Let’s move on to Instagram.
I have (had) a couple of accounts. 4 to be exact. I deleted 2 already because it was getting out of hand. Was I addicted to IG too? Maybe.
Let us start with my first (real) account. I started using it in 2012. I have around 200 friends and follow the same amount. I have a total of 740 posts. Actually, I posted a lot more. I posted a lot of stories too. And don’t forget the reels.
My account started as a public one. I was posting a lot, both random and private stuff. The private ones were harmless though. At some point, posts from others got too toxic and some were just irrelevant. This was when I decided do the same clean up I did on FB. I can’t remember when this exactly was, but there was no option to mute posts and stories. I removed friends, deleted some of my posts, and made my account private. As soon as I went private, I decided to post a bit more about personal life to share with family and friends. Again, harmless things. More selfies, and at least once a year, on my son’s birthday, I would post a picture of him. Years later though, I changed my mind again. I removed the more personal photos and switched back to public. At this point I was just posting travel pictures, flowers, plants, skies, buildings, food, and what nots. I posted pictures of myself every now and then. Funny enough, these pictures garnered the most likes.
Another account is dedicated to plants, created in 2020. It has 77 posts and about 80 followers. I posted images of plants and flowers on a daily basis. I followed those that posted the same. I had a very planty and flowery wall I could look at anytime I wanted to.
The 2 other accounts are not that noteworthy. They were attempts at separating posts from my personal account. I initially wanted to spend an hour after work, going to spots where I can take photos. I had one on skies, and one on buildings. My 2 other obsessions when it comes to photography. I soon deleted these because I did not have much to post. So I was left with the plants account and my personal.
I have not really stopped using them yet. Both my personal and plants accounts are still somewhat active. I post plants and flowers on my plants account every now and then. And I have just been looking at funny posts on my personal account. I will probably just let the personal account lay low for a while. Maybe post things that are post-worthy sometime. But I am sort of distancing myself here too. We’ll see if at some point I deactivate it.
I was spending around 3 hours on busy days on IG. And this happened really rarely. Actually not that much, compared to FBs 8 hours on quiet days. But how do you define addiction in this case?
Silke 