EPISODE 004: HOW TO BE MORE INTENTIONAL ON INSTAGRAM.
Raise your hand if you love Instagram. (*raises hand)
Raise your hand if you kinda hate Instagram (*raises hand*)
Today I want to talk about this little app that a lot of us have a love/hate relationship with. I know I do! So let’s dive into how Instagram effects our mental health, shall we? I really do love Instagram. I’ve met so many cool people from different backgrounds and places from all over the world. I’ve been inspired, educated, and entertained in ways that I probably wouldn’t have if it weren’t for Instagram.
I’ve also had Instagram be just awful and a total time suck. Where I walk away feeling jealous, irritated, lonely, lots of FOMO, and about a billion other negative emotions that I really don’t want to feel. Because I don’t want Instagram to be a negative experience for me, I’ve had to learn through trial and error how to have a healthy relationship on social media and how to be intentional with Instagram. By implementing a few simple strategies I can make sure that Instagram and any other social media platform is helpful and not hurtful to my life and wellbeing.
Go through and take inventory of who you’re following
Open up the app and go to your profile and click on “following”. Just do a quick scroll and notice any accounts that you don’t recognize or you don’t know why you’re following them and hit “following” to unfollow. Easy peasy way to quickly clean up your feed. Just make sure you don’t do a mass unfollowing on Instagram - your account miiiight get flagged. But don’t worry it has to be A LOT of accounts. So just don’t go crazy.
Scrolling “GUT CHECK”
As you are scrolling through your feed, take notice of your feelings and if you mood suddenly shifts at any point. If an account pops up and suddenly you find yourself eye-rolling or feel yourself starting to judge or just have a yuck feeling come over you- you need to stop and address that. So push the pause button and let’s unpack it. Ask yourself “ what is going on that is bringing up this negative emotion?” Then ask yourself WHY you are following this person/account. Ask yourself these questions:
DOES THIS ACCOUNT INSPIRE ME?
DOES THE ACCOUNT ENTERTAIN ME?
DOES THIS ACCOUNT EDUCATE ME?
DO I FEEL UPLIFTED, POSITIVE, OR MORE EMPOWERED WHEN I AM DONE INTERACTING WITH THIS ACCOUNT?
If you can’t answer YES to those questions you need to really ask yourself why this person/account gets to take up time and space in your life.
3. Use the Instagram Mute Feature.
If you feel awkward or weird about unfollowing anyone you might know in real life and want to avoid an awkward conversation you now have the option to mute someone on Instagram. This is an awesome option because it allows you to have control over when you interact with certain accounts vs having them just pop up mid scroll and feel like an ambush. Plus, this person will never know you muted them- awkward conversation averted. All you have to do to mute an account on Instagram is click on your following list again and there is three little dots you can click and up pops the option to mute. Now this account won’t pop up anymore but you’re still following and can still interact with them on your terms.
Remember you are the one in control of the things that you allow into your life and into your time. So be an editor and unfollow if there aren’t positive vibes coming off the things in your feed.
4. Use Instagram to Connect vs Consume.
It’s soooo easy to open up your phone and just automatically hit the IG app and suddenly it’s been 30 mintues of mindless scrolling with nothing to show for all that time. So instead of just scrolling and occasionally double tapping on a picture, learn to be more intentional about connecting with people on Instagram. I’ve used Instagram to make friends all over the country by actually commenting on pictures, commenting back to people on my posts, replying to stories, asking questions, tagging people in posts, sending stories…..I mean there are SOO many ways to connect and widen your circle RIGHT FROM YOUR PHONE! The more you use IG to connect the more fun it becomes.
5. Be Intentional With Your Time
Go on Instagram with purpose. Are you posting something? Want to interact with certain accounts? Or do you need a mindless 10 minutes to just veg and scroll -cause that’s totally okay- AS LONG AS THAT’s the purpose! Just be mindful about when and why you are using the app and not letting it just become a “I just keep randomly opening this 67 times a day” kind of habit.
I want you to make sure that the things you are allowing into your life are positive, purposeful, and uplifting. Try out these tips to start making Instagram a more positive experience, and if you’re not following me on Insta- let’s fix that! Come on over and let’s connect!
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