3 tips to consume Instagram content without feeling miserable!

Utility vs Doom-scrolling

I have 3 questions for you:-

• How many posts have you saved on Instagram thinking “I will come back to it later”

• How many of those posts did you ACTUALLY come back to read/watch/learn?

• How many posts are sitting untouched in the clutter of your saved folder and as a result, your mind?

Every post you save with the intention of returning to and don’t go back to actually use that information is a promise you break to yourself.

With brand new social apps being released at lightning speed (yes, I am talking about Meta’s Threads (the Twitter Killer) get on it if you like words), consuming content while staying sane is getting harder each day.

Like every time you make a to-do list and don’t finish everything on that list. Like when you say you will go to the gym but keep pushing it back to the next day, every day.

Like when you tell yourself you’ll do something but then you don’t.

You break these little promises enough number o times, you stop trusting that you will ever trust your relationship with that activity.

You stop trusting yourself. You lose confidence.

Apart from the obvious aspects of why one would find Instagram overwhelming or ‘toxic,’ a large part of it is dictated by the individual’s patterns of consumption and online behavior. How YOU consume content decides how you feel about the social media platform.

Saving posts to never look at them is the quickest way to ruin your relationship with Instagram’s usefulness and your own ability to keep promises.

Here are 3 ways to prevent doom-scrolling: -

1. WHO do you follow? : Know Who you are following and What they post. Don’t blindly hit the follow button because you are afraid to lose their post in the sea of the explore feed.

   When you know what each account you follow stands for, you have more clarity on WHY you are using this app.

   You KNOW your sources of inspiration, information, and entertainment. These are the only 3 categories you will need.

   If you like my newsletters more and my reels less but are only following me because you “might use that reel information, someday” go unfollow me from Instagram and see me back here.

   Keep your social media and your mind clutter-free.

2. The Dopamine Loop: I have a theory.

   

   The bright-red, bouncy double tap.

   Studies suggest that when a user gets a ‘like’ the brain receives a flood of dopamine, which makes you chase that high again and again.

   This is the root of all the ‘validation debate’ on social media. In a reverse interaction, when we ‘double tap’ a post, the bright red ’like’ with the little bounce at the end is an incredibly smart UI and UX move to produce a similar effect.

   An effect that leaves you feeling ‘satisfied’ with your interaction with the post.

When you double-tap a post without even watching the full thing or reading the information, you are giving your brain the same satisfaction without actually registering ANY of that information. Repeat it enough and it’s called ‘Doomscrolling.’

Leads me to my third and last tip.

3. Apply and Get smart: Here is an exercise for you: -

• Go to your saved posts.

• Pick an informative reel that you half-watched + saved.

• Watch that reel till the end, Read it out loud to follow better.

• You can ‘double tap’ the post ONLY after you have watched the whole thing

• Get off of Instagram and find 1 way to USE that information.

Found a new AI app? Download that app on your phone and try the tip. Found a new communication tip? Try using that in a conversation with a friend/complete stranger that SAME day.

Play around. Expand yourself with that information.

I know this was a long post, but if you have reached down here, you belong to that small percentage of people who have what it takes to persevere for the sake of obsession with exploring your own potential. For the sake of Becoming Better.

So,

DON’T SCROLL PAST. GO BACK.

READ.

WATCH.

CHANGE.

See you next week.

-Ipsita