I’d wake up worrying that somehow, somewhere along the line, I’d just got things all so fucking wrong.

Yup, Instagram was the root to my melancholy mood swings.

Honestly, I couldn’t think of anything worse!

#LivingMyBestInstagramLife

I loved taking the photos, being creative, curating an aesthetically pleasing grid and I didn’t give a crap how many likes or comments I got.

Fast forward 18 months later and I find myself debating whether to leave and delete the app entirely.

“Why? What’s your reasoning?” one follower commented when I suggested this recent funk was making me ponder the need for Insta’ in my life.

Well, let me tell you…

1 IT’S JUST NOT FUN ANYMORE

IMHO, Instagram can feel like a massive popularity contest and in order to succeed (ie: have a large following, loads of likes and comments) you need to be on the app, all frickin’ day long. That is just not my idea of fun. End of.

2 YOU BEGIN TO MEASURE YOUR SUCCESS IN NUMBERS

When you’re spending hours scrolling and clocking how many likes and comments your last post gets, you start to measure your success by this, alone.

You know it’s wrong, but YOU DO!

You know that your worth is more than looking for validation from other people using the app – but somehow,  it just sucks you in!

You watch your follower count go up – and down.

You’re popular. Hurra! Oh wait. No one likes you. Hang on! You’re popular again. Oh no, that post bombed – they don’t. Gah!

My life doesn’t begin and end on Instagram. I know that! Sort it out F.T!

3 IT’S SO TIME CONSUMING

Making your feed look good is hard work and it takes time.

I’m not just talking about whacking on photo filters. As a stylist, I actually really like the post-production process of colour balancing and editing photographs, then laying them out aesthetically on the grid – but man, it’s so time consuming!

As a friend constructively commented “Just make sure that you’re not missing out on the good stuff in life, whilst trying to get your grid looking great.”

Sage words!

I was spending far too much time on the app trying to create the perfect image – don’t even get me started with the caption!

As an over-thinker, it can sometimes take me ages to decide what to say. Plus, being a journo’ and a stickler for grammar and punctuation, I’ll proof read my caption, then bash myself up if a typo does slip in (which you can edit afterwards but I was advised not to as that can mess up the algorithm making your post less visible on the ‘Explore’ page, gah! See what I mean! UTTERLY OBSESSED!)

4 IT’S ALL PHONEY

Despite Instagram’s best efforts, there are still lots of automated ‘bot’ accounts and people still buy followers and likes and use apps that can automatically do the commenting for you within the first crucial 15 minutes of posting (which allegedly helps boost your account).

But, seriously, what’s the point if it’s not real engagement?

So you’ve got 25,000 followers – but they’re all accounts in Lagos.

You live in Ladbroke Grove and post daily about your very expensive wardrobe.

I don’t get it? Where’s the sense in that?

If your plan is to get paid by luxury brands, who’ll approach you because of your gazillion followers, then pay you to advertise their product – surely they’ll see that you pushed ZERO SALES because no one in Lagos wanted to buy a cashmere jumper so Mr Cashmere will put his budget elsewhere next time, innit?

It’s so short term not to mention massively misleading.

5 BEATING THE ALGORITHM MAKES YOU GO BONKERS

The more active you are on the app, the more visible you become, which in turn means you’re seen by tons more accounts and you grow and grow and grow. Quickly.

There are tons of unwritten ‘rules’ to ‘actively engage’ on Instagram to keep the algorithm on side – heck, I’ve even done a few courses that explain ways to ‘beat’ the algorithms and make them work in your favour.

I’m not going to list them here but I will write a separate blog post on the courses I would recommend. If you use social media for business, it’s worth knowing the basics, at least.

While I’ve never bought likes or followers (you can see that quite clearly from my Instagram account – it’s slow grow with genuine engagement from my followers) I have dabbled with a few things that were suggested to help the numbers grow, quicker…

In a bid to grow and being solely driven by the numbers game, I began to forget the real reasons why I was using this platform and fell down a dark Insta’ hole.

I only realised how bad it got when I noticed how my moods would be triggered by how well or badly a post was recieved.

I was either:

A pig in shit when a post got tons of likes!

Melancholy as fuck when a post bombed!

Instagram was like crack! (I imagine! How’s that for a Daily Mail headline?)

How did it get to this?

My first waking thought was Instagram.

How dark is that?

So, whilst I debated whether to delete the app, I had a bit of a break from it and seriously started to question why I logged onto it in the first place.

I’d recommend anyone who’s feeling similar to how I felt, to do the same.

First thing’s first.

For me, Instagram has become a business tool.

It’s not purely for ‘fun’ or for photographic updates for my relatives and friends abroad to see me and the family – that’s what my personal Facebook account is for, innit? And birthday reminders, too!

As a freelance stylist, writer and now digital content creator, I guess Instagram is my portfolio. I’m visible to the industry, to my peers and I get paid work because of this.

Last year, when I decided to go digital after nearly two-decades working in print journalism and launched my blog, I knew that Instagram would be the perfect platform to point people to it.

Instagram would act as a micro-site, to lead readers to my third baby, my website, this here blog – The FT Times.

As human beings, I honestly believe that we need this interaction.