Why I’m Content to Be a Blogger and Not an Instagram Influencer

There was an ad in my feed for a quirky quilt cover, but how did Instagram know I was searching for something a bit different to throw over my bed? I hadn’t mentioned quilts in my posts.

“The app must listen to our conversations,” I told my husband. We tested that theory by talking extra-loudly about something a little out of the ordinary: facial dermarollers. I wondered how long it would take for Instagram to swamp me with dermaroller ads.

A day passed, and another one. I kept looking, but no dermaroller ads appeared. It seemed my theory was wrong. I shrugged my shoulders and forgot about ads—until yesterday.

Do you remember how I returned to Instagram almost a year ago? Despite having already made three attempts to use this platform, I was excited. This time, things would be different. I planned to do things my way. But things weren’t different. I got overwhelmed again by the noise of all those earnest or angry voices demanding my attention and frustrated by the algorithm, which required me to play the social media game a certain way. (It turned out I wasn’t content with posting photos and captions no one saw.)

Yesterday was hot. I was tired. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do. All I knew was I had to do something more than lounge around complaining about the heat. And then, as I was wilting under the overhead living room fan, I thought, “Perhaps today is the day I finally get around to deleting my Instagram account.” That would make me feel better.

I downloaded my data as suggested before I hit the button to make all my photos and captions disappear. Not long later, I looked at everything that Instagram had collected about me and my life. That’s when I realised why I got quilt ads in my feed: a homewares company I like to visit had alerted Instagram when I researched quilts on their website.

Now, I was aware (but not happy) that Instagram shares personal data with companies to ensure we get ads that will ‘help’ us. Don’t they make sharing data sound good? But I wasn’t aware that companies were sending my personal data in the opposite direction, back to Instagram. Every time I bought a dress, a car cleaning tool, or made a donation to a charity, Instagram knew what I was doing.

Something else bothered me: the last time I deleted my account, Instagram hadn’t removed my data from its platform.

I deleted my Instagram account again. I hope my data disappears this time.

So, what will I do without social media? How will I promote my blog posts, sell my books, and engage in conversations with people equally passionate about unschooling? How will I know what’s going on in the unschooling world?

I think I’ll do fine by continuing to write here on my blog. Yes, I will never get thousands of followers, I won’t be a famous influencer, and I might not make connections that’ll keep guest speaker invitations for online events flowing. But I’ll feel in control of my life again. Anyway, social media never brought me many opportunities because I never played the social media game by the rules. I just couldn’t do it.

Years ago, I yearned to be well-known. I was going to sell a million books. I imagined people flocking to support my work. I worked hard, trying everything possible to spread the unschooling message. Because the ultimate aim was never me. It was to help parents unschool kids.

It’s funny how I’ve changed. I’m still passionate about unschooling. I still want to share stories and ideas that may be helpful. But I no longer want to jump up and down shouting so as many people as possible hear what I’ve got to say. I’m fed up of persuading and competing. I just want to write.

So, I’ll probably keep writing blog posts, turning thoughts and ideas into words. Perhaps I’ll share what I would have written for Instagram and allow myself more than 2,200 characters to say what’s on my mind. Maybe, even without social media’s help, a few people will visit my blog and read my posts.

I’m also going to live more of my life offline.

I recently heard Fr Mike Schmitz say something like this about social media: “We may work in the spotlight, but we shouldn’t live our lives in the spotlight.” That’s excellent advice.

I got the last laugh as I ended my relationship with Instagram. This social media site might have known a lot about me, but why did it think I’m interested in the Bangladesh National Cricket Team, the National Iranian Oil Company and Persian literature? It got a lot of things wrong.

Image

A few photos I shared on Instagram