Fuck Instagram

Instagram - I'm not doing it anymore.

I sat in the car talking to my friend about the toxicity of social media. In my opinion, the toxicity online has increased over the last three years as we have seen an increase in alt right hate and political corruption. I made the statement "But I need IG for my work" and then thought - "Do I actually?”.

As a psychotherapist, what do I actually get as a small business owner on IG that I can’t get another way? Nothing. The clients which I have gotten from IG promotion, have intersected with “someone sent me your IG handle”. I have a website folks can pass along instead. When someone sees a post I write that resonates with them on IG, often times they don’t remember whose account the post was from. Rather, when I promoted myself on Psychology Today, people tell me that they read my bio, looked at my website and chose me as their therapist because of what they read. The amount of time it takes to put out daily IG content that is informative could be redirected into making a really solid newsletter for folks to refer back to via Substack.

I criticize IG therapists - yet I am one.

I do FREE labour and post it on an app that silences me for using the words sex, sexuality, queer, kink and orgasm.

Instagram has become an online version of the world around us, eliminating the middle ground of conversation and only rewarding extreme views and posts.

I talk to my clients about the stress social media causes on our nervous systems, yet I post on the same app that causes this stress.

Having a work Instagram does not match my core values.

Fuck Instagram - Im out.