Before the introduction of Facebook, our digital lives were essentially extensions of our personal curations (and creations) in real life.
We used to buy records, we used to have entire book shelves dedicated to our musical tastes.
Social media has made music disposable. It’s no longer something we own or take pride in. Our niche and unique finds, and sharing them with people, don’t seem to matter anymore.
It’s obvious that “the algorithm” is to blame for that.
Algorithm is a dirty word. And people who realise the risks associated with “the algorithm” tend to [try to] avoid social media altogether.
But it doesn’t actually need to be this way…
There is a feature in Instagram that makes it much more boring but much more relevant to you and your needs. It’s very simple, but it’s very hidden. Hidden in plain sight in fact; indicating how intentional and sinister it is to hide it.
Step 1: Define Which of Profiles You Follow You Consider “Important”
If you could only ever see a selection of profiles in your feed, which ones would you keep? Which ones are actually part of your life? Who do you interact with, no matter what?
I would choose:
- Family
- Close friends
- Music artists of which I would buy their next album on vinyl without hearing it, or travel to London to see them with a month’s notice
- Artist friends – ones who particularly benefit from attention and support of people they actually know
- Local communities – excuses to get offline and go and meet people in real life
- Local green spaces and activities – more excuses to get offline and go enjoy the real world
- Profiles with digestible content that aligns with my very carefully curated ideologies
- Artistic profiles that posts art I’m highly inspired by
- Inspiring athletes who post the intricacies of their training – not just clickbait or hype
All of these profiles, I would Add to my favourites.
What Should Not Be Added To Favourites
Very importantly, keep this list very clean. There are things that are valid that you follow, but you should not be viewing their posts. Content creators have been programmed to post quantity over quality, and this has lead to lots of new short-form content which is terrible for your brain (and understanding), such as soundbites, memes and traps.
Profiles I’d follow but omit from my favourites list:
- Profiles with a very high output – more than a few posts per week
- Profiles that post memes or create content that follows viral trends
- Political profiles (exception – maybe 1 or 2 active politicians from your party, preferably local to you)
- Friends who post a lot of things that are probably intended to value signal or make other people feel jealous
- Eye candy profiles that aren’t related to anything I can get out and do in the real world today
- Funny and meme profiles
- People I really only follow because they’re pretty/hot/cool
- Brands who sell products I like
- Craft and creation “tutorial” or “demonstration” profiles
All of these things can be useful and good to interact with occasionally. But first you need to train yourself for moderation. In future, ideally don’t access them via feed – but scroll through your follow list and open profiles you actually want to check in on, in the moment. This is consuming with intention, not letting somebody else think for you (which is bad).
Step 2: Only Ever Open Favourites By Default
On mobile, this is going to take some training. Every time you open Instagram, before you do anything (especially scroll), you click on the big Instagram logo and click “Favourites”.
On the computer, add https://www.instagram.com/?variant=favorites to your bookmarks bar so you can go directly there. Additionally, there’s a chrome extension called IGPlus that has all sorts of cool features that help you block things out from Instagram and make it more personal.
Now, you’re only ever going to see the things you actually truly care about seeing, not things that are fighting for your attention.
It’s going to be a weird experience because you’re going to open favourites, and sometimes you might see that there’s nothing new for A WHOLE DAY 😱.
It’s pretty amazing to see how much content you actually asked for when you opened the app (the profiles you actually follow) and how much is forced into your attention from sources you didn’t really give permission to get into your zone.
For a while, your brain will feel icky. You’ll close the app. Then, you might open it again without even thinking. So, guess what you do – you click on the Instagram logo and “favourites” again, close the app when you see nothing new. Ad infinitum until you train your brain that Instagram is boring and not a source of nourishment.
Another tip: For those of us who already have Instagram notifications off – on your phone, you can also hold down on the Instagram icon and there’s a widget to go to your notifications page – if you drag this to your home screen and remove the main Instagram icon from your home screen, you will always open your notifications instead of the feed. This makes Instagram even more boring than going to your favourites every time!
Most people know this by now, but when you auto-pilot to something like Instagram over and over again looking for a feeling of “resolution” or satisfaction, what your brain is actually craving is Dopamine – this term is thrown around a lot, but it can be helpful to think of it more as “something to make me feel pleasantly surprised”.
What’s also not discussed so much is that you don’t actually need that feeling of being pleasantly surprised, you’re just trapped in a cycle of things telling you that you do.
It’s not quite as simple as apps (or slot machines, or cocaine) giving you dopamine and then you being addicted. There’s actually an inherent human need for dopamine. But outside of the internet, we train our minds and bodies to be able to point our attention towards more useful output when it is not the right time to point our direction towards dopamine.
Step 3: Do Something Else
One you have opened Instagram and closed it again a few times you will feel frustrated, but hopefully also highly aware that this thing is tricking you into doing something you don’t actually want to do.
So, what do you want to do?
Sit with this question. If you can answer it yourself, you don’t need anymore from me. If you cant, here are some ideas:
- Restore order somewhere where there is chaos. Dishes in your sink? Go clean them. Clutter on your windowsill? Agree with yourself to dispose of just one thing
- An obvious one for musicians – open your DAW and fiddle
- Do some pushups
- Phone a friend (train yourself not to text so much)
- Go for a walk
- Clean/polish your footwear
- Read a book
- Ask somebody who might be available if they fancy going out to do something
- Order your bookshelf alphabetically
- Go and buy a book from a bookshop
- Water your plants
- Fix something you have that’s broken – if you don’t know how, read or watch YouTube videos to learn how. If you can’t, throw it away so it’s out of your space
- Meditate – amazing stuff
- Write something – your life story, how your week is going, what your politics are and why you believe in them, what your spirituality or religion is and why you believe in it
- Drink water
- Eat something nourishing
- Stretch
- Sunbath (leave your phone indoors for 30 minutes)
- Do some cooking
- Learn some form of art, start building something epic you can share on Instagram – maybe you’ll make it to someone’s favourites one day – remember what I said about buying their vinyl or going to their concert without thinking, powerful stuff
- Learn to code
- Build an app
- Build a CRM of useful contacts you might contact about an opportunity one day
If you’ve ever explored using social media less, you’ve probably seen a list like the one above before. So, it’s important for me to highlight IT’S THE GETTING BORED OF OPENING THE APP, SEEING NOTHING NEW, CLOSING THE APP, THAT WILL RETRAIN YOUR BRAIN TO BE ABLE TO DO THESE THINGS. FAVOURITES WILL MAKE YOU BORED OF INSTAGRAM, BUT WITHOUT THE COLD TURKEY FEELING OF DELETING THE APP.