I’m not really an independent creature these days. In my younger life, I did all sorts alone, but these days I usually have at least one human and one dog by my side at all times. Recently, said human needed to do a long drive and an overnight stay somewhere so instead of staying home alone, I thought I’d book something en route to his destination, hitch a lift and have myself some proper alone time.
Two days and three nights in a tiny cabin with no phone signal actually taught me something…. I don’t need instagram. This trip was the one that sparked the realisation into my head that I spent far too much time doom scrolling and not enough time just existing, and that my brain felt a hell of a lot calmer when I wasn’t showing it what hundreds of other people were doing every single day.
It’s not normal, to know about the lives of so many people. Everyone you’ve ever met. You add them, follow them, watch their stories, see their highlight reels. It’s exhausting. It takes up so much time and energy.
I’ll always have SOMETHING in terms of social media, I’m not a complete hermit, but now that something is longer form videos where I can create (and let’s be honest, get paid for it too) but not be assaulted with hundreds of photos in an instant. A few days after this trip I deleted my personal instagram account, and set an automated reply for my work account so I don’t have to interact on there at all. I post, I shut the app. My brain is quieter.
