The Instagram Burnout

Ahhh Instagram, how I love/hate thee.

It was just a few years ago I was casually scrolling through Instagram as I did about once every two weeks at the time, right after having Shae Shae, and became excited about the idea of her becoming a baby model after following some of the etsy shops I was buying her clothes from. The #brandrepsearch and #babymodel hashtags really appealed to me, until one day I thought, lets take this a step further, lets start a BLOG!

I really loved the idea of having a blog to document Shae’s growth and her adorable outfits. When your a first time mama your child is the most beautiful baby in the world and no one’s can compare, you know? Lol. In my quest to establish this blog however, I came across the “mom instagramers” of IG as many of whom already had blogs.

You know when you have an idea of something you want to accomplish/achieve and become so giddy at the idea with those tiny happy butterflies, and “I got this mentality!” That’s exactly how I felt when I looked at Freddy one night and said, “I want to start a lifestyle blog and work from home,” and he said, “GO FOR IT!” He even came up with our blog name while brainstorming ideas one night over a glass of cabernet. And alas! Venture Into The Woods was born.

I spent countless hours at night roaming through Pinterest, YouTube, and other Bloggers sites for inspo and learning how to run a blog in general. One thing was always evident with bloggers and that was their established social media platforms, most notably of course being….Instagram. Just seeing my notifications light up with that simple like would give me all sorts of happy endorphins. And it’s a fact people, countless studies show that when we receive a “like†or “comment†on one of our photos, there is a small burst of endorphins that run through our body. “Ooo! they like me!â€, “that stranger thinks I’m a good photographer!â€, “someone approves of my In & Out burger!†It’s a sad, sad fact people. When we post something and nobody “likes” it, we begin questioning ourselves, our style, our home décor choices and the color of our bed sheets for crying out load. This is countered with a Netflix romantic movie marathon and a big bowl of chocolate ice cream now all over them said, wrong colored sheets.

But back to my point, thus began my journey on the Instagram bandwagon of Mom influencers. I began pouring my heart into photography and making my feed feel all dreamy and white with inspo from accounts such as @amberfillerup, @marylauren, and @ameliahannah who were among my favs to follow and had the most aesthetically pleasing feeds.

IG was fun, and I loved finding new accounts to follow, shops to buy from, and the endless home décor ideas that inspired me to make my 600 sq. ft. apartment at the time look ever so picturesque. However, I never anticipated the “rat race” that would pursue and the choreographed way it would take to grow. My feed grew at an exceptionally slow pace and after reaching out to many established accounts for tips I was awarded with the sound of crickets as I double checked my inbox obsessively to see if at least one would respond, but sadly they didn’t (In Michelle Tanner’s voice…”how rude”). I would begin asking myself, “maybe my family just isn’t interesting?”, “maybe my pics just aren’t that great…or maybe I’m not physically as appealing as that ‘Instamom’ and her perfectly white veneer smile, dyed hair, and seemingly endless piggy bank to decorate her amazing home?!” I started getting annoyed at the lady who would post her gosh darn overly filtered cheese burger she had for lunch, get a 1000 likes, and here I was struggling to get 100 on what I thought was my best photo yet! Real life struggles people, am I right? lol.

The comparison game became real and I would find myself spending far to much time on my phone and far to less time enjoying my beautiful babies. So, I began to step back. I started posting more of what I love and less of what I thought everyone else wanted to see. So what if I posted three times a day…who cares if this picture don’t match the last one I posted perfectly. I threw out the all white non-colored photos, and the choreographed poses that took far to much work to take anyway, I mean who was I kidding, I’m dealing with infants here who could care less lol. Yet, after all that’s the trick right, to post what YOU love? …Maybe in some peoples cases, but not mine. My photography was getting 10 times better, but my engagement was getting 10 times worse. I began to find myself obsessing over and comparing myself countless times to these strangers thinking I need what they have, I don’t do that what a great idea, and the obvious of self-pity moments, why don’t as many people like ME?!

I know what you may be thinking, “why care so much about it anyway, it’s just Instagram,” and your right, but starting a blog to document our life and potentially work from home was honestly why I hopped on the IG bus, because lets be real, it helps to have a following and their is nothing wrong with having a goal such as “blogging” to do so, no matter what some of your outspoken family and friends may say, LOL…

Yet, I keep at Instagram considering, because Instagram was/is fun. But putting all my focus on IG completely derailed the whole reason I started this journey in the first place. To BLOG; document my family and our days together, our travel adventures, my DIY’s I love to do, and occasionally those cute outfits.

Though my Instagram account has grown slowly but steadily, I still find myself frustrated at the ever so “hushed” ways fellow Instamom’s use to grow their accounts. There are so many and the term “grown organically” is kind of a thing of Instagram history, unless your just #instablessed I guess. But these ways can include:

 

How are these ways “organic” at all? Granted, I do partake in my fair share of #followfridays and have dabbled with PODS (liking and commenting groups) as well as Telegram (same kinda thing as a POD), but these left me feeling like it was a full time job just to keep up with other IG users accounts. Don’t get me wrong, I meet some great women along the way, but the notion of liking and commenting robotically on someone’s photos just because I was “supposed to,” sorta drove me mad.

So just remember the next time you see a photo and think to yourself, “how the heck did they get 1500 likes on that smilingly simple photo yet I spent days preparing, editing, and tweaking my magical shoot only to get 100 likes?!” There may be that added push behind them because they do participate in these types of groups.

AND please don’t get me wrong, if that’s your thing to partake in these groups and to buy (yes you buy) into loop giveaways to help grow your following, then please by all means, “DO YOU BOO,” it’s just not my cup of tea to feel forced to grow that way if you know what I mean. IG already has a real “popularity” problem and the new algorithm caters to these types of things, it’s just the way it is right now.

So, one of my new years goals is to take a step back and hone in on my creative side, not my need to feel “liked” side. Taking and editing photos is a genuine passion of mine, and videography has really stepped into play as well. I find myself stearing away from the instamom gang and becoming motivated by accounts that pour their heart and soul into what they are capturing. To tell a story of sorts.

Lately I’ve been loving account’s that add a fairytale, yet often sometimes ‘skeptical’, Photoshopped feel to their photos, with the moon and stars placed strategically over their originally clear sky backgrounds. I could also spend countless hours watching Vloggers/ Youtube creative folks such as the likes of Peter McKinnon, Bryan Adam Castillo, and TaylorCutFilms, just for the pure joy of their artistically detailed video transitions and story telling that leave me with goosebumps running up and down my arms, motivating me with an eager drive to replicate those feels in videos of my home life and travels. I really want to work on honing in on mixing those aspects into lifestyle posts that work for my family because those are the adventures I want to look back on one day.

Anywho, if you are interested in growing your social media footprint, particularly on Instagram (my drug of choice, obviously lol), just remember this:

Life doesn’t revolve around an app, our phones, social media, or other peoples perceived realities…it revolves around God, Family, Friends, and the choices we make along the way. Be you..Do you..Don’t feel the need to “follow the crowd,” put your heart and soul into what makes you happy because when you are happy that’s when success comes. If you find me IG quite lately, I’ll be right here…sipping a cup of tea/coffee/probably indulging some pregnancy craving and updating this blog more because that’s what I started this journey for and the new year reminded me of that 🙂

HAPPY NEW YEAR fellow readers, what realizations has 2018 already thrown your way?? 🙂