I Deleted Instagram: What Did I Do Instead?
Well. That fortnight went by in a flash! Every year I take two whole weeks off over the Christmas break, so that I can disconnect from the internet world and “be present” with family and all of the other stuff we are supposed to do for our mental health and wellbeing. Even though I cannot even fathom how being with your kids 24/7 without any sort of respite can possibly be beneficial to one’s mental health. I doubt that the people who say these things went through lockdown with a 4 and 2 year old.
‘Enjoy your family time!’ they say, and things like, ‘Before you know it, those days will be gone!’ Oh excuse me a second: are you telling me that one day I won’t have to negotiate bedtime with a child who has secretly eaten a quarter kilo of blue-coloured popping candy and is therefore now strutting around the place like Begbie from Trainspotting, sweating and gurning, squaring up to the door frame and inviting it out for a fight?
I jest, of course. (Not about the blue coloured sweets, though - those things are lethal.) Family time is golden. Which is why for two weeks I hide my laptop, do an “out of office” on my email and completely delete the Instagram app from my phone. The Instagram deletion is the big one; I reckon I must look at it about twenty times a day. It’s almost a reflex to press on that little colourful square whenever I look at my home screen. It sucks me in. Setting a timer for pasta? I’ll just have a little peep at the latest stories. Checking the weather? Oh look, there’s a little video of a cat swinging on a chandelier!
It’s dangerous. If I didn’t rely on Instagram for approximately 80% of my income then I’d set one of those restriction things up that only lets you have a certain amount of time to scroll. As it stands, it would be somewhat counterproductive. A bit like hiring an armed guard to stand outside your own office and aggressively deny you entry. Burning your own dentist practice down to the ground. Selling your car when you’re a minicab driver. That sort of thing.
Anyway, I know what you’re all thinking: hurry up and tell us! What did you do when you didn’t have Instagram to scroll? Did you spend hours at the pianoforte, learning new pieces? Did you make headway on your modern masterpiece of a novel? Take up yoga? Finally start on your build-from-scratch DIY dolls house?
Negative to all. Here is what I actually did.
