Why Instagram Is Getting Me Down

Ah Instagram. It's like the ex that no matter how many times they hurt you, you keep finding yourself running back into their arms. Once madly in love and a little bit obsessed, your relationship has changed (thanks to that pesky algorithm) and has become incredibly hard work. 

Social media was never designed to be hard work. It was designed as an online platform to meet new people, make friends and share the things you love with like minded people not for competition and advertising. It is so frustrating when you post a photo to your followers (real people who have basically said 'Yes I want to see their photos!') and Instagram will only show that post to half of your following. It's equally frustrating when I see paid for ads from accounts I already follow because why should they have to pay to appear in my feed?

But it's not just the algorithm that's getting me down, it's the way I constantly compare myself to others. By that I don't mean your typical 'omg she is so much prettier/skinnier/etc than me' I mean that I compare my account to others. I'll see someone doing an AD for a brand and click on their profile to see how many followers they have. If they have less or about the same as myself, I'll start wondering why they were picked over me. Or I'll see accounts I love growing their following and hitting big milestones, and while I'm happy for them, I'll feel down because my account isn't growing as quickly. It's toxic and I hate that this is the person I've become.

I work hard using every spare minute I have at the weekend to take photos for my Instagram, I try to post everyday and also engage with other people, yet nothing seems to work. As soon as my followers go up they fall straight back down, my engagement is still a lot lower than it was before the algorithm change and in all honesty I don't have enough money to pay to advertise my posts. I could cheat and buy more followers but we all know my opinion on that.

The other day one of the girls from work mentioned that she'd heard of this new social app called Vero that is apparently like Instagram but without ads and algorithm, we were all intrigued but wary that it may never take off. Then just the next day I was watching Vix Meldrew's Instagram stories and she mentioned this app again saying that is had already crashed because so many people were downloading it. After looking at reviews of the app on the App Store I realised that I wasn't ready to move on to someone new. These apps are all the same. They lure you in with their promises but as soon as they gain a bit of confidence they ruin your relationship through advertising and money making schemes. So despite how much I hate Instagram it's better the devil you know. Maybe one day they will realise the errors of their ways and we can relive 'the good old days'. But for now I'll keep trying to make things work, until eventually something better comes along.

Eleanor xx