A Month Without Instagram
24 Apr 2019
I finally deleted the Instagram app off my iPhone on March 14 and things couldn’t have been better! I have regained time, focus and now plow the wasted “instagram” time to do things that are more meaningful. In no way I have perfected the art of Deep Work (fantastic book by Carl Newport) but this is the second step I have taken (the first was removing Facebook last year) of getting social apps off my phone.
Like many others, I was not using Instagram for anything meaningful. It filled my downtime or wait-time. Many times a day I would dip into Instagram to scroll through pictures of places to visit, what my friends have shared and of watches, cars etc. It was more of a chill place - but I realised it was getting a bit obsessive. I rather log on from the iPad or desktop once a week to see what people are upto than constantly many times a day. My screen time had Instagram second to WhatsApp! So, clearing I was was wasting time not getting anything meaningful in return.
On day 1 of no instagram, I accidentally swiped left to get to the icon. Muscle memory at work :)
On day 3, I picked up my phone to get to instagram when I had some downtime only to realise it is not there. I just moved on and read an article instead.
After a week, I had completely forgotten Instagram. The addiction had gone. It is now been over a month and I don’t miss it!
In fact, last week I removed Twitter and LinkedIn as well - no more social apps on my phone. Again, don’t miss it and if I need to I log on to these platforms once a week from the iPad or Mac.
Although, I must say that removing something distracting will not get you to automatically focus on something more important! You need to be aware of that something else you risk plowing that time into something meaningless as well!