Why I Froze My Insta

"'Okay, but why would you delete it? Just wondering...'

'I deleted it because I felt like I had to prove to the world that I am at this place, that I am beautiful, that my life's going great. For my entire high school life, a lot of my self-confidence depended on this app & that's just wrong."

That was a snippet from a very long conversation that I had with Gigi. We were sitting next to each other on the Greyhound & being that we hadn't seen each other in months, we spent the entire bus ride catching up. Apparently, I had missed a lot during these last three months.

At first, I thought the idea was unthinkable, crazy even. By that point, I had been an active Instagramer for four & a half years. I even had an account for my dog, Reese, who by the way, had more followers than I ever had. But the more Gigi explained why she was quitting the Gram, the more logical it seemed to me.

A few days later, I decided to freeze my Instagram account. I didn't delete it because I might just need a giant break from it, who knows?

I needed time to think about the fate of my IG because I needed not one, but multiple reasons for freezing my account. Here are the four reasons why I decided to freeze my Instagram account.

1.) Time is precious

According to Social Media Today, the average person spends 15 minutes a day on Instagram, respectively. Hmmmm so if I've been using Instagram for about 4.5 years & I've been spending 15 minutes a day on Instagram, that means I've spent a whopping 24,300 minutes of my life on Instagram! Imagine what I could've done with that time instead, I could've read a book or started a conversation with someone.

2.) Instagram became too high of a priority

When I was an active IG user, I felt like I was constantly thinking about my "popularity" status (instead of thinking about more important things). A few of the many thoughts that crossed my mind included:

"Did that photo get 100 likes? If it's been a week & it still hasn't reached 100 likes, I'll have to delete it. Ugh but I love that photo!"

"Why am I even following her? It's not like she's going to like any of my photos anyway."

"Is it just me or does it look like I'm squinting in this photo?"

It's about time that I start thinking about more important things.

3.) The comparing had to stop

We live in a beautiful world with beautiful people-who happen to have beautiful Instagram accounts. These people include celebrities like Blake Lively, super models like Gigi Hadid, bloggers like Sarah Vickers, & even people you see everyday. For now, let's use Sarah Vickers as an example.

You follow her Instagram, then you start scrolling through photos of Sarah wearing her perfect outfits with her extremely handsome husband living the ideal New England life hand in hand.

After scrolling through all of Sarah's photos, you start comparing your life to hers. If you ask me, it more like contrasting than comparing.

"She has the perfect wardrobe."

"Why can't I look as perfect as her? Can I please have that thigh gap?"

"She has a Golden Retriever puppy."

"Her husband is so good to her, why can't I find someone like that?"

"She's got the perfect friends."

"Why can't I just be her?!?"

Well, I can't be Sarah Vickers because I'm me. Same goes for everyone else; the only person who can be Sarah Vickers is Sarah Vickers. And just like everybody else, Sarah Vickers isn't perfect; she is fighting her own battles just like everybody else. As a society that feeds off of social media, we keep forgetting that someone's online profiles are not an accurate depiction of their life. 

But it's hard to tell yourself these things when there are thousands of people in this world who are just as beautiful as Sarah Vickers. The cycle of contrasting myself to others would happen over & over again. 

Now that I froze my Insta, I don't compare myself to others as much as I did during my IG days. 

4.) Do you really need to prove that you're having the time of your life to the rest of the world?

When I visited Europe during my junior year of high school, I couldn't help but notice how obsessed everyone was with taking pictures. There were people taking photos every second & what was worse was I was one of them. Whenever I ventured to a new place, I was more worried about taking the perfect photo of me & my friends than just relaxing & enjoying the view. If I could go bad & relive that trip in Europe, I would've taken one photo with my friends. Then, I would have put my phone away & bask in the wonderful feeling of being somewhere new. 

The point that I am trying to get across by telling this story is you should live your life for yourself & not for others. Unfortunately, I was doing the opposite when I was an active Instagram user. Let's use a real world example-umm proposals!

According to a CNN article written in 2013, six million Americans were expecting or planning a marriage proposal on Valentine's Day. Whether you're waiting or preparing for this special moment, you've got to realise that while moments like proposals occur hundreds of times daily, a moment like this will only happen once [or a few times] in your lifetime (let alone on Valentine's Day). Unless you've hired an undercover photographer to capture the moment, taking photos of the proposal should be the last thing on your mind. Instead, live in the moment & be overjoyed that you're going to spend the rest of your life with your best friend & true love. 

There are so many moments in our lives that occur rarely. When you find yourself in one of these moments, you need to live in the moment, not worry about capturing it. 

Now that I have frozen my Instagram account, I care less about what other people think of me, I have been checking my phone less, & I'm able to live in the moment again (as dramatic as that sounds). 

I hope that's a reasonable explanation.

____

This post is dedicated to Gabe C., AKA Gigi Hadid II for helping me detox Instagram out of my system.

I'd also like to thank Rebecca N. for checking the math included in this post.