I Hate Instagram. Am I Alone?. Am I the only square who hates one of…
By: Sienna Clarke
Tags: Self Improvement, Marketing, Social Media, Self Development, Self

Am I the only square who hates one of the most popular social media vehicles on the planet?

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

And it’s not just Instagram. It’s social media in general.

I deactivated, and deleted my Facebook account about 5 years ago. It was meant to be a 30 day break, but after the 30 days, I just didn’t go back.

Instagram is probably next.

It used to be this cool app where you could go to look at beautiful pictures of fabulous vacation spots and cool interior design projects, as well as keeping up with photos of friends and loved ones.

Now, Instagram is nothing more than ads that show up as every other item in my feed, scammers ‘DMing’ me for money, or asking me to become an ‘ambassador’ of some random brand or other, and twerking challenges.

I’m over it.

They say that you shouldn’t buy into what most people post on social media platforms post, and I totally believe this to be true. Most people post only the ‘good parts’ of their lives, and honestly, who wants to see posts about life’s crappy moments?

But I’m not the person who thinks that they can have the ‘life’ that others show off on social media.

I don’t buy into that nonsense.

It’s all of the ‘business coaching’ posts, and “hey, look how much I make” as well as the insane number of ads that inundate my feed on a minute to minute basis.

It’s gotten way out of hand.

As I was scrolling the other day, I counted, and found that every fourth post in my feed was a paid ad.

EVERY FOURTH POST!

I don’t wonder anymore why I feel so drained after being on it for 10 minutes.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the concept of Instagram. But it’s become a place that’s overrun with marketers and ‘get rich quick’ type accounts that post an insane number of ads and ‘ad like’ posts.

Little wonder, as it’s owned by Facebook, the platform that I left for just these reasons years ago.

I realize that this is going to sound like sour grapes, but those of you who can remember the days when we could publish content to platforms like Facebook, and have that content actually be seen (by the people that we brought there) without having to pay to ‘boost’ that content will probably agree.

Because we have to ‘pay to play’ now, the only crap that we get to see in our feeds are ads from companies with deep pockets, and those willing to spend the money scamming others into buying ‘this seminar’ or ‘that ridiculously expensive course’.

It’s irritating AF.

Am I too old to get it?

Have I turned into that cranky old ‘get off my lawn’ man who can’t stand change?

I’m starting to build up an intolerance for social media in general. It’s every f*cking where. You can’t walk two blocks without seeing some brand who’s hired some ‘celebrity wannabe’ that they found on Instagram to hawk their products.

Everything is about how many sets of eyeballs you can get on your product/blog/website/social media account.

The stories of people who’ve sold websites and social media accounts for millions of dollars are mind blowing. That’s probably why there are so many new accounts popping up every second of every day.

The more that come online, the more ads we’re going to see.

Social media is all about advertising now.

I PVR all of my favorite shows so that I don’t have to watch the ads. Then I get on social media, and I’m inundated with them.

Same goes for YouTube. You can’t even forward through or delete some of the ads that appear there.

Have we gone too far with all the advertising?

It scares me to think of how much further many marketers will go. And how far ‘normal’ people will go to get attention on social media.

All of those attention getting activities are pushing me to shut it all off. Delete my accounts, and pick up a book.

Is it just me?

Peace.