Here's what happened when I signed out of Instagram for 30 days

On the 18th March 2019 I signed out of Instagram for a 30 day detox.

The Sunday before logging out I spent over 4 hours 30 minutes on my phone; 2hrs 30mins of which I spent on social media; Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, Whatsapp.

For a millennial, I guess that's pretty normal however there was something in that statistic that really scared me. 1/3 of my waking day, I was glued to my phone. Not connecting, interacting or experiencing life with those closest to me. Rather, I was more intrigued and interested in what everyone else was doing.

Did I actually care what Fat Eric from Primary School was getting up to? HELL NAW.

Did my phone and social media have me in a state of trance? YES.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with the platform. When I'm on it, I'm on it! Posting at least 3-4 times per day, but it was always instagram first, life second and that's not what I call healthy.

I was making excuses for myself to remain on Instagram. "I need it for business purposes." this was always my absolute go-to. "If I get kicked off Linkedin, then I'm sunk" I would tell myself.

What I noticed within a week of Logging out was that I felt so much lighter.

I had told the world I was logging out, the world i.e (my 400ish followers) and after a day or two I didn't even think about it.

I began to think about what I wanted to create/talk about etc.. on Linkedin (a positive network for me) and my numbers went through the roof. From circa 154 visits to my account per week, I am now averaging close to 600. Although the may be small numbers in comparison to some, the growth within 30 days isn’t coincidental.

I was no longer distracted. I was no longer checking “The gram” every 30 minutes to compare myself to some botoxed influencer’s success.

I was thinking about my own vision, strategy and ideas.

I also caught myself on a number of occasions thinking “Shit, this would normally have been a moment that I would have shared on Instagram” but decided to just live in the moment instead.

Like staring at a beautiful sunset, instead of taking 40 photos to remember the moment, I just took it all in; like a normal freaking person would.

There is so much conflicting information out there about what we need to do to be successful and I have been sucker punched by this too. “You must build a social community across multiple platforms” “you should only focus on one” “if you want to grow an audience you need to post once a day" "If you REALY want to get big you HAVE to post at least 3 times per day”. FML, that type of output requires a freaking PA.

We aren’t all Kimmy K, and thank fuck for that.

However, there seems to be a balance somewhere, between real work and what is presented to the world. That’s a balance that I’m still trying to work out. Am I becoming less concerned about the vanity metrics? Yes. Do I still want high engagement? Yes. Is that my ego talking? For sure.

How do we get the balance right?

I have no fucking idea.

However, I do know that my mind is healthier when I’m not comparing myself to some ripped asshole living in Santa Monica with his sexy wife and sweet ass dog living their best lives, drinking Smoothies all day whilst closing million dollar deals on the shitter i.e. their porcelain thrones where they poop bars of gold.

Although, If I had 4% body fat, a multimillion dollar business and smashing out 50 ted talks a year I’d be prostituting myself on every corner of social media too however for now, I’m happy on my own turf, living off the fat of the “this isn’t facebook” land and learning to only post on other platforms when I fucking want to.

Right now, the work comes first, humans come first.

You can find me on social here, here, and here ... LOLS.

Nah, but drop a comment below and let me know your experience of the mellow dramatic bitch that is Instagram!

Do you love it or hate of do you even give a DAYUM? Keen to find out. Hail, Hail.

Mick Donaghy is an Irish Recruiter and Director of Franklin Smith Australia. He has a cat called Bhoy, lives in Brisbane Australia and confidently rocks at least 17% body fat. DM him for meal plans or for a chat about your career. Slainte.