I’m well aware we’ve all been briefed on “doom scrolling” and the negative effects of social media and high screen times. However, Instagram in particular feels like the social media final boss of all evil. Yes, there’s X (still Twitter to me), and it's not the greatest either. The platform suffered a major user loss when egg man bought it, so that kind of unironically made it a bit more bearable in terms of off-putting content.    With that said Instagram has always felt like this monster that I had to conquer. I'd also like to interject and say this is not a real-life problem. I'm just a girl who wants to blab. Whether it was the number of likes on a post or the follower-to-following ratio it just always seemed pointless to try and enjoy any aspect of the app. The algorithm and pointless features just seem to deepen the soulless feeling. Over time I got better at not caring as much but now I'm just on it to see reels and occasionally post a song on my story. I'm someone who likes to post and be creative but I feel like there's no fun in it anymore. The worst part is that I still can't bring myself to delete the app.    In a way, I think Instagram at some point became a tool leveraged for us to judge one another so maybe it was doomed all along. I mean we were actively seeking and giving out “like for rate” and “tbh you're cool but don't really talk” at the ripe age of 13. That's not the healthiest dynamic and now being an influencer/content creator is an oversaturated field. And while I don't think anyone is in the wrong for making a living through that I do see how it's stripping us of personal uniqueness and authenticity. I miss the era of mustaches. And weirdly small peace sign gestures and those cool photo timing apps that let you take a set of photos that would make a shape out of the pictures you took. *Sighs in nostalgia