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I need a place to archive my thoughts in a dated manner, but also not on instagram. I used to post things pretty frequently on my stories and then have a 'highlights' of the year that I could go back to look at, but now, I am not so comfortable sharing on such a commercial soul sucking platform that is data mining and surveilling and selling. I also feel like I am not, in my core, a good person. There are very few people who, when I see their success and happiness, spark genuine joy for me. For the most, I have to take a deep breath and remind myself that their life does not affect mine and that I should not let the display of their wealth of happiness, opportunity and beauty spoil the pursuit of my own. Some days, I feel so engrossed in knowing and wanting to know the updates of all the people around me. Now, I just want to shrink and disappear, I do not want people to know what I am up to and I do not want to peripherally watch others either. I want to focus on myself. I feel like I need to cut the plug on instagram with a hard delete. Maybe I will just buy myself a photo printer and print out the 'instagram' shots with their memories and make my own photobook instead. But I need to find a new way to document and archive my life.
Feb 8, 2025
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Lately I have been daydreaming about deleting Instagram, but everytime I get close to doing it, the same thing always pull me back.
I emigrated to London from Spain for university in 2017 and I haven't moved back since. The feeling of missing out on the goings on back home... It hasn't gone away.
Instagram has become my link to faraway friends. It's how I know when they change their hair, or get a new boyfriend, or get a dog, or break their ankle. Of course I talk to my closest friends now and then but converstaions can loose their informality when you don't see each other often.
The truth is that I don't want to have a deep conversation everytime I talk to friends from back home. The obligatory "How's work? How's your partner? When are you coming back? How's your mother?". It makes me feel that everytime I reach out to one of them they feel obligated to rattle through all these questions. I want to talk about stupid stuff, stuff that doesn't matter, what your Dad said, the fight you had with your sister, that weird thing you saw the other day.
On Instagram I can be a fly on the wall watching all that stupid shit they put on their story and feel like I'm still a part of their life and their a part of mine. But at the same time I know that these snippets I grab now and then are not connections of quality.
Does anyone else who moved away have the same feelings about social media?
Feb 14, 2025
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Pintrest
If you need a more direct Instagram replacement to keep doing the pictures in squares thing in a public space you can curate, pintrest is an option. It's still social media but I feel like it's less soul suckig. More for the vibes. (from Jai's post about making a personal pintrest)
Send more photos in the groupchat or to your friends
If it's really just the sharing photos with those you love thing. Share them with the specific people you want to see them! Be shameless, maybe you'll start a thing! Maybe you'll all share photos in the groupchat, a great way to stay in touch.
Digital albums and physical scrapbook
This has been my favorite but the most removed way of replacing Instagram. I like digital albums because I can add in my one photo a day or have my favorite photos of myself and be vain and have it be just for me to look through. And I like scrapbook because they help me flip through the past vibes of the time. Which are usually the two things I want from insta. And scrapbooks have the bonus of letting me include other little memerobilia, drawings, notes.
In no way is this a comprehensive list, but you just got to find very specifically what aspect you are itching to keep and find the best way to actually be doing that. But the pull of Instagram attention is definitely there. As someone who used to post regularly I get it. But once you bite the bullet, you don't actually miss it as much as you think you will.
Mar 3, 2025
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i’m definitely not the first person here to make a rec about this, but my tired brain is truly rejoicing. i have a very hard time completely leaving it since i communicate and share creative work through the app, but i think i’ve decided i will only be on it once a week or when i need/want to post. that’s all. as an already anxious person, seeing the same anxiety-inducing general information (as in something i could easily find on google or a news app) be reposted by 20+ people on their stories has become HELL, especially these last few weeks. not only that, but the constant push of personal opinions about such matters (even if i agree with them) just seems to warp your perception of people. maybe i’m just a wimp, but i don’t think humans were meant to see each other in such a way; we’re not so flashy and impulsive face to face. add the endless scrolling onto that, and it’s downright exhausting and kills productivity. there is so much more dimension and depth to humans and life than what is said or done or seen through this screen. can we please go back to flip phones?
Jan 31, 2025
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there was a perfect platform i could start writing on more frequently.
or i could just pick back up on blogger. or mailchimp. or whatever other platforms ive accumulated. not instagram tho. not instagram....
Jun 19, 2024
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there's a ruhafza pink shopping bag in the car, a large mixed media journal and some oil pastel gel pens i spontaneously bought from walmart last week - from a splurge shop to make myself feel better and less alone - always for those split second moments of spontaneous art, and today happened to be that day. i drew the child in the park. the child is now asleep in his crib. good night.
Jun 14, 2024
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because i have a child and i want him to be 10x the creative that i am
a few instagram reels have gotten me onto this tangent
- paper making. because the mail is always clogged up with useless junk that I don't like throwing away. this will be such a good alternative. i plan on using some of the dyes I have at home (unfortunately, all of my dyes are food related dyes, so I have yellow turmeric and then typical desi red-orange food dyes for biryani, and then the forever favorite, coffee!) the only thing I will have to buy is the frame for making the paper. I am thinking the best size would be a5.
- flower pressing. not planning on buying anything for that, I already have a heck ton of heavy medicine books that will suffice, but i do need flowers to start with, one of these days i would like for us to go out to some kind of u pick farm for that, i think my little spawn would like that very much.
- glass jar design. will have to buy mod-podge or whatever that is to make cute designs on jars. we have a LOT of jars, it's the only way to get the instant coffee crystals that I buy and consume daily so I have too many now and they are clogging my window sill. again, mod-podge and will have to think about what design to put on them so they all look like a matched set (although the pressed flowers would be absolutely delightful). I am thinking about using them for aesthetically storing tea bags and drink mixes.
- little plant cans, cause i buy fairly big cans of tomato puree (im trying to get my husband to plant actual tomatoes and not cherry tomatoes in the backyard so I don't have to keep buying tomato puree from the store) and putting little compost items in the bottoms (i am thinking egg shells, coffee grounds and other kitchen waste), some soil on top and then putting in green onions and harvesting as much as possible before it all becomes a compost tin for the next larger plant pot (for green onions, I cut as much as possible, chop what I get and freeze them for use whenever needed)
Jun 22, 2024