It wasn’t necessarily an intentional decision, but I’ve pulled back from Instagram lately and the space has made me think about why I really use it in the first place. For blog purposes, it’s my favorite social media by far. I love creating and posting pretty pictures of our house. (Notice I say “creating” because rarely do those shots occur naturally without first kicking toys or shoes out of the way.) It’s also so much easier to create great looking shots when they’re contained in a small square (no high-resolution or professional camera equipment required).
But from the position of an observer, I’m loving it less and less. I feel like the more I scroll, everything starting to look more the same. And Instagram stories. . . . where do I begin? Do you love them or hate them? I rarely speak on mine and there’s a good reason behind that. Sometimes it’s just better to enjoy a person through their writing voice or photos; know what I mean? While there are a lot of feeds I enjoy following, there are only a handful of IG’ers I actually watch on stories. I love to see a glimpse or two of what’s going on in someone’s day or something fun they’ve discovered or even their kids (sometimes) doing something adorable. (I especially love the laughing babies.) But, some of these “stories” have become full-on reality shows and I can’t/don’t want to keep up. If you have 82 dashes (stories) at the top of your frame, be assured I’m moving on to the next person. . .
A few other funny/interesting things I’ve observed lately as I’ve scrolled through Instagram:
–Date nights. Every week. Does this really happen? (If so, good for you.) When we do manage to make it out of the house, I’m never in heels and we almost always go out to eat, followed by a Target run for paper towels or something to that effect. Maybe this only reflects poorly on us, but I just don’t buy it.
-“Not what I’m doing right now” photos. I admit I’m occasionally guilty of this, too, but I always feel like a dweeb when I do it. These are the perfect life photos followed by a caption that goes something like “Wishing I was wearing this sassy red dress out on the town but I’m actually watching Netflix in my PJ’s.” Okay. . . Aren’t these a direct contradiction to the idea of “Insta”? (I’ve never actually used that particular caption, by the way.)
-Pronouncing the “g” on -ing words. No. No. NO! This one pertains specifically to IG stories. Maybe it’s just me but I swear I’ve noticed lots of people pronouncing the silent g on the end of -ing words. Laughing becomes laughing-guh, jogging becomes jogging-guh, loving becomes loving-guh. Have you noticed this, too? I swear I googled it to make sure I hadn’t been saying this wrong all of my life, but I’m happy to report that the g is, in fact, still silent.
-Animal filters (also on IG stories). WHY? Should I be doing this? If you’re telling me about your favorite paint color or your latest blog post, I feel like I need to see your real face. But maybe I’m in the minority here. . .
-People don’t love pictures of your/my kids. I get it. A guaranteed way to loose a handful of followers quickly is to post photos of my family. I’m okay with that and still do it occasionally. More power to you all that have a large following and do it all the time anyway. I do have a private account for very few friends and family where I can happily post 24 pictures of my kids at one time and not one of nine followers unfollows. These are the photos I look at when I just want to feel happy. You know, the real stuff of life.
How’s Instagram for you these days? A friend and I recently had a conversation about all of this and I thought it would be fun to share here, too. I’m anxious to hear your thoughts. . . Love it, hate it, or both?