Why I Quit Instagram, and Why the Thought of Going Back is Frightening and Traumatic
To start from the end, my inspiration to get back on Instagram came just recently during this worldwide pandemic which has put us under lockdown and social distancing. Witnessing what people are eating, more processed foods than ever, and viewing the ineffective and dangerous exercises they are doing at home, I want to jump in and help people as I feel they need me more than ever. I wanted to livestream food and exercise to the masses, but cannot as I don’t have enough subscribers on YouTube, and wouldn’t matter as YouTube hides my channel. I could livestream on Instagram if I restored my account, but the thought is both frightening and traumatic as in the past I fought so hard to help people on Instagram, but people were not receptive to my suggestions, and Instagram would hide my posts in effect making them invisible and worthless.
What a shame it is in this world where those that want to help cant help because our message doesn’t align with advertising dollars, and people are to brainwashed now to be able to be mindful and aware to make the best decisions for themselves. Its traumatic to me that I had tried so hard to make friends, family, and strangers alike that ‘follow” me on Instagram but I couldn’t, because of the algorithm hiding my message, and because people not being able to absorb the message. in this time of crisis, where I’m needed more, and more busier as people need my assistance to healthy home cooking and home exercise options, I would love to post content on Instagram and social media that will make people better in this world, but its frightening as I feel I will end in failure again, changing very little, having little power to influence people online, and to continue what I do in person, real life.
You can’t help people that don’t want help. You can’t help people that don’t see the help
What a shame people can’t help people anymore, and people aren’t people. Frightening and traumatic indeed ☹
Should I go back on Instagram and help others. I would post food options, exercises, and even livestream it to enhance the effect and make it more personal. I’m torn. I want to, but the trauma of not getting the message across to change people hurts me, and I wonder if I should just leave this door closed, or try again, maybe with a different twist in strategy….
Coach George Tsanis
I quit Instagram over a year ago, February 12, 2019 to be exact. It was not the first time I disabled my account, in fact since I opened my account in January of 2016, my account has been frozen there times that would amount to almost 2 years of the 2 “off” rather than “on”.
Why did I disable my Instagram account? First let me explain why I use Instagram and any other social media platform. I only use the internet for work, research and learning, and giving back to the world my knowledge of living healthy. I remember the days when internet usage gave us something in return for our time. The early days of chat boards on topics you had a passion for or wanted to learn, internet sites with no advertisements, just people that wanted to post great informative useful content, finding research studies with ease, the “net” was an information highway that certainly enhanced our lives’. The good old days
The information highway changed for the worse when Facebook started, and it became less about “learning” and “exploring” to enhance our life, and more about people and companies seeking attention. People and companies posting content that can be summed up as “not important”. I really don’t need to read 2000 words on your wife’s birthday how much you love her or need to have advertising pop up when I’m focusing on an important topic.
Then came the promise of social media marketing. Creating content to market yourself, business, and create an online presence with whatever you care to share with whoever has time to view it. Blogging turned everyone into a ‘writer”, YouTube turned everyone into a movie star, and Facebook went from school connections to a popularity contest of who can amass the most “friends”, mostly people you have never seen before, or even people that don’t exists simply because they don’t, they are bots.
I used Instagram to share my meals, foods, snacks, showcase my real-life workouts, my lifestyle, in hopes I could help people, change others, and be there if they need me. As with most things that are “free”, what I was posting wasn’t having the intended effect. A few people I know that followed me ate better, quit drinking, stopped doing things that are not helpful to their overall life goals because of my posts and help, but for the most part my posts were not being helpful, but actually fueling someone’s addiction to being online.
I would expect people to know why they are doing something. Must be a why to everything. Why I go to gym. Why I eat healthy. I strongly believe after 5000+ posts online, I believe I have over 1000 posts on Instagram, I can’t check because disabled, and can say that the lives I change, the people I help, the people that ask me for help are NOT on social media sites such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. The people I help either know me in person, or through a client, friend, family, or meet me in person when I’m at a restaurant, museum, gallery, party, shopping, walking. In other words, people that want more out of life, and need assistance, help, ideas, are already living life outside of the digital screen and they will do whatever it takes to achieve whatever goals they may have. People that spend much of their free time online are doing just that, spending time they will never get back, and never do what they should be doing, even if people like me post 1000’s of times for them to instigate that change, they are oblivious to a better life, they are ignorant to good advice, they are not the type of people that you can easily change by posting online. They don’t see what you see, value.
I quit Instagram because I wasn’t adding value to most peoples lives, and for that reason I chose to get out, not waste my time, or theirs. I was feeding someone’s addiction while living a purpose and mission of mine, to help others anyway I can, and posting my meals, exercise, lifestyle choices wasn’t a big investment of my time, but I was sad and disappointed for many reasons.
1) People are not receptive to good advice. They are online because they choose to be, but “why”, only they know….or maybe not ☹
2) Algorithm – I have witnessed my posts being hidden, blocked, and have warning signs on them such as “sensitive content” when nothing I post is controversial. I spend time and effort to post, and I have “followers”, but my followers who want my content cant see my content, healthy content, but instead they are fed advertising from junk processed food companies hoping to shift the focus from health and fitness to the convenient pleasure of eating processed food, which is not what my audience wants…. Or….
3) If my audience is looking for helpful eating and exercise tips, why are they not following the tips I provide? Can you imagine, fitness trainers and dietitians with hundreds of thousands of followers, yet no one is being transformed into their better self. I would say people are worse than ever, and in my area of expertise, the gym and kitchen, YES people are worse than ever!!!!
In summary, creating posts to help others that will either be ignored by your “followers” and social media users, and hidden by social media platforms to make way for advertising, means only one thing, WASTING TIME, Yours and the people following you. The thought of going back on Instagram so I can try to help people, never giving up on them, with intentions to give people home exercise advice in this times of crisis when most are under lockdown is my purpose and passion, but do I really need more responsibility in my life, could I direct this energy in other areas, and when do we realize that when it comes to social media, we have zero control when it comes to the end result.