I didn't leave Instagram because I had a principled objection to it. I left because I noticed I was opening it without deciding to — a kind of muscle memory that had replaced thinking. I'd pick up my phone to do something specific, and by the time I registered what I was doing I'd already scrolled forty seconds into a feed.
The first two weeks
Strange and slightly boring. I had a recurring sense of something I was supposed to be checking, like a feeling you've forgotten an appointment. The FOMO I'd expected turned out to be less about content and more about the habit of reaching for something. When I removed the thing, the reaching reflex remained for about ten days and then gradually stopped.
“I wasn't missing the content. I was missing the reaching.
Month three
I read more. Not because I decided to read more — I just had the gaps that I'd previously filled. I finished four books in six weeks, which is about three more than my usual pace. I'm not claiming causation, but the correlation is fairly direct.
Did I go back?
Yes, eventually. But differently — I check it twice a week, I don't have the app, and I'm genuinely unbothered if I miss things. The three months didn't cure anything, but they reset the baseline in a way I couldn't have engineered any other way.
Elena Marchetti
Writer, slow-living enthusiast, and perpetual re-arranger of couch cushions. I share honest reviews of the things I actually live with.
