Is your mind constantly clouded with images of Morrocan tile floors, latte art, and fiddle leaf figs? Are you in a permastate of vacation envy? Does your wrist hurt from compulsive scrolling? If so, it might be time for you to clean up your Insta feed. And by clean up, I mean to mindfully curate the stream of information you’re consuming each day. ‘Cause let’s face it, do you really NEED to see every meal your ex boyfriend’s sister eats?
Cleaning up your Insta feed is a great first step in becoming more mindful about social media.
When you do the work to curate what you see on social media, you’ll waste less time scrolling mindlessly and get more value out of the app in the general. Just spend 15 minutes doing these four simple steps to give your feed a refresh, and reclaim some brain space for real life.
photo by ashleigh amoroso
1. Take advantage of the “mute” feature on Instagram.
The mute feature is fairly new, and it’s a total game changer for cleaning up your feed. To use the feature, press and hold your finger on the profile photo of any account. A window will pop up giving you the option to mute the account in your stories feed, or to mute the account in both stories and the regular feed. It’s a great way to deal with content you don’t want to see from friends you simply can’t unfollow for social/personal reasons.
photo by Teal Thomsen
2. Unfollow accounts that post too often, or are super repetitive.
Big brands and some professional bloggers are often guilty of this, and they definitely won’t notice if you experiment with unfollowing them. You can always check in on the account on the weekend when you have some free time!
image by urban outfitters
3. If you’re actively following the exact same account on Facebook, consider unfollowing on one platform.
It’s so easy for people to share their insta posts on Facebook that often the two feeds are basically identical. It’s a total waste of your time to be seeing that same content twice. Consider muting or unfollowing any accounts that you’re already seeing every day on FB.
photo by ashleigh amoroso
4. Use the rule of necessity.
Ask yourself this simple question: do I need to see this? If it isn’t truly inspiring, informative, or interesting… you might not. Don’t be afraid to ruthlessly edit your feed — now with the mute feature you can do so without hurting anyone’s feelings or burning bridges. Your time is valuable, and you have the power to decide how to use it. Now go forth and double tap some stuff you really LOVE!
