair every weekend for the last five years and that subject so happens to be something you’re suddenly interested in. Maybe that neighbor of yours happens to be studying nutrition online and has drastically established themselves as a vessel of knowledge even as they work elsewhere. Suddenly it benefits you to follow their page where they post ingredient lists, articles they found, and videos where they share their knowledge.
Instagram as Walmart.
My point is that Instagram has moved from photo telegrams into another free hub of professional knowledge. And knowledge is always powerful. And free knowledge is a game changer because it has the ability to level the playing field.
Now Instagram isn’t Google or YouTube, obviously, but it does offer up self enhancing options. Think of Instagram as the Walmart of social media platforms, you can pretty much find everything you need. The items or selection may not be the best or vast or as catered to us as we would like but they’re there.
My name is Alicia Narrea and I am a recovering Instagrammer
February 16th is two days away and despite the benefits I’ve listed out above should I even return to Instagram? An older more traditional, more minimalist me, likes to remember the days where Instagram was just a digital photo album and Alicia was just a person and not a business. It is also the same part of me that would have no problem emulating a life like that of Chris in Into the Wild, without the whole dying of cold and starvation thing, obviously.
I like not relying on digital devices or apps or social media. I like meeting people in person and talking through letters and rotary phones. (OK the rotary phones is a bit much.)
But I also live in the real world where social media is king, and technology is the present, and there’s nothing evil about it. I would be foolish to not be engaged where most people congregate presently, at least minimally. We can’t succeed alone. In any type of way. Our species has successfully arrived to this day by engaging as a community. And at the end of the day Instagram offers just that. And so yes I will return. And yes I plan on changing my profile’s structure to make use of all the benefits I’ve listed. Will my friends and followers adjust? That’s a whole new post for another day.
Until next time friends!
Bye 😜
