Insta-Approval

Guys, I have thoughts today and I’m gonna share. There’s this thing that’s been happening to me lately (or a thing I’ve been doing to myself?) where I get weirdly obsessed when I think about posting an Instagram photo.

It’s starting to weigh on my mind. While I’m out taking photos, I almost get too caught up in taking the perfect photo for Instagram. And then when I edit the photo I think too hard about it. And then when I post the photo I start feeling terrible if I think not enough people are liking it. What?! It’s madness! I’ve descended into a social media-induced search for approval. And I don’t like it.

Mine is Instagram. Maybe yours is Facebook or Twitter or whatever else. But do you ever find yourself feeling the same way? Putting way too much energy into finding the perfect 140 characters, so people will like or follow or pin or retweet or whatever the heck they’re supposed to do? I don’t like it. But the thing is, I love social media. I don’t want to abandon it. I think that it is so incredible to be able to keep in touch and reach people, and particularly with Instagram I find that it’s a really fun, exciting creative outlet.

So how do you do it? How do you not obsess over your number of followers and likes but still participate in the social world? Particularly as a blogger, where we value and love our social followers so much because we enjoy sharing things with them, I think it’s a slippery slope. It’s easy to forget that it’s about sharing thoughts and discoveries, and that it’s not about who has the most followers or which photo got the most likes. And for that matter, is that really approval? Somebody clicking a little follow button shouldn’t have any bearing on my self-worth as a creative, and yet sometimes it comes dangerously close to feeling that way.

Hit me with your words of wisdom, guys. Do you ever feel this way? Do you think that we place too much importance on liking/tweeting/following/blah blah blah? Maybe it weighs on your mind and maybe not, but I’d love to know where you stand on the whole thing.

That, and have a great weekend. xoxo

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