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Why I’m Taking a Break From Instagram and Why This is Good For Business

If you aren’t on Instagram, do you exist?

Edit – I am sort of (?) back on Instagram. I am not putting the app back on my phone. I only access it on desktop, I don’t scroll (which has been amazing for my mental health), and I auto-schedule every post from Canva Pro.

God, I love writing this blog. I really do. Whether it is just me shouting into the void, or if it really does connect people to what I love about jewelry-making, I would write it anyway.

I love connecting with people and I absolutely love sharing the skills that go into being a professional jewelry-maker. And that’s (partly) why I need to leave Instagram for two months. Or maybe longer. (Editors note: I pop in every so often to announce new jewelry, but that’s about it.)

I used to love that platform because of the thrill of discovery, that I could find other makers and jewelry designers and that we could create a community by coming together in that digital space.

That I could also be discovered by stores or stylists, and that I could discover them in return was a huge bonus. These days, I follow other makers, but that discovery has gotten harder, with the platform only showing me a narrow slice of the makers and writers that I follow.

The algorithm doesn’t really know you

It goes a little something like this:

Me: Hey Instagram could you show me a feed of the 500+ people and accounts that I already follow? Just let me see all of their posts and I can decide what I like. I’ll hit like and I’ll comment on anything I feel like.

Instagram: “Would you like to see the FULL feed of people you follow?”

“LOL no, here are posts by a few people you already know and we will just keep the rest from cluttering up your feed. Isn’t that nice of us?

Oh, and if you are worried that you might have missed a post by the same accounts that we keep showing you, don’t worry if you miss it the first time, because we will show you their exact same post at least twice in one day whenever you log in.

And don’t worry, we will continue to bury the posts of anyone you don’t interact with because a l g o r i t h m.

Oh, and the only reason that you aren’t interacting with these accounts is that we aren’t showing them to you in the first place lol but that’s so cute that you just want a chronological feed lol.”

Rediscovering joy without Instagram

These shenanigans started sucking the joy out of everything on their platform. And every effort I made – liking and commenting the posts of specific accounts to make them show up more, muting the accounts I saw the most, limiting my interactions on other posts – nothing was really working and I was tired, so very tired of trying to figure out an algorithm that did not want to be known.

It feels like being in a relationship where you are going out of your way to do nice things for your partner and they don’t return your calls.

If 2020 taught me anything it’s that life is too short to be bored by an app

When you are in business for yourself, you wear a lot of hats.

You have a lot of jobs and a lot of tasks that take precedence over the fun bits like, say, making jewelry, or connecting with people. There is always a line that you can cross, where a task slips from fun, to boring but necessary, to onerous and ineffective.

Whenever I cross that line, it takes me time to figure out why I am feeling dissatisfied, or why I feel agitated about something simple, or worse – why I feel bored. And truth be told, Instagram has been boring me since long before Pandemic times.

Connecting to people was a big part of the reason why I was on there in the first place, and the algorithm started interfering with this connection. Without that, their digital space felt less fun and engaging. That lack of discovery and emphasis on the algorithm to determine what we see means that so many of us were being siloed* without even noticing it.

I advise other business owners all the time. In addition to making jewelry, I am also a consultant, a coach, an instructor, and a person. And in all of these facets, I encourage my clients, my students, and the people in my life to choose fulfillment over almost everything else. Because what else are we doing here?

But I am terrible at taking my own advice. I am working on it, but it’s hard. And that’s why it took me this long to get to this point where I understood what kind of effect this app was having on me.

Over the summer, I took a less official break from posting to my feed. What a time to find out that not posting on this platform every day had almost no effect on my business. During that time, I wrote more than I have in years, I filmed and produced two eCourses on jewelry-making, I made more Tool Talk videos that now have a permanent home on my blog and YouTube Channel.

I kept up with phone banking and text banking for the election, I still donated time and money to causes, and I dug deeper to develop other parts of my business that I am so proud of.

I couldn’t have done this unless I took that break, to undo the voice of doubt that seemed to be following me. I needed more than anything to get back to basics and get back to what worked – having real connections and having the time and space to expand on what I already do.

It wasn’t easy in 2020 not getting to meet people in person, but it is the only thing that has ever worked for me and my business consistently and this platform was hindering more than it was helping.

The hiatus is ongoing, and I pop in every few months to post a link and share what has happened over the past months. And I am not alone in this – Kate Ellen from Crown Nine has started posting her custom portfolio only once a month to highlight her work, while also allowing herself time, to, you know, actually make the work.

In this time I launched a new course on jewelry pricing, I have more Tool Talk videos to produce and post on my website, and more beginner online jewelry classes to film and develop. I want to focus on making my blog, courses, jewelry, small business clients and videos the best that I can.

For me to make that happen, I need this break, whether it is temporary or for good. I am looking forward to making more connections with people and being able to maintain them.

What does this break from Instagram mean for my business? A FAQ

You aren’t on Instagram anymore, do you still exist?

  • Yes! I still exist and you can email or call me or see me on video. You can even set up a private virtual jewelry lesson with me!

What is the best way to follow and support you?

Have other questions?

You can ask it in the comments, or reach out to me by email, and since I am a real live human I will answer it.

Please keep in touch, be well, and I can’t wait to see you in person again.

XO

Sharon

Interested in learning more about what influenced this decision? Here are a few Essays, podcasts, and artists whose thoughts on this helped me on this path:

Anil Dash – one of my favorite thinkers on ethics in tech – https://anildash.com/2019/12/10/link-in-bio-is-how-they-tried-to-kill-the-web/ “We’ve almost forgotten that links are powerful, and that restraining links through artificial scarcity is an absurdly coercive behavior.”

Soleé Darrell – Bay Area Artist – Taking an Instagram break to do a Wholeness Residency – https://www.instagram.com/p/CImHhDjhlGq/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Betsy and Iya – Portland-based Jewelry Designers – They quit all social media and here is why – https://betsyandiya.com/pages/quit-social

*By “siloed”, I mean that Instagram decides what they think that you should see and their algorithm often chooses what you see based not on your interests, but on factors like race and gender. It forces you into a narrow or, siloed, world based on your identity and not your interests.

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