For the longest time, I’ve been overly obsessed with numbers and stats. Yes, we’re talking Instagram here (what else?) and I know that some of you guys reading this will understand ~exactly~ what I mean. It starts with posting a picture, and it transcends into a downwards spiral of “why don’t people like my content as much as they like hers?” and “why isn’t my content good enough?”. If you know what I mean, then you know. Because it becomes way too easy to forget about why you posted that picture in the first place (because you were way proud of it) and get all caught up in the numbers, the likes, the shares, the comments. And you know you’ve gone too far when you find yourself constantly refreshing your page to see how many more (or less, as the algorithm would have it) followers you’ve got. I’m definitely guilty of all of the above, but more recently, I’ve found myself ~not caring~ so much. And if you’re in the thick of the downwards spiral, then you may be thinking howwww??? But the answer is, I really just stopped caring.
So I basically have a very small blog slash instagram following, and it’s been that way for a wee while now. If I’m completely honest, that does still get me down every now and then, but you know what? It is what it is. I write blog posts, do photo shoots, and spend hours experimenting with different editing techniques simply because I love it. It’s my hobby, it’s what I enjoy doing most, and it fills time that would otherwise be spent moaning about boredom if I didn’t have a blog. That’s why it started five years ago, and that’s why I’m still doing it now. I always liked the idea of having a little place online to write and share my thoughts (ever since I watched ’The Perfect Man’ haha, anyone else seen that film?) and when I read an article in teen vogue about a girl who’s fashion instagram page took off virtually overnight, I decided to give it ago at age 16. And it’s definitely grown in terms of the content I like to create and how I present it all. Yet the numbers side of thing definitely didn’t come as easily. And it still doesn’t. You can look at some people and wonder how they managed to get 60k followers while you’re stuck at a thousand, but as they say, there’s no point comparing your behind the scenes to their highlights reel . . . ok, enough of the cheesy Pinterest quotes. Let’s move on, shall we?
The other thing that really doesn’t help matters when you’re drowning in audience statistics and views compared to last month, is the instagram algorithm. Let’s face it, you really don’t know if you’re coming or going with the pesky algorithm constantly nipping at your heels. I’m pretty sick of logging into my account in the morning and finding that those 10 followers I gained yesterday have turned into 20 unfollowers today. It’s enough to give you that sinking feeling of disappoint and again, whyyyyy??? I used to study my analytics and find the ~apparent~ best times of the day to post my pictures. And I stuck to that for a while. But if you think I’m going to stay up till 2am to post a photo just because that’s the best time according to stats, you can think again. Who’s really around at 2am anyway? See, the algorithm doesn’t make any common sense, guys. Now, I just post once every evening, because that’s when I have time once I get home from work. And I can’t speak for any of my followers, but that time works best for me, so that’s what I’m going with.
So the turning point for me not caring about the numbers anymore? I guess when I got so fed up with them going up and down like a yo-yo that I couldn’t keep up with it. It ~really~ doesn’t do any good staring at those figures all day and getting yourself into a tizz. So I stopped looking. And most of the time, I couldn’t really tell you where I’m up to in terms of followers, but does it really matter? I’m still enjoying creating the content that I do. In fact, since I stopped looking at the numbers, I probably enjoy it now more than ever.
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I’m wearing:
Verge Girl playsuit (sold out)
Primark top
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