On Cutting Down and Letting Go

I was going to name this post, “What Happened When I Culled My Instagram Following”.

But that’s just blatant click bait isn’t it?  It’s hard to snap out of that mindset.  But thankfully, just as I was typing it out my left hand suddenly jerked up from the keyboard in shock and slapped me across the face.  It has a mind of its own, that hand does.

Anyway, yesterdays post left me with quite a few things to think about.  You’d never say so though would you?  With all those words spewed out in that post, could I even have more to say on the topic?  Well of course I can.  I am a woman aren’t I?  Over-thinking everything is what I do best.  Well no, that’s not true.  My most honed skill is hiding Nik Naks from my children – that my friends, I have down to a fine art!

In an effort to be even more transparent (I’m basically Casper the Friendly Ghost right now I’m so freaking transparent), I want to tell you why I just cut 100 people off my Instagram followers.

As a blogger I can tell you first hand that if anyone tells you it’s not about the numbers they are LYING!  Obviously it may not be the first thing they think about, but blogging is about connecting and sharing right?  So then if you’ve poured your heart, soul and kidneys into a post and it only gets 1 view/like/comment/reaction, there’s no doubt that you’re going to feel like you’re talking to a wall.  And hey, let’s not underestimate the power of talking to walls, I feel like everything I say falls on the deaf ears of my children, so the walls and I have a fantastic one sided relationship.  It’s quite cathartic telling them about my day in the afternoon.  Although, now that I think about it, they don’t do what I ask them to either.  Chops.

But back to the actual topic here.

The problem with being caught up in the numbers is that you are caught up in the numbers.  

Pretty deep huh?

What I mean is that all content is now crafted around getting in more numbers, be that on the blog post itself or on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.  Or Snapchat.  Or whatever else the cool kids are using nowadays.  Every new follower or so, not only boosts the ego but also the focus on getting out this type of content.  And I guess if that’s your market, there’s no harm in that at all.

But for me, who started out in this World of blogging by wanting to share about this whole parenting gig and all that comes with it, it became stifling.   Yes of course in the beginning getting 200 views on a post was like winning the freaking lotto every day, but when that became “normal”, then in order to feel like I was doing it right it had to hit 400 a day and so on an so forth.  Being content is not something that comes easily to me, can you tell?

So how I wrote changed, what I wrote about changed and how I felt about the whole thing changed.  Subtly maybe, but still.  The fun of it was sucked out and it became another job.  Putting out a new post felt like loading the dish washer, just another chore on my list.

Not anymore.

I started with Instagram because it’s the place, besides Snapchat and this blog, that I share the most about our daily slog.  To anyone looking, having 1500 followers would be pretty impressive, but when I looked at it I felt anxious.  So many people following along, so little engagement.  (Yes, I know we have chatted about this before – on why no one is liking/engaging with our content, but hear me out).

So many of these followers were brands/people following 3524 other people.  What’s the chance that they are even looking at my content?  Doubtful.  And even if they were, would I want to “work with them” in the future?  Probably not.

And despite the pressure to have as many followers as possible at all times, I cut them.

It was they scariest and most liberating thing I’ve done since cutting sugar out of my coffee.  And both equally rewarding.

~*~

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