This week, I did something I haven’t done in months. I downloaded the Instagram app on my phone.
I did it for two reasons …
I wanted to post a picture of my wife to celebrate her 4 year anniversary of sobriety.
I wanted to post a picture from the Eagles game.
I did both of those things and then three things immediately happened.
First, I started pulling my phone out of my pocket way more than usual, and naturally going to the Instagram app to check how many likes my pictures got.
Second, I start compulsively scrolling the feed, looking at pictures and videos. I am realizing now that I don’t remember a single thing that I looked at.
Third, my personal reach on my Instagram account plummeted. I guess people don’t like seeing pictures of my amazing wife as much as they like advice on making money, which surprises me cuz my wife is super hot.
P.S. - Here’s the post about Jules.
So, it was a fun two day Instagram fest, but once again deleted Instagram from my phone and am now recommitting to only using Instagram for business and marketing content.
I have a “give them nothing and take from them everything” sort of relationship with social media. I don’t use the apps to bring value into my life. I don’t keep in touch with friends or look at pictures of ex girlfriends. The way I see it, the smartest people in the world are all working together to make the apps as addictive as possible. So the best way to stay out of the trap is to avoid it all together.
With that being said, my “personal brand” has generated great value in my life. I’ve built my entire timstodz.com email list of 24,000 subscribers from social media. It’s very powerful.
I realize it’s hypocritical. I criticize and ridicule social media apps for influencing people’s lives while simultaneously using the apps to generate attention to my own projects. But I’m not ashamed.
Either way, Instagram is once again removed from my phone. It’s all business now.