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Friday, July 9, 2021

Goodbye Instagram

For the last 11 years, I've been on Instagram sharing my life and photography with the world. Today I logged out of my account for the last time and deleted the app off my phone permanently. My husband asked me how I felt about this big step and my answer is excitement and hope for a new way to share my creativity. I feel like this is the right move because it was a long time coming. So many people want to step away, but not away from the community that's been built, but something has got to give.

I remember the first time when one of my posts got over 100 likes, it was still in the time of organic reach and hashtags. It was also the time of Instagram filters and there was this one that got noticed which I seemed to have used for years. Anyway, we were on a trip to California and I took a picture of a door in a house. I added the preferred filter at the time and added those hashtags and that's how Inspire by Annetta was born. I had found a niche and grew my following to over 32k before it all started to crumble in 2016 as my family and I started to travel America.

While on our travels I had to let go of my Instagram identity and the identity I found as a photographer. I had to give it all to Jesus and be okay with no more thousands of likes and see my following decline to where it is at now 23k. It took a couple of years to work out my heart, to let go of all that I've worked for, and to put God back into His first place. I am able to walk away today because I did all that work some years ago. I don't mind letting the world go and grabbing on to God. You see recently there was another bigger issue that was coming up in my heart.

Recently Instagram became like Tik Tok and my heart issue wasn't likes or being unfollowed anymore (I worked through that) it was letting the world into my heart through Reels. I was starting to get a hard heart as I watched all the content IG threw into my face Reel after Reel. Instagram plans to dive further into the video entertainment industry and my heart can't have a part of it anymore. I am choosing the run the other way from the tide of the world. 

These are my convictions and what God has been working on in me. I am not telling anyone what they should be doing as this is between God and me. It's what He is asking of me and it's for my own good. I pray that He replaces what I am asked to give up and gives me a good outlet for my photography and creativity so that I can safely share it with the world without it spoiling my heart. For the moment I will be posting here regularly and also on Vero. I've chosen that app because it's ad-free, goes in chronological order and I don't have to worry about likes, popularity, or competition. It's a place like IG used to be, to share my photos and to document the beauty of my life that God has blessed me with. 



1 comment:

  1. I completely respect your decision Annetta, and know that you will be so missed from my feed! Your photos are such a refreshment to my soul and I look forward to following your blog!

    ReplyDelete

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