What does Instagram mean for you?
Using your own usage data for better decisions
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The “digital wellbeing” setting on my phone tells me I am using Instagram between 6-8 hours per week. Telegram comes in at 2.5 hours a week, followed by 1-2 hours of Google Maps.
Instagram is my go-to phone addiction app. That’s why I leave my phone far away from my work desk.
I use sleep mode from 22:30 to 7:30 to put everything in gray scale and make Instagram more… boring.
And yet, it’s my brain against an algorithm created by behavioural scientists who’ve studied how to exactly engage me minutes on end. And I hate what it does to my ability to focus.
Instagram as a proxy for connection
I tell myself that I use Instagram to keep in touch with people I appreciate - sending memes on parenting, plants, the weirdness of languages, and besties-in-wine. They confirm that we have a similar (weird) kind of humor.
Is that what “keeping in touch” is about?
So here’s the question: Can sending memes create or reinforce connection? Or is it an excuse based on easy access to a second-hand laugh and some cheap immediate dopamine?
And here’s the second question: Are there other options to connect?
Finally: What’s the cost of all that fast-paced search for the next dopamine hit? And what does that mean for the time I am currently misplacing on scrolling instagram?
Or, for my PM peeps: does the ROI track?
Real connection requires time and vulnerability
I have a list of people I appreciate. (Obviously I have a list.) Life is busy and I don’t want to accidentally forget to check in. So I use the list to keep in touch - in person or virtually, depending on our respective locations.
So - does Instagram help me to “keep in touch” with these people? Is there a meaningful difference between the people who are on Instagram and exchange memes with me, and those who are blissfully ignorant of my addiction?
Not everyone on the “important people list” is on Instagram, so I can compare my Instagram-using population with the non-Instagram using control group.
The result? The meme-conversations don’t enrich the conversations we have outside of Instagram. They aren’t doing any harm, but they aren’t adding any value either.
The real relationship dedication happens on Whatsapp / Telegram, on calls, over wine (or Gin&Tonic, you know who you are), on shared trips, via postcards and letters, and on weekend getaways.
If anything, Instagram gives me this false sense of having shared important topics (because of a meme that really resonates with me), forgetting that the other person needs more details to understand WHY something resonated with me. It’s playing pretend-connection with people who I already have a connection with.
The ROI just isn’t there.
So? Ready to quit Instagram?
In 2019 I made a similar analysis around my Facebook use. I quit the platform for very similar reasons that I am now questioning my use of Instagram. And yet, I am not quite ready to go cold-turkey on that specific brand of cocaine.
So for now I am taking Instagram off my phone. If I believe my phone’s stats, that will free approximately eight hours every week. Some of those minutes will go towards my kindle - some of them will go to postcard writing. And some of them will simply allow my brain to breath so I have time to remember how much I appreciate my people.
They deserve more than Instagram memes.
PS: I am going to check IG from time to time on my personal computer. Enough to see SOME memes, and without the risk to get sucked into the algorythm past bedtime.
This post was inspired by conversations around the importance of tracking usage data and how that can shape decisions. I’d love to hear your thoughts - reply to this email and you might spark another newsletter. And if you are looking for a mentor with a pragmatic approach, reach out via MentorCruise or get in touch directly.
I do this kind of analysis for a lot of things in my life, so of course I have done it with Instagram, too. You would not want to know what my number is (although one account is for work). What I have noticed through different analysis in time is that the increase in usage, especially the impulsive, excessive kind tends to coincide with a period of turmoil, transition, uncertainty in an area that is pillar to my life. Sometimes it is reflected in how I use instagram, others in how I choose my readings and others in how I eat, among others. So I have not resorted to quitting any of the apps (but I do limit time, make my phone boring, put it away, turn it off and sometimes almost "accidentally" step on it :)), but rather I revisit what exactly is it that I am going through that my brain is looking forward for a dangerous amount of dopamine fixes. Usually it also happens that I dropped some of the good habits (temporarily) like my meditation, training or (real-life) social interactions because I was too busy getting that pillar of life back in order, and the result is a bit of a mess everywhere. Instead of uninstalling the apps (which I do not condemn nor support, it is a personal choice), I reset my internal software and that works 9/10 times.