The Wrath of Instagram: Is It Dictating Our Lives?

Since the introduction of the dreaded Instagram algorithm, a lot of us have noticed a fall in everything from engagement to followers. I'm guilty of constantly checking my phone to see how many likes/comments/followers I have, and throughout the day I end up doing this more times than I would like to admit.

I spend so long religiously checking Social Blade to see my growth - or lack thereof - and I've been glued to my phone, constantly checking to see whether my follower count has fluctuated once again. Since June earlier on in the year, I have consistently lost followers. I wish I could tell you I know why and I've worked out the key to beating Instagram's many, secret, algorithms but I can't. After doing nothing differently to what I usually do and receiving the same levels of engagement as I was prior to losing so many followers - I just can't put my finger on what the actual problem is. It's hard to change or better something if you don't know what's going so wrong in the first place.

Which leads me to the wrath of Instagram...

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My mood has completely changed, when what I do is so heavily dictated by social media it's incredibly difficult to not let these things get to you. More so at this particular period of my life as I've just left university and I'm taking the risk of full-time blogging - this has been a huge knock to my confidence. I spent months constantly texting my friends about my Instagram woes, all of which seem completely superficial to most people but have such a huge impact on my life.

It feels like a break up. At first, I was religiously checking back every day to see whether anything had changed but a couple of weeks later, when I realised nothing was changing, I just stopped caring. Now I feel like I'm building myself up again. I have been uploading photos again - trying not to care about numbers and engagement (although it can be so difficult to not care!)

I don't want to speak too soon but I think at last I'm in a better place with Instagram, this is all so fresh though. This post has had a big of a re-jig as I was still feeling really negative towards Instagram at the start of the month but then I went to a pumpkin patch! Now I'm not saying that going to a pumpkin patch is the key to curing your Instagram woes but that photo (see it here for reference) did incredibly well. My engagement levels soared, I got a couple of regrams from really big accounts and my follower count just shot up. In the space of 48hrs I gained almost 1,000 followers which was just unheard of prior to this. I still can't believe how my luck has changed but all I do know is my mood has changed along with it.

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Biker jacket - (c/o) River Island
Top - Primark
Floral midi skirt - Primark
Brown boots - (c/o) Next
[Photos taken by Maria]