This essay resonates so much with me. I’ve taken instagram off my phone and replaced scrolling with reading and writing of my own, which always refills the creative well in a much healthier way. It is so crazy how quickly our brains adapt to making ideas fit into a palatable caption for fast consumption, but what are we missing when we rely too heavily on that? Thank you for writing this, Alison!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for reading this essay! I love that phrase—the content well. We only get so much to fill it with. I’m glad you’re filling it with writing and reading 🩷
I have so many thoughts on this topic and I love that you wrote about it, Kaia. It was so easy for me to delete Facebook three or four years ago now (it's been so long I don't even remember), but for whatever reason, I cannot shake Instagram. I don't even post to my grid much at all anymore. I promote my substack posts via stories, and I send memes/recipes/shopping links to my sisters, mom, and best friends. I also agree that it has stunted my progress. I'm also a new mom, navigating the newborn phase with my need to write and continue working on my book. But, it's like you said, we *need* to do this to be the best versions of ourselves.
It’s a really tangled thing, isn’t it? Please let me know if you find strategies to keep IG and to continue working on your book—I’m all ears! Good luck in the newborn phase—it is unlike anything else. Please be gentle with yourself. If it helps to know, I barely wrote anything at all for the first year of my son’s life but filled my “writing world” with reading my Kindle while he slept and jotting down notes in my phone. The most creative work I’ve ever done is be a mom. The writing will come 🩷
My biggest woes are that I hate mindlessly/endlessly scrolling and I easily fall into that trap, but so much information about dance classes and pinball stuff is on there so it feels difficult to get rid of
About three months ago, I started posting on a writing Instagram account where I’m connecting with other writers and poets. It’s a place to post my work and make connections and build an audience so people actually read my work and (maybe, hopefully?) read the book I publish in the future. But I am feeling myself caught up in wanting to gain followers and monitoring the insights on my posts and sometimes it feels all wrong. Im torn
I totally feel this! It’s so complicated and there’s no right way to go about any of this! It’s all a push and pull and you can always change your mind, multiple times!
This essay resonates so much with me. I’ve taken instagram off my phone and replaced scrolling with reading and writing of my own, which always refills the creative well in a much healthier way. It is so crazy how quickly our brains adapt to making ideas fit into a palatable caption for fast consumption, but what are we missing when we rely too heavily on that? Thank you for writing this, Alison!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for reading this essay! I love that phrase—the content well. We only get so much to fill it with. I’m glad you’re filling it with writing and reading 🩷
Happy to. The well likes to spill when I look up.
I have so many thoughts on this topic and I love that you wrote about it, Kaia. It was so easy for me to delete Facebook three or four years ago now (it's been so long I don't even remember), but for whatever reason, I cannot shake Instagram. I don't even post to my grid much at all anymore. I promote my substack posts via stories, and I send memes/recipes/shopping links to my sisters, mom, and best friends. I also agree that it has stunted my progress. I'm also a new mom, navigating the newborn phase with my need to write and continue working on my book. But, it's like you said, we *need* to do this to be the best versions of ourselves.
It’s a really tangled thing, isn’t it? Please let me know if you find strategies to keep IG and to continue working on your book—I’m all ears! Good luck in the newborn phase—it is unlike anything else. Please be gentle with yourself. If it helps to know, I barely wrote anything at all for the first year of my son’s life but filled my “writing world” with reading my Kindle while he slept and jotting down notes in my phone. The most creative work I’ve ever done is be a mom. The writing will come 🩷
My biggest woes are that I hate mindlessly/endlessly scrolling and I easily fall into that trap, but so much information about dance classes and pinball stuff is on there so it feels difficult to get rid of
That is such a legit conundrum! It’s really a good way to communicate and get information. But also…argh!!
About three months ago, I started posting on a writing Instagram account where I’m connecting with other writers and poets. It’s a place to post my work and make connections and build an audience so people actually read my work and (maybe, hopefully?) read the book I publish in the future. But I am feeling myself caught up in wanting to gain followers and monitoring the insights on my posts and sometimes it feels all wrong. Im torn
I totally feel this! It’s so complicated and there’s no right way to go about any of this! It’s all a push and pull and you can always change your mind, multiple times!