Do you have Instagram anxiety? Is it just me and is this even an acceptable term to use for something that is really not even a real problem to most?
Let me preface this by saying how much I love Instagram. It is a little portal to creativity without too much commitment, I have made friends (and I am sure “enemies” as well) and it is the place where I quietly follow the lives of people I admire and draw inspiration from.This is where my anxiety first appears. I have now more than 400 people and stores I follow on my account and this makes it incredibly hard to actually keep up with everyone. How many photos do you scroll down your feed before you have something else to do? I feel I follow too many accounts as of now however how do you unfollow someone you are instagram friends with ( meaning you have never talked outside instagram but would love to given the chance) but you are not necessarily into their photos so much anymore? And it is not their fault at all, but your own taste and sense of style changed through time in a way that you are more into new accounts you discovered or have been actively looking for?
While I am struggling a lot with regards to whom I am following I am also experiencing a form of anxiety in regards of the people that follow me. If popular instagram accounts and likes have taught me anything is that :
One // We enjoy mostly following beautiful people that appear to live beautifully
Two // We like looking at well prepared and styled food-summer photos-shoes-flowers- and repeat.
Like everyone, I want to grow my instagram. I would love to be able to call my blog and instagram my full time job but I do not want to compromise what I post in order to achieve that. I think staying true to myself is most important but I cant escape the rush of anxiety I get when my photos get 2000 likes while another accounts food photo with the same followers gets 5000 likes. There is a nagging feeling people do not like your photos so why keep trying to stay true to what you want to post when you can instead post what the golden instagram recipe is and what apparently people like more? And of course this ties perfectly with the fact that at least 150 people unfollow me everyday, could I have done something to retain their interest? Was it that I just don’t post what is considered instagram gold? I love how my personal feed has evolved through time and likes be damned I want to keep posting what I want but at the same time I am afraid it is just not enough. When will the day come when more people unfollow me than follow me at which point my account instead of growing will in fact regress? Why is it so stressful to see other accounts growing larger than yours and why do we have to question ourselves so much? While this is not a contest of any kind, it is still something that makes me feel anxious and I would love for it not to.
Unfortunately so far I have not found the best way to deal with all of the above. I still love posting and following people but I am afraid this anxiety will eventually make me not want to keep on. How do you deal with problems like the ones above or others that you personally have but are not mentioned above? It would really help me out to know!
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